Guests stole from us, opened an illegal restuarant in our appartment, AirBnB still let them write 1-star reviews which diosclose where we live, our financial details and more.

[William1246]

Some guests recently stole from one of our properties. This is not a matter of opinion, AirBnB actually paid us a settlement for the stolen items. She and her husband then had the nerve to yell at us about damaging their reputation online saying that "reputation is all that matters!" WHILE they were standing at our door and handing back some of the items they'd taken! It was a surreal experience. The guest was allowed to post a review which was clearly spiteful, it was a 1-star review that was clearly written out of mallice. (We have been SuperHosts for a decade and the property was good enough that the guest extended their stay by two nights, so it clearly isn't a 1-star place. We've hosted over a hundred thousand people over the last ten years at our properties, because we are honest and offer fair vlaue and GREAT service to our guests.) The review also insulted me personally, calling me desperate, it told people where we live and it also disclosed my personal financial information.

That's right, this review tells people that we are millionaires AND tells people where we live! And somehow the braintrust at AirBnB don't see this as a problem. Despite a 3-HOUR long phone call with AirBnB, they have refused to remove the review, saying that there is no violation. "It doesn't have your actual address." Well, it says that we live "right next door to Unit A." How much more exact does it need to be? 

Last year other guests opened an illegal restaurant in one of our apartments and had to be escorted from the property by police. We have video! And AirBnB let those people post a 1-star review of us as well. 

THE FINAL INSULT IS THAT THIS MORNING WE RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM AIRBNB THAT THEY WERE CONSIDERING DE-LISTING THE PROPERTY WHICH HAD BEEN STOLEN FROM FOR POOR REVIEW PERFORMANCE! What do these geniuses think is going to happen? That people who are escorted out by police are going to leave honest reviews? It's an obscenity. AirBnB doesn't care about its own rules, certainly not about protecting its hosts. The message from AirBnB here seems to be VERY clear; they DO NOT want hosts to claim for losses caused by bad guests! AirBnB clearly wants property owners to put up with anything from anyone, including theft, damage and even in the case of the illegal restaurant, potential catastrophic legal repercussions should we have been sued. A guest did something so bad in one of our properties that we could have lost the whole complex, and AirBnB STILL let them post a 1-star review about us! It's madness.

[William1246]

@Sarah977 Agreed. It seems very much like "low hanging fruit" so to speak when it comes to quick ways of improving the review process. I have a background that includes military, government and Fortune 500 consulting and this "fix" is a SUPER obvious and simple one to implement. 

So the only logical conclusion is that they don't actually want to improve the review process. That may seem super odd at first glance, however it makes perfect sense if they have "too many" hosts. How could they have too many hosts? Easy. If too many properties are on the market, then prices will drop and that will lower the AirbnB profits. Given that many jurisdictions are starting to "push back" on more properties listing themselves on AirBnB, (witness the prohibition enacted in 2019 against AirbnB listings in Toronto and Paris among other cities,) and AirBnB can't make more money as easily by adding more properties. They can, however, easily make more money by driving up prices, which are still quite a bit lower for a house than they are for a hotel room in many cases. 

How do they do that you may ask? By getting the concentration of options to rself-reduce in certain markets. The closer they get to saturation in those markets, the higher the prices will go. And AirBnB ends up making much more money without doing a single, tiny bit more work! Same number of bookings, but more profits because the prices are higher. 

That's right, despite the rhetoric on their comments like the transparent ** posted here, AirBnB doesn't actually give a crap about hosts; they WANT hosts to leave!

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Melodie-And-John0]

@William1246 ,   With all due respect, while your situation appears  much more deserving of more consideration from the mothership than Customer services has rendered thus far (which it is now getting cause you came here and the CC mods picked up and are now carrying your flag forward), there is no need or good served by beating other hosts or advisory board members over the head with your beef-stick or urinating in their Wheaties.  This isn't an IG SGM thick skin **session, its a forum and were all real people with real businesses, most of which may be far smaller than yours but no less important to each of us than yours is to you and your employees. 

None of us including our CC Board Mod squad are in the position to instantly change the direction of Airbnb with our brilliance, wealth or good looks alone, we are all here trying to have our voices heard and get advice from others that may have more experience or different ones than we do, the fact many of us have become friends with folks around the world here over time is a bonus.   Your POV is as welcome here as anyone's but there is no need to beat up the forces in the trenches, they aren't Customer Service for anyone except their guests.   @Liv  and others including members of the newly formed host advisory board have heard you and they are the best at unscrewing things that are screwed when it comes to  our challenges, give them a chance and do the same with other members of this virtual community thing.  You might be surprised to find out there is allot of useful Host experience here to draw upon and some really funny folks that will help make you chuckle when your ready to explode. 

