Bad guests can avoid negative reviews

[Martin3344]

I had some recent guests who caused minor careless damage in my apartment, and a number of my items were taken. I wrote to them a couple of times to ask them the whereabouts of these missing items but my messages were simply ignored. I therefore wrote them a negative review to alert other hosts of the risks of having them to stay in the future. I have now discovered that they have straight away deleted their profile, presumably with the intention of setting up a new one with a clean slate and no negative record. I discussed with Airbnb Customer Support and they confirmed that there is nothing to stop a guest doing this, as an alternate email or telephone number would simply create a new profile for them, and there appear to be no cross checks at Airbnb to stop this. This seems to be a huge loophole in the review system and I do hope that if somebody in Airbnb or on the new Host Council reads this they will initiate steps to put measures in place to prevent it. I'm afraid that I for one will now no longer write negative reviews to warn other hosts about certain guests. The risks of a counter 'revenge' review against my own listing is too great, and I can do nothing about that, while bad guests have an easy way to circumvent the system and simply start again.

[Cathie19]

I’m sorry this happened to you @Martin3344. 🌻  I agree that this is an area that may need to be scrutinised a little closer, especially if new profiles are created - quite simply with a different email address or using a different phone number.

Maybe @Quincy, @Airbnb or @Catherine-Powell  or the host advisory board may send this in the right direction for discussion and consideration.

If you were a hotel, you could just charge the losses to their credit card and never have to overly worry about revenge or outlier reviews.

[Lisa723]

@Martin3344 yes this is unfortunate-- but guests can't see your review until their own is complete or the review period is expired. So there is no risk of "revenge review" in this scenario; please continue to review guests accurately.

[Robbie54]

@Lisa723  the issue here is that the guest knows full well they'll be getting an honest if damning review, yet they know it doesnt mean a thing to them as they can easily create a new account. With hosts however it is a real problem, we cannot just change our account if a guest leaves a false review for example, 9 times out of 10 a host is stuck with it. I've always felt this to be a massive issue, guests can basically get away with anything they want then simply create a new profile. Airbnb know this, but they're obsessed with trying to create this one big love fest of a community. They're living in cloud cuckoo land unfortunately. 

[Vivian860]

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[Emilia42]

I was always under the impression that a government ID can be linked to only one profile. This is why it is so important to only accept guests with government IDs. Of course it doesn't prevent bad guests from using other profiles that aren't their own but is one factor in the process of vetting all guests. 

P.S. @Martin3344 Do you have a secret to your very high percentage of 5-star reviews?!

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Martin3344,

I'd like to thank you for taking the time to share this with me and I'm sorry to hear about the experience you had with these guests recently.

Calling Customer Support to report this was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, a small number of guests are inclined to try to abuse the system in this way, despite the process we have for identity checks.

We are working on possible changes to address this type of behavior, in order to help every host feel safer about hosting, so if you have any suggestions or feedback on this, please do continue to share them here in the Community.

The review system as a whole is a complex issue, and we know there is still much work to be done, but rest assured the team and I are aware of its impact on our hosts.

We're working on many positive changes with the input of the Host Advisory Board members, and we look forward to implementing and updating you as soon as we can.

Best,
Catherine

[Helen3]

both hosts and guests with bad reviews can and do delete their profiles when they have poor reviews. Not just here but on other platforms.

I've also seen hosts and airbnb management companies leave each other's listing positive reviews and openly admit it on this community

You are right  @Martin3344 it would be good to see individuals from the new host advisory board  who Airbnb chose to represent us being active on this forum  @Catherine-Powell