Airbnb admits to allowing lies in reviews, what to do?

[Alan-and-Kasia0]

Hi All,
I hope you are well!

After have a guest that tried to con his way to a refund. Claimed dirt, without any pics of any dirt and a broken microwave which was not broken. 
Airbnb said no to his claim but then allowed those same lies in the review and won't remove it.

I have spent 2 weeks trying to get CS to answer the question, "Do Airbnb allow known lies in reviews?" After everyone at CS dodging the question I finally go a, "Yes" today.

This is crazy! If Airbnb allow lies, reviews are meaningless. I can understand them not wanting to decide if it is one word against an other but falsifiable claims with evidence only on one side?!? What can we do to put pressure on Airbnb to stop and remove lies. 
Do allowing lies in anyway break our contract with Airbnb (good faith argument maybe?)

Thanks and have a great day! 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Alan-and-Kasia0 sadly (or rightly) Airbnb don't try (can't) determine what is true or not so they don't bother trying. Your response to the review is all you can do I am afraid.

[Alan-and-Kasia0]

Yeah, I understand them not wanting to put in the effort deciding word against word but, in my case for example, it was something proven to be a total lie, they still won't do anything with the review. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Alan-and-Kasia0 A simple read of all the relevant reviews doesn't make it obvious what the truth is. Airbnb customer support can't cope with simple situations - Asking them to arbitrate reviews would, I suspect, be a disaster!

[Alan-and-Kasia0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 Asking someone to remove a lie that is proven false should not be hard! They already decided it was false when he attempted a claim. 

[Huma0]

@Alan-and-Kasia0 

It doesn't matter. Airbnb don't want to set precedents by removing reviews for being inaccurate/false. 

The review policy clearly states:

"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 doesn’t mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews. We expect the author of the review to stand behind the content of their review."

I know this is unfair in your situation but I am afraid there is not much you can do about it.

[Alan-and-Kasia0]

@Huma0  Thank you for answering! 

I find it more than a little shocking that anyone anywhere would be ok with lies in reviews let along a host. I am stunned people are not upset. 

"I know this is unfair in your situation but I am afraid there is not much you can do about it."  
 
Agreed if the response from hosts is, eh so what. 

[Sarah977]

@Alan-and-Kasia0  You are misunderstanding the responses here. It isn't that hosts aren't upset that a guest can post lies, nor that hosts' attitude is "eh, so what". It's that this has always been Airbnb's stance and years of hosts complaining about it falls on deaf ears.

So you can certainly vent about it here, but that isn't going to change Airbnb's mind. You can waste energy on it, or you can pick your battles and move on.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sarah977 Also we need to remember that chap who complained in loud capital letters about the lack of a pet fee. When Airbnb finally changed the charging mechanism they actually made it worse for most hosts!!

[Huma0]

@Alan-and-Kasia0 

It's not that I'm not upset about it. I have been upset any time someone has lied in their review. However, that doesn't change that there's not much I can do about it.

Years ago, not long after I started hosting in my home, I had a guest leave me a retaliatory review and very low ratings. It was actually an Airbnb rep (whom I was talking to about a technical glitch) who asked me about the review and suggested it be removed. It was clear from the correspondence with the guest that that she was lying. The review and the ratings were removed.

However, at some point the policy changed. I am not sure when, but it's been a while. Some time later, I called Airbnb about a guest who had left a low rating and a review saying she wasn't informed about something important. Not only was this something mentioned twice on my listing, but I had messaged her THREE times reminding her about it before her stay. In the correspondence after her review, the guest admitted to having missed this information. Still, Airbnb would not remove the review. They said that it was 'the guest's experience' and did not violate the content policy.

There is clearly a reason why Airbnb added the section I included above to the review policy. They do not want to get involved in debates about the accuracy of reviews. We can try to keep fighting it (there are already hundreds of threads on the CC about this same topic), but I doubt Airbnb has much intention of changing their stance on this any time soon. 

So, I'm not going to waste lots of my time on a losing battle. That doesn't mean I wouldn't contact CS and ask, but if I get a no, I know there's no point chasing it even if I can prove the reviewer is lying. Where there is a point is when there is something in there that does violate the review or content policy. Then chase away and don't take no for an answer. Just keep responding with the relevant section of the policy. 

[Elaine701]

The problem with lying guests is ...

with airbnb's heavy lean towards guests in any dispute, it opens the door to all kinds of trickery from dubious guests, in an effort to get a cheap or free stay. Or just schadenfreude if that's what they want.

It doesn't have to have anything to do with anything. But if there's a reward... 

It's just tacky. And damaging.