Bad experience - review not published - host review published

[Aneesh9]

Hi, 

I recently had a terrible experience with a host in Goa, India, and posted a review of the host, as well as submitted a complaint to Airbnb. There are now several issues I am grappling with - 

1) My review of the host is not visible on his profile

2) The host has written a review of me with completely false information and that review is visible on my profile

3) My request to Airbnb to take down his review of me has been denied, saying it doesn't violate the Content guidelines

4) My review of the host is still not published - there are other negative reviews about him, and I only want to warn other travelers about him, but my review is simply not published. 

Any suggestions? 

I have called Airbnb support, they are taking several days to 'review my complaint' and are extremely slow , not seeming to understand the problem at all.

Looking for any help!

[Anonymous]

@Aneesh9   You can check the review policy to see if perhaps something you wrote might have been interpreted as a violation:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673/airbnbs-review-policy This is the likeliest reason for your review to have been removed.

You'll also see:  "Airbnb doesn’t mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews."  Even if something the reviewer said was provably false, that doesn't help your case. You can still post a public response with your side of the story, and if you decide to use Airbnb again, hosts can decide for themselves whether to interpret the incident as a red flag, an anomaly, or a mere miscommunication.

I wouldn't worry about other guests being "warned," if the host already has other negative reviews. The warnings are already out, and they have more credibility when they come from bookings that don't have documented problems.

[Huma0]

@Aneesh9 

Airbnb probably didn't take down the host's review because it is mostly a description of what happened on your check out day and some damages. They don't care whether it is true or not.

However, if you go to the page @Anonymous sent you a link for, there is a section that mentions a review may be considered not relevant for a number of reasons. One of these is:

• Profanity, name-calling, and assumptions about a person’s character or personality

In the review, the host refers to you as "coming from mannerless fly background". Now this could possibly be taken as an assumption about a person's character or personality. I think that it's probably fine to call someone rude or lacking good manners in a review, but referring to your background is the part that I would object to. I don't know if it will work, but it might be worth telling Airbnb you want the review removed because of that.

Otherwise, as @Anonymous mentioned, you can leave a response to the review. Try to keep this short, factual and impersonal, i.e. don't be aggressive or insulting.

If, as you say, the host is lying and you didn't check out two hours late, behave in the way he/she describes nor cause damages, then say so. However, even if all you did was to check out late and not respond initially to the host's attempts to contact you, then I am afraid that's not good. It's a complete nightmare for a host when a guest ignores the check out time and they have another guest arriving imminently.

In that case, my response would be to sincerely apologise for the late check out but point out that you were not rude, nor did you break anything.

Your other reviews are lovely and as a host, I would not necessarily be put off by one bad review if all the others are glowing, but this is a particularly bad one, so I would ask about it and want to hear your side of the story. The response you give is therefore very important.

You mention that the host has other bad reviews. I did not read all of them as there are a lot but I can see one very bad recent one, which the host has responded to in detail and lots of good reviews and high ratings, so it doesn't sound like the host generally has problems.

If you can remember what you wrote in your review and post that here, perhaps we will be able to tell you why it was removed. Airbnb rarely remove guest reviews so there must have been something in it that violated their policy.

You said you had a terrible experience with the host. Was that due to the check out experience, or was there something else?

[Anonymous]

@Huma0    Any idea what it might mean for someone to come from a "fly background"? My only guess was this.

[Sarah977]

@Aneesh9  It would be wise in the future not to book places that have several bad reviews and low star ratings. One of this host's properties has a 3* rating and most of the others are not that great either.