Guest leaves bad review on previously agreed upon rules

[Ken1852]

So, somehow AirBnB believes that reviews are legitimate if the guest complains about rules, security cameras, etc. even though the guest agreed to all of the information. How is that not a false review? The guest lied and said they had read everything and they were fine with it. Then they destroyed me complaining about the rules and other information supplied in the manual, which they said they read and were fine with everything. Doesn't that make it false? Has anyone else encountered this ridiculousness?

[Sarah977]

@Ken1852 Personally I haven't, but there are certainly hundreds, if not thousands of posts on this forum dealing with exactly the same BS. 

All you can do, if Airbnb refuses to remove the review, is exactly what you did- leave a factual response to make things clear to future guests. 

However, I would have stopped after your first paragraph. That totally summed up the situation-guests need to actually read the info provided. No need to address every point. Long winded reviews and responses tend not be read. Your aim is to have your response be read and paid attention to. So keep them brief and concise. 

The best review responses I ever read were from an Albanian host, who had it down to an art form. In 1 or two short sentences (often dripping with sarcasm), he managed to put the offending guest in their place while letting future guests know the host cannot be messed with. 

I remember one of his reviews where the guest had written a review that said it was the worst Airbnb he'd ever stayed at, and "Forget this place". 

The host's response was something like, "And let's not 'forget' that you invited a bunch of people over and threw a party and got booted out."

That was it. Super brief and conveyed all that needed to be said.

This was an experienced host with hundreds of reviews. Reading back over his reviews and responses, you could see the evolution of his responses over the years to bad , unfair reviews. They started off lengthy, but over the years, he perfected the art of the response.

Reiterating to guests to make sure to read through all the info and house rules when they first book or request to book can help. My strategy is to ask a guest if they are aware that.... - something they wouldn't know had they simply glossed over the listing info, because it wasn't stated front and center. Depending on their answer, I can tell if they have actually read the listing info. Some hosts bury an "easter egg", some word or phrase in the listing wording, which they ask guests to include in their response message. So they can tell if a guest read, or just looked at the pretty pictures, price, and location and booked. 

But there's only so much you can do. As the saying goes, you can't fix stupid. 

[Beto-and-Maia0]

Ugh..yes.. 

We have a unique listing- an off grid yurt in Hawaii. We remind people that upon booking they agree to our rules and AirBnB tells them that too. We have prebooking questions that ask if they've read and agreed to the house rules. 

Recently we had guests for two nights... To make a long story short they said some stuff, decided to leave early, we took them at their word, we felt bad, we mentioned refunding... Got into the yurt once we realized they were gone and... Well lets just say they were not truthful and didn't follow our checkout instructions... Anyways, in our messages back and forth she was very rude and questioned our rules... I knew her review would be bad. Before her our rating was 4.92 to give you an idea on what we have scored as far as everything goes- accuracy, cleanliness etc. I wanted to leave her a scathing review but in good conscience I had to be honest so while it was the lowest rated review it was not that bad, mostly 1 and 3 stars. She left me 1 star IN EVERYTHING except location. She blatently lied... Before she even left her review I refunded her the cleaning fee cuz I felt bad even though we werent at fault. I sincerely believe that she didnt read the listing ornour rules. Either that or she totally disregarded them. Anyways, I have been in touch w AirBnB support to remove her review as well as fix a glitch on my reply to her review (copied and pasted her review w my responses to various issues... None of my comments went through!! So now I have a horrendously dishonest review and basically no response tonit for potential guests) and AirBnB support SUCKS and basically says her review doesnt go against their rules (even though she blatently lied and her review is inaccurate, or the other 118 are.) And they cannot confirm a glitch in my response to her review. If they just READ it, it is DO OBVIOUS that half of it is missing. 

Basically this experience has proved to me that they couldnt care less if you work your ass off and are a superhost to prove it. Anyone know of a better platform?? Maybe we will be relocating. 

[Ken1852]

This makes me even more bummed. So sorry you're getting treated like that.

[M--Lisa0]

Oh wow