@Mita127 wrote:
How did you feel when you received your first negative review? Did it worry you that others may be put off? Did you respond to it at all?
My first negative review was from a girl who stayed with her friend for a few days over the Christmas period. These girls were a nightmare from the start. They had clearly not read the listing, e.g. they seemed astonished that I lived at the house or that I had cats. On the first night, they tampered with the heating controls, even though they had specifically been asked not to, and then claimed the curtains did it!
I let a lot of things slide, but when they flooded the bathroom because they showered with the cubicle door left open and also left it in a disgusting state so that the other guest staying didn't want to use it, I had to say something. Even though I never asked her to pay for damages, the booking guest (other girl basically never spoke to me) became very hostile. She also kept sending me messages in the early hours of the morning complaining about things that were stated on the listing, which I asked her to stop doing. She basically told me that she could do what she pleased and that yes, she had read my house rules, but that didn't mean she had to remember them.
Well, she was stupid, quite frankly, because she wrote all of her nonsense (including some really bizarre excuses like that they hadn't even used the shower since they had checked in days before, or that there was another unknown person staying in the house who was causing the issues). Plus, she wrote stuff in her review (which was horrible of course) about my house rules being TEDIOUS. Yes, she put that in caps.
Anyway, of course I was not pleased to get my first bad review and low ratings, but I was expecting it and, by then, had quite a few lovely reviews, so I didn't stress too much about it. Fast forward a few months and I am on the phone with a CS rep talking about some technical issue. This was back in the day when CS was actually quite good.
He spotted this incongruous review/rating and asked me about it. I explained. He told me that perhaps he could get it removed. He read the correspondence and the review and my listing and concluded that the guest was talking nonsense, e.g. how could she give me 1* for communication when I had politely and swiftly responded to her every message. He also said it was not okay for her to challenge my rules in the review. So, it was removed and I got Superhost status at the next assessment.
Sadly, things have changed a lot since then and CS do not seem willing to remove reviews even when there is evidence in the message thread that the guest is lying. They will just tell you, "It doesn't violate the content policy," and that "It's the guest's experience."