The fact your here talking at others about things that matter to all of us hosts instead of pulling the plug on your Airbnb account must mean you just like us value the symbiotic relationship concept of what was, can and should be again, Airbnb's high quality of Hosting services delivery paired with our superlative Lodging Expertise.   I hope to see you round the board with advice and stories that will help others the same way as most here have naturally tried to do for you when your in need, Stay well, JR

**[Inappropriate content removed - Community Center Guidelines]

[Melodie-And-John0]

BTW @William1246 , yours is the first home restaurant invasion / burglar I have ever heard of.  Not making fun of your screwed hosting just saying, one for the books.   The least they could have done was bring dinner over as you were right next door.   You can't make this schnitz up.....  Be well, JR

[William-And-Laura0]

@Melodie-And-John0  In respponse to your second comment, I agree! It's so over the top bad, that AirBnB refusing to delte the comment borders on insanity. And then people wonder why I get heated up when people respond with pandering, condescending nonsensical comments! We have two 1-star reviews. In 12 years and having served over a hundred thousand guests. We are CLEARLY some of the best hosts in the business.

Both of those 1-star reviews are from people who stole from us. Both are on camera but AirBnB doesn't even want to review the video. One even admited to the theft in writing! AirBnB still left the review up.

I thought that posting about it here might get me out of the joke that is AirBnB "customer support," but instead have just had a bunch of people saying, "I know, riiiiight?" as if that were actually any help. So I have a meeting scheduled with one of my lawyers this afternoon as the next step. 

[William-And-Laura0]

@Melodie-And-John0 thanks for your comments.  I wasn't here bashing someone, I was replying to pandering nonsense being posted by someone who was dismissing how infuriating this issue is for hosts. That other poster wasn't being helpful, how is it helpful to show up and tell someone else that others have been stolen from and that "things are changing, trust me" when clearly they absolutely are not? 

I didn't come here to have someone condescend to me with lies about how AirBnb is supposedly working on improving things, and frankly those comments are infuriating when all evidence is to the contrary. And then for him or her to persist, coming back againa and again to the point of eventually making comments about my sanity; well, I was right. 

AirBnB and its minions wanted an excuse to close this toipic. I said as much, and that's precisely what they've done.

[Liv]

Hi everyone,

I understand this is a sensitive issue, but I'd just like to ask that we please refrain from making personal remarks. This discussion will be more productive if we remain respectful towards each other and follow the Community Guidelines.

Thanks,

Liv

[William-And-Laura0]

It's only "sensitive" because what AirBnB IS DOING IS SO OBVIOUSLY WRONG. Someone who steals is by DEFINITION disshonest. So allowing them to psot reviews is just stupid. Then blathering on about "Oh! Trust and HONESTY in our community iis SO important!!" just makes people lose their brains, because CLEARLY it isn't important or AirBnB wouldn't let people who are by definition disshonest, post reviews! 

And when people show up and try to milfy, placate or otherwise dismiss these concerns, guess what? It's going to infuriate people! 

Worse stiil, EVERY post that I made here about AirBnB hiring ARISE in order to shirk their responsibility has been deleted. There were 60 comments on this thread. SIXTY! and AirBnB has deleted 42 of them.

And then you wonder why people get angry!

[Anonymous]

@William-And-Laura0

"And when people show up and try to milfy, placate or otherwise dismiss these concerns, guess what? "

I don't think milfy means quite what you think it does. Go ahead, put it in a Google Image Search, you'll get an eyeful!

[William-And-Laura0]

PS: You didn't bother to delete Andrew's comment referring to me as Fred Flintstone, why's that? Because Andrew is here to push your agenda, obviously.

[Anonymous]

@William-And-Laura0  I referred to you as Fred Flintstone because your profile photo was of a man wearing a Fred Flintstone costume.

If I'd wanted to liken you to a fictional character based on your temperament, I would have chosen a very different one.

[Ute42]

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post removed by Ute

[Emilia42]

@Ute42 Your post scared me at first but Bez's response is on this thread here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Is-AirBnB-ACTIVELY-trying-to-get-rid-of-hosts-by-ALLOWIN...

William has written about this case many times on different threads .... 

[Ute42]

.

@Emilia42 

Thanks for the headsup. I think I'm going to remove my own post upthread as we don't need it anymore. It's really confusing when people are posting the same issue all over the place.

[Emilia42]

@Ute42 Agreed!