A Dishonest and rude review is OK!

[Gerrit41]

Hello everybody!

Quick background: I own a house and am renting 2 rooms out. The box that I have pets is also ticked in both listings.

A guest did a booking without reading anything about the listing. So obviously, he did not rent a house and didn't expect my cat. Also they were 3 people instead of 2.

They left after a few days and then came the surprise! 1-star review everywhere!!!

- I could prove with pictures and my current guest who was already there that he was lying!

- Saying the house is full of **bleep** and that it's inhuman to live in (that is not considered as profanity or insult to myself and my other guest)

- Putting 1-star under communication and value because he is allergic to cats is relevant (even if ticked in the listings)

So, because the guest made a mistake, I have to pay for it?

Airbnb is treating me like a complete idiot, anyone readying the review understands straight away what happened!

MOST IMPORTANTLY, LYING IS NOT AGAINST ANY AIRBNB RULES!

So basically, I will not be a Superhost anymore for the next 365 days. Impossible with a 1-star review.

Best regards and all my well wishes during this pandemic.

Gerrit

[Anonymous]

@Gerrit41  You've done many things the very opposite of what I would recommend to an onsite host with a pet. I think some combination of them would prevent future frustrations like this one.

1. Set your calendar settings to block same-day bookings. With some exceptions, you'll find that these are disorganized people who haven't paid any attention to what they're booking, and might have just been kicked out of somewhere else. The further in advance guests book, the more you can be assured that they appreciate your specific offering, and aren't just desperate for whatever's left. 

2. Consider disabling Instant Book. In my experience, guests who book Entire House properties prefer the convenience of this feature, but those who are a good fit for shared houses aren't bothered by pre-booking communication, as the stay is partly social by nature. If guests can't confirm in the initial correspondence that they're aware of the shared nature of the home and OK with cats, it's far less hassle to decline a request than to cancel a confirmed stay. If you care about good ratings, it's not enough to be a good host - you have to choose guests who are a good fit.

3. When you write a public review of a guest (surely you knew it would be public??) be sure to present relevant facts that would contextualize whatever review you find that they give you - which of course is going to be a bad one if they didn't complete the stay. Also, remember that your audience here is your fellow hosts. It's not helpful to say someone is "nice," when the relevant info is that they didn't book an appropriate property and didn't complete their stay.

4. Also when responding to a negative review, your prospective guests are the audience, and they can see what you write!  Correct any misleading details that appear, but do so in the manner that you want your future guests to perceive you. Don't scare them by sounding inexplicably angry.

5. Finally, organize your hosting style around the expectation that Airbnb is not going to be there  to help you when things go wrong. Ill-chosen guests spiral into conflicts that you need to resolve, damage you need to mitigate, bad reviews will stick. You have to bring the control and professionalism yourself, because Airbnb is fresh out of those. 

[Gerrit41]

Hello Andrew!

Thanks for your pointers.

It’s the first time it happened. My average would be 4.9 or 5 for the year otherwise.

Yes I should have asked why they left earlier. No I didn’t know my reply was going to be public. I have asked AirBnB countless times to remove my entire review.

Whatever you do, this will happen one day to everybody.

My issue is really with AirBnB. How can they do nothing?!? I’m not going into insults and lies in the guests review. But common sense! 

I do not want to contact that person. AirBnB should contact him and tell him that it was mentioned that I have pets, so he cannot use it and he cannot make up lies.

It is impossible for me to maintain Superhost status because I have long term guests.

Especially being a top host, I thought it would mean special attention. Obviously not!

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

Sage advice as always. However, I wanted to respond to you and @Sarah977  Re the whole instant booking dilemma. I don't use IB because I want to. I use it because I have to. It probably varies enormously depending on location, accommodation type and the local competition, but here in London it doesn't seem to be optional if you want your listings to be visible.

I didn't use it in the beginning and all was fine. Then Airbnb really started pushing it. I don't know if it's still the case, but search results showed only IB properties by default. Guests could only see the others by unticking a box, which I bet you a lot of them weren't even aware of. I suddenly went from fully booked to watching the tumbleweed. So, hesitantly, I turned it on and immediately my listings became fully booked again.

Now, perhaps I don't need it as much because I only host long-term guests so I imagine there is less competition, plus I have many more 5 star reviews now and maybe that will also help to push my listings up, but I still fear guests will not untick that IB only box because they don't realise.

The only way to find out is if I turn it off again but, given that I've already lost so much income this year, I'm reluctant to do anything right now that could adversely affect my visibility.

Anyway, it is very, very rare for a long-term guest to IB, so I don't worry about it too much. Plus, I didn't notice any deterioration in the quality of guests since I started using IB and the three penalty free cancellations a year has been very useful for the few instances where someone problematic has IBed.

I don't take same day bookings. Guests have to book at least 48 hours in advance, and I think that is more of a factor than using IB. That being said, not all last minute guests are bad. I've hosted many business travellers who often have to make bookings at short notice.

[Kath9]

@Gerrit41  under Airbnbs new review policy, it is possible you can appeal to get this removed on the grounds of innaccuracy. Have you tried contacting Airbnb about this? I understand it must have been hurtful to receive this review, but its best to keep your public responses professional, factual and unemotional.

[Gerrit41]

Hello Kath!

