Your listing will be removed Oct 26

Howard103
Level 2
Aguada, Puerto Rico

Your listing will be removed Oct 26

Dear Community

We've been hosting for nine years. We have a beach house on top of the water in Western Puerto Rico. This listing is six years old, has 425 reviews, and a cumulative rating of 4.65. I recently received a 1-star rating because the electricity was down. The electricity grid in Puerto Rico is notoriously unstable. I also received a 3-star review for a false a/c connector being loose after Hurricane Ernesto, which was resolved instantly after they checked out.  We are very passionate AirBNB hosts.  We have hundreds of 5-star reviews for every low-rated review. Our house next door is also a guest favorite, with a 4.9 rating and 113 reviews. Over every 1-star review, we have hundreds of 5-star reviews. And we just invested in a new generator for the house. I think it's unfair to focus on a few recent data points vs the total body of 6 years' worth of work. This listing for the last 365 days has 4.7 stars, meaning mostly  5-star reviews. I hope someone here or the powers at be at Airbnb can show us some compassion and empathy and help with the situation. 

22 Replies 22

Would this review be considered racially biased or discriminatory?

Or retaliatory? 

Does Gabriella's review mention anything about checking in, accuracy, cleanliness, dirty, dust, or needing maintenance, which Airbnb flags me for?   This is clearly a retaliatory 1-star review because I'm a "foreigner," and I wouldn't give her more than a single-night refund when the electricity was out for a couple of hours. I am the one who gets a low star rating for inconsiderate communication. 

Airbnb's Reviews Policy

 For example, guests should not write biased or inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a Host who enforces a policy or rule.

Should this review be removed as "This foreigner is one of the problems Puerto Rico has?"

As a "foreigner", I am clearly being blamed for all the ills of Puerto Rico. If this is not malicious, racial and ethnic bias, discrimination, and retaliation, then what is?

It has not been lost upon me, the guest directly before Gabriella: Ricardo, on July 22-26, gave us a 5-star review, and so did Rafael right after Gabriella from July 28-29. 5 + 1 + 5 = 12 / 3 = 4 stars. 

Airbnb gives a guest five stars to rate a host, while the host gets punished for three-star reviews. A one-star review is always retaliatory. How many 5-star reviews does a host need to average a 1-star review?   

Airbnb implies that hosts should always: "bend the knee" to guests.

Guest " I want a full refund,"  Host " no " = 1 star review 

Howard103
Level 2
Aguada, Puerto Rico

Pending Removal.jpg

Howard103
Level 2
Aguada, Puerto Rico

Pending Removal.jpgtwo reviews.jpg

Yes, two bad reviews out of 427 will get your 6-year-old listing removed. For this cleanliness issue from July 30th to August 2the guest didn't even bother to write a review, and there was no communication during the stay. 




So, I appeal to the collective AIRBNB community to ask the question, "Is this fair?" Am I in the bottom 1% of all Airbnb listings?