Guest Destroys Home and Is allowed to write a bad review

[Sharona0]

I am a Superhost with 290 -5 star reviews with a villa in Palm Springs. I recently had a guest that destroyed my home. When she left I immediately contacted her to find out what happened. Her response was “have your cleaning lady fix it and with one bad review from me your entire business will go down”.

Well, I filed a claim for over $3700 in damages and she retaliated by writing a horrible review. Now, airbnb won’t take the review down.

How does airbnb do such a thing?

How do guests that break rules and damage our homes have the right to write a review?

Airbnb has made it such that Hosts can’t confront guests about damages in fear of a bad review.

I am really disappointed in Airbnb and want to take my listings down.

I would love if our host community would share this and band together against Airbnb. It is time they treat us fairly.

[Sharona0]

What review or comments are conflicting? I am confused.

Her children went through the entire house with crayons, paint, glue, and literally damaged and scratched all my furniture. Carpets were filthy. It was the worst thing I had ever seen. My coffee table, dining table, console table ruined. She had yogurt and food and paint spilled everywhere. I mean walls, cabinets... She had no regard for my home.... at all. 

People like this should NEVER be allowed to allowed to rent on Airbnb. Really a tragedy. 

[Sarah977]

@Sharona0  Definitely an objectionable, disrespectful guest that I can't imagine any host wanting.

 Scratches on furniture is considered to be damage, but extensive cleaning required is not classified as damage- it is just extra cleaning. Food spills, unless they permanently stain, for instance, aren't damage, nor are marks on the wall if they can be washed off.

I think the conflicting reviews and comments Emiel was referencing has to do with what was actual damage (things that truly require repair or replacement) and what is just over the top cleaning time required.

[Sharona0]

There was actual damage to the furniture. I would not be having this discussion for a home left "dirty".  Beautiful wooden tables were ruined. Most of the crayons I was able to get out but the scratches left on my tables, and the paint that won't come off, damaged the tables. 

[Emiel1]

@Sharona0 

There is a review + comment in  both the host and guest profile.

The guest admits there is some "damage" from children, which according to her only needs some extra cleaning to resolve. But you state the "home is destroyed", "furniture is ruined". So there is a great bandwith here...

So is it only about extra or special cleaning or need items to be replaced, as being "destroyed" ?

BTW

I would not worry too much about the review. Every potential guest with common sense can value it for what it is worth.
But the low ratings probably attached to it will lower your average rating temporary.

[Sharona0]

What do you mean "low ratings attached to it"? What are you referring to? Am I missing something here? 

[Sarah977]

@Sharona0  The guests leave a written review and also ratings, as I'm sure you are aware. A bad written review will often be seen by other users as something to dismiss in light of your response and the fact that it is an obvious outlier among pages of glowing reviews from your other guests.

But if a bad guest leaves a 1*review out of spite, it lowers your overall rating that appears in your listing.

[Cody225]

I've had nothing, but problems recently with airbnb and their "support" staff.

I had two guests in a row, check in and immediately cancel, one was really looking for a place to park and RV as everything was full over Labor day weekend, the other was looking for a way to connect to attempt to rent my home directly from me, bypassing airbnb entirely.

Both cancelled right upon check in when told no. And both made a bunch of false claims to get a full refund, regardless of my clear cancellation policy and regardless the fact that both blocked my calendar resulting in lost bookings.

Airbnb found the first guest's allegations to be completely false in their review and did not allow a refund, but they did allow this guest to leave a review, that included all of the statements they found false.

The second they tried to take down my review of this horrible guest, stating if she didn't stay overnight it goes against their policy, providing a link that didn't say that at all and when I challenged that they allowed the first bad review even though that guest hadn't stayed they tried to get away with this double standard, I had to go through 4 of their support and demand to speak with their supervisors just to be allowed to keep my review, which is very necessary to keep scammers from impacting other hosts.

Airbnb's support staff was far less than helpful and even outright lied to me in the process.

I'm taking my listing off airbnb and using VRBO. I don't even know how they can operate a business with such a shortsighted, mindless business model.

Allowing false, bad reviews of guests that are clearly malicious hurts their own bottom line, the less bookings I get the less money they make, it's ridiculous!