An unfair review

[Baia0]

In May, my guest from ** entered the apartment late at night by self-check-in. I talked to her on WhatsApp and asked her if she needed anything. She answered that she didn't need anything. I was on the line all night. The guest reserved my apartment for one night, and in the review, she wrote that there was a frost at night and she felt uncomfortable. In May, the weather in Tbilisi was warm, and the heater was off. If the guest asked, it was easy to switch on, or I could go there to help. Because of a bad review, I lost my super host status. Airbnb didn't help me with the issue. On my listing, I got a note that there is a problem to fix, which is not right. I called Airbnb, and they refused to help me. Can you suggest what to do? lost faith that I am doing everything right.

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[Elena4354]

Hello, I'm very sorry for this negative experience,

In this situation, I can recommend posting a public response to the review this guest left for you.

Click Profile > Reviews
Click Reviews about you.
Go to the review you want to respond to and click "Leave a Public Reply."
Write your answer and click "Submit".
Your answer will be published immediately. Your answer is very important, because future guests will see it and understand the situation.

[Baia0]

Thank you for understanding, dear Elena.  I did that, answered, but it didn't help my 1 point in the review.

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Baia0 

As @Elena4354 mentions, it's always good to respond publicly to a negative review and address the issues the guest brings up. However, your response was way to emotional...keep it factual and to the point. You are writing your response to reassure future guests. Keep the emotion out of it and just point out how the guest themselves overlooked options available to them and failed to reach out to you so you could resolve any issues. Unfortunately, once you publish a public response, you cannot go back and edit it. It's best to wait until you can create a non-emotional, factual response to a guest's comments. Put yourself in the shoes of a future guest who may be reading your response. Something like:

"We're so glad you loved our location. We're so sorry your stay did not meet all your expectations. We always strive to provide our guests with  a 5-star experience, as all our 5-star reviews show. We're puzzled you mentioned you were cold? The property has a heater and you could have turned that on to remain comfortable. Unfortunately, you never reached out to us about how to operate the heater? You mentioned the toilet leaked? Had you reached out to us, we could have addressed that immediately for you." 

[Baia0]

Dear Joan, thank you, for your  friendly notes, I will try to be nicer with publicity in future.

Yes, I understand that I did wrong in terms of public relations. But when you want to extend the hand of friendship to a guest, and help in every way, and she does not frame, I think that I can only turn on a cold mind, and turn off friendship, which does not agree with my general principles of human relations.

Communicating with people and receiving them with respect is important to me. However, if someone is looking for standard comfort, for example in the ruins of the Acropolis, of course it is their problem...

[Joan2709]

Hi @Baia0 

Try to anticipate issues before they arise in the future. If you an unusual cold snap, or even just guests booking in your cold months, you can mention how to turn on the heater in your check-in message. You can also have a sign inside your listing that explains how to turn on the heat. You can also take a picture of how to turn on the heat and add it to your photos with a caption on the photo that explains how to do it.

I know common sense says if you're cold, turn on the heater! However, some guests really need to be "held by the hand" unfortunately.

[Zheng49]

How does one lose Super status from just 1 negative review?

Did the rules change or something? As far as I know you just needed to be over 4.8 for the past year. 

[Baia0]

Dear Zheng, I was already closer to lose I guess.