AirBnB removes guest's negative review for stating the truth.

[Russell49]

So 14 months ago I had a 0-1 review guest who left a disgusting mess of "DNA" all over the expensive quilt covers and tried to hide it, left dirty dishes all over and didn't clean up after himself. 14 months later AFTER his stay, he complained to me that it wasn't fair that I left him a negative review. I wrote it tactfully and honestly.

I stated in the review that he was new to the platform and that he left a mess on the quilt covers that he tried to hide, dirty dishes everywhere,etc....

AirBnB decided to remove the review stating it was against their policy. WTF? If a host cannot honestly review a guest's stay, it will only be a problem for other hosts in the future.

I am now so annoyed at AirBnB that on principle I will not be taking bookings for a while. Ratings and reviews are the hosts only and final option of fairness to warn other hosts of misfit guests. When this is taken from us, it sets a bad precedent.Between this action and removing my superhost status over 0.1 %, I have pretty much had enough with this company. They need to learn WHO provides their product and service. I simply feel AirBnB's business model has gotten worst in the last few years.

[Colleen253]

@Russell49  It was probably the 'guest tried to hide it' that got it taken down.

[Ricardo85]

It is becoming common practice among hosts to rate problem guests as "good guests". Get the message across without the risk of having your assessment removed. Then just leave the number of stars you think is fair.

[Russell49]

In the future I may just say "messy guest" lol. The problem here is that if you are too vague or without examples, a guest can say the review was not providing specific examples thus making it "irrelevant" in premise and it can be taken down as well.

[Sarah977]

@Russell49  I certainly want to see honest reviews, and I think it's outrageous that the guest was able to get it removed.

But I guess it's better to be a bit general in the review. As a host, I don't need the details of whether it was dirty dishes, stained towels and bedding, etc. " Property was left quite dirty and messy, requiring extra cleaning time",  tells me what I need to know.

[Russell49]

@Sarah977I guess I just try to give examples of the mess to show the event was factual and there was a basis to support the review. I agree that a more general approach may be better but only due to the "politics" of AirBnB, not for the interest of the hosts.

In some way, future hosts should know what the guests have done. The reason being is because it will show what is likely going to happen at their property and if the host wants to absorb the risk. I as a host, want to know details of what warrants a guest receiving low ratings and a poor review. I want the details because the level of disregard from guests IS important in determining if I want to take on their risk.

[Sarah977]

@Russell49  I agree, in that I don't like reviews where the host simply states something like "Better suited to a hotel" or " Cannot recommend". I'd like to know why, because not everything one host objects to would be objectionable to all hosts. 

For instance, a guest who's unfriendly, or socially challenged, or doesn't respect the host's privacy could be a very uncomfortable situation for a home-share host, who wouldn't want to host them again, but wouldn't necessarily affect an entire place host who has self check in and almost no interaction with guests.

I at least want to know the basic nature of why a guest was objectionable- poor communication, ignoring of house rules, damages, leaving a pig sty behind them. But like I said, I don't really need all the gritty details to get the jist of the matter.

But it's fine that hosts can come to the forum and list all the transgressions of a bad guest. Gets it off the host's chest, is often quite interesting and unbelievable to read and helps other hosts to realize that they aren't alone in experiencing what they might assume is super rare behavior.

[Russell49]

The details can be very important as every BnB property is different as is every host's standards and what may or may not be their own point of tolerance. Example, if a guest is kinda noisy to some host's they may be very noisy to other's. This can be a problem when it is a shared property moreso than a detached BnB. Details matter in this context.

[Robbie54]

@Russell49 exactly. The general consensus on this board from (most) hosts is be truthful and honest with reviews, and your review fits that perfectly. Why some choose to do things a different way is their business, but I felt you went about it the right way. Your guest was disrespectful to your property, and that's not on. I dont expect guests to leave my place as they found it but I do expect them to make an effort in cleaning the dishes etc, very basic stuff. And @Anonymous , there are ways in preventing certain stains on bed sheets, it's not difficult to figure out how and why guests should do it. Its embarrassing. 

[Anonymous]

@Robbie54  I guess I've turned over beds far too many times to be fazed by these kind of stains. Actually it's the dishes that would bother me most. If I found the duvet cover in that state, I'd probably think thank god he did that on the bed and not the sofa or the front porch.

[Russell49]

@AnonymousI have hosted roughly 350-400 guests on several platforms. It isn't about being desensitized to seeing a stain, it was the extreme and deliberate manner as well as the inconvenience.

Stop and think about what you just essentially said-dirty dishes would bother you more. lol

I guarantee that you won't have to put any dirty dishes in the machine 4x on hour cycles with stain removal to get them out! lol

[Russell49]

@Robbie54

I was raised to believe that honesty is the best policy. In this instance it wasn't however. lol

I don't expect guests to leave the room as it was when they arrived, but it looked like this pig of a guest wiped his "member" on every blank section of the quilt cover and then before checking out turned the quilt cover inside out and wrapped the sheets and towels over it.....I mean for Christ's sake they didn't even stain up the sheets, they stained the quilt cover-lol.

Yes, we clean the linen every visit but with something this deliberate it just shows a disrespect for other people's property. When one of the rating criteria is cleanliness, then I believe this complaint falls under such an issue.

[Anonymous]

@Ricardo85  This practice is no better than leaving no review. Only Instant Book hosts can see the star ratings. The rest won't be able to know whether the review was meant sarcastically or the host just didn't have much to say. I can't imagine declining a request just because it had a review that said "good guests."

Had Tolstoy been an Airbnb host, he might have said: all happy stays resemble one another, but each problem guest is problematic in his own way.  You can only make an informed decision if you have some idea which type of problem there was and whether it's likely to replicate.

[Ricardo85]

@Anonymous 

"You can only make an informed decision if you have some idea which type of problem there was and whether it's likely to replicate."

Do this and you will have your review removed.

[Anonymous]

@Ricardo85  How many times has Airbnb removed a review that you've posted?

I don't always agree with their decisions on these things, but most attempts to get a review removed are unsuccessful. Aside from the more obvious Content Policy violations, there are a few things that consistently result in reviews getting taken down:  any mention of sex, drugs, bodily fluids, or sensitive personal info. 

It' helps to be careful with the wording - stick to the facts, keep a neutral tone, and whenever possible try to balance the negatives with the positives. 

[Sarah977]

@Ricardo85  So it's becoming common practice to lie?  So it's okay? I guess that means it's okay for guests to lie, too. That's unfortunate.

As a non-IB host I am not privy to star ratings. 

If you leave "Good guests", you are lying, and misleading. I would assume that "good guests" means good guests.

If a host doesn't want to get specific, a line like "Guest stayed 3 nights" would tell me you had nothing positive to say about them.