We are unfortunately yet more hosts who are frustrated and disappointed with Airbnb's refusal to follow their own policies regarding Reviews, Content and Non-discrimination. Here is a recent review Airbnb denied to remove, without providing any rationale for the denial:
-----Guest's Public Review:
"Disappointing.
During the day there is a lot of natural light, and the main living spaces are spacious. That's about it for the positives.
All bedrooms, except the master bedroom, are tiny. All of the doors are very creaky and the doorknobs are all loose. It's not confidence inspiring - feels like some parts of the home can fall apart. There is only a single deadbolt for each entry door; I don't know the character of the neighborhood but I didn't feel safe inside.
We waited the recommended 10-15 minutes between showers for the hot water heater to "fill up" but it isn't adequate for the size of the home and the number of guests. The heating was also odd; simultaneously the bedrooms are incredibly hot but the living spaces are cold.
There is a $250 cleaning fee but we found a moldy water kettle, and the milk frother was left used. The throws were still damp. And the guests are required to throw out the trash and load the dishwasher - what is the cleaning fee paying for?"
-----Our message to Airbnb on why this review violates multiple of Airbnb's policies and should be removed: (Airbnb responded with the typical canned response of "We examined this review and the related details carefully, but it does not meet the criteria for removal under our policy. For this reason, we are unable to remove it from the Airbnb platform."):
"This review is a violation of multiple Airbnb policies, as described below. We are therefore demanding that Airbnb abide by its own policies and remove this review for the following reasons:
1. This review is in direct violation of Airbnb’s “Community policy, Standards for relevant and unbiased reviews” (airbnb.com/help/article/3055); in this policy, it states:
“Reviews that are biased, retaliatory, ... may be removed.”
The guest clearly has written a biased review in retaliation for our cleaning fee. The guest states in their public review:
“There is a $250 cleaning fee …..And the guests are required to throw out the trash and load the dishwasher - what is the cleaning fee paying for?”
2. This review is in direct violation of Airbnb’s “Community policy, Airbnb's Reviews Policy” (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673); in this policy, it states:
“Reviews must be unbiased”
The use of the word MUST is important as it is a requirement for complete lack of bias in a review – this would be different if the word was “can” or “may” but Airbnb chose to use the word MUST for a specific and clear reason, that all reviews must contain no bias whatsoever.
- In this same policy, it goes on to give the example of “guests should not write biased or inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a Host who enforces a policy or rule.”
This example is very important because it contains a few key details – it uses the word “or” to differentiate the requirement of bias and the requirement of authenticity, therefore both bias and authenticity are not linked in any way, but completely separate requirements that reviews need to meet in order to not be eligible for removal.
This example also specifically notes that bias and retaliation CAN be linked, specifically when bias is used “against a Host who enforces a policy or rule”. This is exactly the issue here with this review – a Host enforced the house rules of checkout instructions and cleaning fee, which the guest was not satisfied with due to their own bias and preference for no cleaning and no associated fee, and therefore retaliated against the Host by including in their public review the statement ““There is a $250 cleaning fee …..And the guests are required to throw out the trash and load the dishwasher - what is the cleaning fee paying for?”
3. The guest also lies about the cleaning fee price, which is inauthentic and not accurate. The guest implies a higher cleaning fee than what the guest actually paid. ($240 is the actual cleaning fee)
4. Maybe most importantly, the guest is in direct violation of Airbnb’s Content Policy (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/546), specifically the clause in the policy that states:
“The following content is not allowed on Airbnb:
….
Content that is discriminatory (review our Nondiscrimination Policy for more information)”
In Airbnb’s “Community policy, Nondiscrimination Policy” (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2867) it states:
“Discriminatory Language
Airbnb users may not use language that calls for exclusion, segregation of, violence towards, demeans, insults, stereotypes, or seeks to convey a person’s inferiority because of a protected characteristic. This includes usage of slurs, negative associations, referring to a transgender individual by their pre-transition name (i.e., deadnaming), misgendering, microaggressions, and all other forms of hateful speech.”
This guest specifically violated Airbnb’s Nondiscrimination Policy by stating in their public review:
“I don't know the character of the neighborhood but I didn't feel safe inside.”
Washington, DC is a historically black city and this guest used coded language to imply their inherent racism against black people specifically by referring to the “character” of the neighborhood and “not feeling safe” due to the neighborhood’s demographics. In the English language, this is known as coded language to indicate discrimination and racism in the United States. Coded language includes stereotypes and negative associations and calls for the exclusion of certain groups and is considered hate speech in the United States. This comment was unfounded and was just to pile on to the guest’s bias and retaliation for the cleaning and cleaning fee enforcement.
To summarize everything related to this case:
1. This review is a clear violation of all of Airbnb’s policies related to Reviews, Content and Non-discrimination
2. The review is clearly biased and retaliatory toward the Host’s enforcement of house rules for checkout instructions and cleaning fee
3. The review is inauthentic and not accurate, as the guest refers to a higher cleaning fee that what the guest paid
4. The guest used coded language transmit their inherent bias and racism toward the residents of Washington, DC which is a historically black population.
We demand that Airbnb abide by it’s own policies, remove this review immediately and suspend this user’s account for blatantly ignoring Airbnb policies and clearly trying to degrade Airbnb as a platform with so many policy violations."
-----If Airbnb does come around and removes this review, we'll update this post. Unfortunately, we have several other reviews with blatant violations by guests of Airbnb policies, which Airbnb has treated us in the same fashion and denied removal (even when Airbnb agrees with us that a policy violation has occurred).