Yes numerous times, even an e-mail covering every point with pictures.

Even my second guest said he would confirm my sayings.

On the review, I didn’t know my reply would be public and I have asked numerous times to remove my review of him.

[Huma0]

@Kath9 

What is this new review policy? Did I miss something? As far as I am aware, Airbnb do not remove reviews on the grounds of inaccuracy:

If you feel a review is untrue

While we encourage and expect all community members to post reviews that contain objective and accurate information, Airbnb does not mediate disputes concerning truth or fairness. We expect the author of the review to stand behind the content of their review.

They can remove a review on the basis of irrelevance, but that is another thing altogether and does not cover inaccuracy.:

To keep reviews relevant, we recommend avoiding the following:

• Commentary about a person’s social, political or religious views
• Profanity, name calling, and assumptions about a person’s character or personality
• Content that refers to circumstances entirely outside of another’s control
• Content about services not related to Airbnb (ex. an airline, rideshare, restaurant, etc)
• Commentary about past Airbnb reservations, hosts, or guests, or about the Airbnb product where it does not relate to the listing, host or guest you are rating

[Kath9]

@Huma0, I can't seem to find it now, but I remember when Airbnb brought out a new review policy and the community managers asked for host feedback on it. I could have sworn (perhaps wishfully so) that they were going to remove reviews if guests, for example, complained about things that were clearly stated in the listing (e.g. cats in @Gerrit41 's case). Anyway, it looks like I was mistaken about this going by your copy and paste above. It's so frustrating that a guest can complain about something that is clearly listed/not listed. For example, I've had people complain about no TV when TV is crossed off in the amenities. Gaaaargh!

[Anonymous]

@Kath9 The guest's comment (or at least my auto-translation of it) says that he didn't know about the cats , not that the host neglected to disclose them. Very frustrating, but technically correct.

[Huma0]

@Kath9 

Yes, it's so frustrating. I once had a retaliatory review removed because the rep could see clearly from the listing and correspondence that the guest was lying, but those days are long gone.

I don't know when exactly Airbnb added in that section above about 'if you feel a review is untrue' but certainly this policy of automatically telling the host that it's the 'guest's experience' has been in place for a while. 

I'm sorry, but when something is mentioned two or three times on my listing and the guest was also messaged three times to remind of her of that particular point, how is it her 'experience' that she was never told about it? No, that's not her experience at all. Her experience is that she never bothered to read anything and that's not what her review says.

Not only that, but when this was pointed out to the guest, she admitted her mistake and offered to change her review. Of course, she couldn't change ther review and she refused to remove it. Still, the CS rep insisted it was the 'guest's experience' even though she had put in writing that she had made a mistake. He was not interested at all in looking at the listing nor the correspondence.

Since then, I haven't bothered to call CS about inaccurate reviews. It's just a waste of time.

[Sarah977]

@Gerrit41   I would reiterate every point that @Anonymous made. I am also a home share host and I have never used IB. I communicate with every one of my guests before accepting their booking and I make sure they have read the listing info, and are aware that I have a dog and a cat and some other crucial points. 

Review responses- These are meant to be used to correct inaccurate or misleading statements in a guest's review for the benefit of future guests. You can also use a response if the guest has mentioned a legitimate complaint in their review, like say the mattress wasn't so good and you'd been planning on replacing it, but hadn't done it yet. The guest mentions the uncomfortable bed in the review, so you could respond "Thank you for bringing the mattress to my attention. It has now been replaced with a new one." That shows you're a responsive host who takes legitimate complaints to heart and lets future guests know that there is a new mattress now.

I don't understand what you mean by "It is impossible for me to maintain Superhost status because I have long term guests." You only need a minimum of 3 stays in a year, totalling 100 days, to qualify for Superhost.

[Gerrit41]

Hello Sarah,

I have over 30 reviews of mainly 5-stars.

If the guest points something out during the stay you can take action as mentioned in your example of bed. In this case, he didn't say anything about the cat. The correct way would have been him saying he didn't read the listing. I would have reimbursed him. Insulting me in the review is not correct, lying even less.

As a learning, I have not only ticked the house pet box, but written it in both my listings.

Regarding the superhost status, I would need 20 guests with 5-stars to obtain an average of 4.8-stars which  qualifies you for Superhoast. That's how much that one reservation affects my ratings!

[Ute42]

.

@Gerrit41 

That You need so many 5* reviews to make up for one bad review is fully intended by airbnb.

To learn more about the airbnb review system pls read this:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Guantanamo/m-p/754779#M6666

[Gerrit41]

Thanks a lot!

Read all of it and also the guy in France.

A fair way would be to only take into account the top 90-95% of reviews.

I read many posts. Seems inevitable that everyone will get 1* rating at one time. 

[Gerrit41]

I have managed to remove my review and public response.

Cats are mentioned in writing in the listing.

I still have Instant book on, but will only accept recommended guests by other hosts.

[Anonymous]

@Gerrit41   Why not include a photo of the cats in the top 3 or 4 pics that appear on the listing?  The cats are clearly a bigger part of the guests' experience than some of the other features displayed in your photo collection, and it really helps if they are noticed right away instead of only after opening your listing and reading your text. (Perhaps you didn't realize this, but viewers can scroll through a listing's photos directly from the search results, but the texts appear only after opening).