Have you been accused of being racist in a review, what do you do

[Krystal16]

So my last guest left me a review on my Upper United suite indicating that I kicked her family out once I realized they were black, she also claimed that I called the police which I did not do at all.

Actually what happened was they broke a number of house rules and after a message from my lower unit tenants at 330 am about cannabis being smoked in the home and loud music playing I went over at 6am to find they left the front door had been left wide open for the past 30 minutes and a gentleman passed out on the sofa and the other 7 guests (reservation was for 2) asleep in various rooms.  

Why do guests feel the right to lie and slander a host just because they refused to follow the house rules?  What would you do in this scenario?  How would this make you feel?  Many many of my guests are fabulous, I love sharing my home with them and take pride when they walk through the door and are happy with the accommodations, but guests like this one take all the fun and pride out of being a host.  With this pandemic are these the guests we have to look forward to now?  😞

[Alexandra316]

@Krystal16Thankfully I've never experienced this, but I would ask Airbnb to remove the review immediately and keep on until they do. The review is defamatory. In the meantime, your response and your honest review of the guest should keep it from doing too much damage. 

Really sorry that happened to you! Sounds like a horrible hosting experience. 

[Huma0]

@Krystal16 

So sorry this has happened to you. I agree with @Alexandra316 that you should try to have the review removed. I'm not saying you will have much success (I am sure there used to be something about defamation in the content policy, but I can't see it now) but it might be worth a try, especially if the correspondence with the guests demonstrates the issues which caused you to ask them to leave. By the way, did you report these guests to Airbnb when you decided to end their stay?

The only time I was called racist was by a potential guest when I wouldn't accept her booking. She told me I was racist against Asians. She had automatically assumed this until I told her I WAS Asian, as were my current guests and the majority of my guests and explained again the reason why I was not accepting her booking (the cancellation policy for South Korean guests). Finally, she understood and said no problem.

Sounds like your guests are playing the race card, or maybe they just genuinely believed that their behaviour was acceptable and couldn't find any other explanation for your decision. Unfortunately, the guilty party doesn't always see themselves as guilty! A lot of people think if they book and pay for an Airbnb, they can behave however they like.

[Krystal16]

@Alexandra316 

@Huma0 

Thank you both for your insight.  The unit is actually converting to a long term rental the start of August, my other unit will likely as well convert to long term rental at least until next spring.  I was actually considering leaving it up for a bit so other hosts can see her review.  
She gave me a review which I was surprized by, so when I gave her review I informed future hosts to check what her review is for me because I was expecting it to be retaliatory in nature, looks like I was right.  At this point it wont hurt my listing, and I am actually considering possibly presenting this to the police as defamation of character as certain aspects of it do carry criminal consequences in Canada.

[Debra300]

@Krystal16,

It does sound like a lot was going on.  If you decide to return the units to short term rentals, I do recommend installing Ring doorbells so you can monitor how many people are entering, and act promptly if you observe a breach of your house rules.  It's not fair to the other tenants that they have to contact you about another tenant when there are tools available to help you mitigate potential incidents.

[Helen3]

What a dreadful experience @Krystal16  I do hope you left them a very frank review to warn any hosts that might be considering their stay.

I agree ask airbnb to remove the review as it doesn't reflect their experience. Try them via their social media.

I am not sure though the tone of your review and the comments about your mixed race family come across well, they sound rather unprofessional.

Sadly there are people in mixed race families and of all colours who can be racist, so I am not sure this was a valid comment.  Much stronger is the fact that you evicted the guests because they continuously broke your house rules. caused damage to your property and caused upset to your neighbours.

[Anonymous]

@Krystal16  I can understand that you felt hurt by being unjustly accused of racial bias. But I agree with @Helen3  here - one thing not to do when accused of racism is to try to prove that you're not. Just think how it would look if a man insisted that he couldn't possibly be sexist or misogynistic because his wife and daughters are female. It's just not a winning argument. And considering how so many actual racists complain that they're victims of defamation every time they're called the R word, you don't help your case by playing the defamation card.

If I were considering your place as a guest, I would not be deterred by this single review. When the guest says that you kicked her out because she was black, I immediately recognize that this is BS - a racist host wouldn't wait until the night before checkout if they were going to terminate a booking for no reason other than the guests' race. Your response only needed to clarify that you kicked the guests out for breaking your smoking rules and occupancy restrictions; it's very clear that the guest's comments were retaliatory in nature. Anyone who cares to look through your recent reviews can see for themselves that your "Melanated" guests (her wording) have had no problems.  Which is all to say - even if Airbnb allows the review to stand, it shouldn't cost you any bookings. Combined with your totally fair and honest reciprocal review, it may actually be helpful in deterring people who think they can get away with breaking rules and throwing parties.

I'd still suggest removing the sentences about your family, though. Your husband's and children's racial identity is not relevant to the issues at hand.

[Russell49]

I have read another misfit guest do something similar and use their own "social identity privilege" to accuse someone of being a racist all while breaking house rules. These people are inexcusable and in a charged social climate they should know better than to cry wolf. I am so tired of hearing false alarms of racism that I will not bother listening to accusations again, no matter how valid. I give up.

[Anonymous]

@Russell49  Giving up is not helpful. Your alarm metaphor applies here - just because some alarms are false doesn't mean it's sensible to ignore all alarms altogether.

[Russell49]

Andrew0- Sorry , but I'm tired of dealing hearing it. It is an issue no longer validated and one used to exploit.

[Russell49]

Andrew0 Sorry, my keyboard messed up the previous sentence. At the end of the day, I do not need to "combat" racism-especially not false examples of it that are increasingly all too common. No thanks.

[Alex893]

@Krystal16 My cohost had same experience almost to the letter. She opened a case to get the review removed on the grounds of it making assumptions about a person‘s character. It’s been several weeks and she Is still waiting for somebody to respond.

[Sarah977]

@Krystal16  Very sorry you're having to deal with this. Carrying on with what Helen and Andrew pointed out, I can understand the urge to defend yourself from accusations of racism, but saying something in your response like "We welcome all races, nationalities and genders. What we don't welcome are guests who flagrantly ignore house rules, sneak in unpaid-for guests, and disturb the neighbors, which was the case with these guests.", would have been a more professional response. Even if a guest makes a personally defaming statement, best to take the high road and let your response simply clarify the facts.

[David192]

@Krystal16 That woman sounds like a piece of work! Well done to you for getting her out of there. I read both reviews - first hers, then yours. Her review is absolutely ludicrous, so much so that I don't think it will damage your AirBNB business at all. Anyone reading it will see it for the lie that it is. Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but I think people of all races are becoming quite skeptical of these types of accusations. 

[Russell49]

We are seeing a generation that seeks to resort to race when not getting their way because they literally have no other excuse to fall back on. The silent or less vocal majority are tired of this nonsense and tired of the cultures in our society that have no problem endorsing ideals that cater to race.