I've received some negative review and harsh private comments left by my host which is unfair to me.

[Tsang1]

Good day to you all,

I've received some negative review and harsh private comments left by my host which is unfair to me.

Attached is the public review written by her.

This is my response to her public review:

I thank you for offering the place. We respect and treated your house like our own home. However, first of all, for the first sentence, ‘FROM the word go all they wanted to do was knock the price down cause they didn't have much money.’ This is extremely rude for you to say like that. I felt greatly offended. I doubt if this sentence comes from someone who has received an education. If we didn’t have much money, we wouldn’t have booked and paid for your Airbnb. For any rational consumer, it is a common sense to ask for a fair discount, as we’re staying in your house for a long period, 5 and a half week. We didn’t even owe you any money or paid you late. I repeat, I’ve just asked you ONCE for a discount. When I extended my booking, I didn’t even ask you for any more discounts. If you need to be this mean, should you consider yourself receiving payments through Airbnb instead of avoiding the commission you should be paying from Airbnb platform? My family was busy enough on children’s academics and work, but we’ve already tried our best to be good guests by keeping your house clean and tidy. If you did not aware, we’ve done our cleaning. We made the bed, washed the dishes, watered the plants for you, made sure everything was in place and even cleared every trash bin and pushed the big huge rubbish bin to outside the house EVERY WEDNESDAY and before we checked out. The negative review left by you which to me is unfair. For the ‘loads of cardboard boxes jammed in the recycle bin’ part, we never jammed your recycle bin. Your recycle bin was well-covered before we check out. If you’re that picky, you should’ve provided us with a shred machine to shred the cardboard boxes you thought they were unpleasant to look at. During our stay, we didn’t use your beddings. We used our own pillows and duvet so you don’t even need to clean them. You were deliberately aggressive in your messages, and only focused on what you thought we’ve done wrong with no appreciation from you at all. For ‘Stains on sheets and towels’, when we first checked in, the stain was already on one of the towels. It was unfair for you to blame us. We just put the towel aside because we wanted to reduce the work from both parties. We even brought our own towels to use during our stay. If we made it dirty on purpose, we would’ve threw it away not letting you see. We never used bleach, we didn’t even know where the stains come from. From Airbnb policy, ‘hosts should provide fresh towels for guests.’ Why wouldn’t you reflect on the cleanliness of the towels you provided? I suppose the kitchen is somewhere you cook, where there is heat and fire. I don’t think it is appropriate for someone to put a PLASTIC mat on the kitchen floor. Well, obviously we did not mind at all about this. On 26 feb night we cooked our last dinner in your house. As the saucepan was too hot, I quickly put it on the mat for just a few seconds. We were too busy in packing at night so I didn’t report to you immediately. On 27 feb morning, we’ve already bought you a new one for compensation. Also, it’s unfair for you to blame us on the lino thing you mentioned, or you’ve forgotten it was already there before our stay? You said you’ve provided a new coffee maker for us. If it was misused and broken, why could we enjoy the coffee until the very last moment before we checked out? ‘These cheap skates really are the guests from HELL !!!’ Please mind your language. This shows how uncultivated and uneducated you are. You never appreciate our work. We thank you every time we replied your messages but you never did. We had made a concession. We never mind even we couldn’t shower or bath at night because the bathroom lights went out. We reported to you but did not ask you to repair it immediately. We never mind even there were not enough lights when all lamps and bulbs were turned on. We never mind even the beds caused us back pain. We’re easy-going and were trying to make things easy, and trying to reduce all the work for both parties. During covid-19 we didn’t even require a little more from you. It’s the first time for us to come to United Kingdom. You welcomed me with this kind of rude, awful attitude? After I checked out, I was going to send a picture of the flower we bought and thank you, but your bad attitude pissed us off. Is receiving such review on my profile too harsh on me?

This is the private comment she has written, I was deeply insulted and felt greatly offended.

[Mary996]

@Tsang1 

Gosh this is tough from both sides but I feel you have acquited yourself well in your reply. I'm sorry it all got so bad. Other Hosts reading this will decide for themselves if they'd like to have you as a Guest. Is there anything you could have done better or was her (very harsh) criticism entirely unjustified?

[Mary996]

She does have many very good appreciative reviews whereas you do not and you will need to try to build your reputation @Tsang1 . Your Host mentions damage (acknowledging that you replaced the burnt doormat) to the lino underneath and also to the new coffee maker she got for you. It would be well that you immediately offer to settle with her for these matters. She is clearly very upset. May I suggest you reply to request to make good for the damage. If you do not I doubt that anyone would want to Host you as its something that we take badly:  a Guest causing damage but not owning up to it. Try to find out what would satisfy her claim. Very best wishes to you and do let us know how this turns out and that you have fully settled up with the Host . If you do this swiftly and within 14 days it may be possible to have the Reviews ammended and the Host would then inform other Hosts that although there was some acidental damage you settled up with her over this in full. It makes a big difference to those of us reading such Reviews!! Hope this helps.

[Emiel1]

@Tsang1 

Please note we can read the review and comment on your profile, so not neccessary to copy it all here.

I also read your review on the host profile, including her comment. Seems to me not a good match already from the beginning between host and guest. I personally never read reviews/comments which are of such a lenght, IMO Airbnb should limit the amount of characters which can be entered even more !

There are some "personal attacks" in both reviews  and comments, so maybe asking Airbnb to remove the review can be succesfull.

[Sarah977]

@Tsang1  This host has 49 reviews, all of which are super positive. Not one other guest has said anything about the host being rude to them, quite the opposite.

I also looked at the reviews this host has left for her guests, all of which are positive and appreciative.

So it seems pretty evident that the host isn't lying in her review-she would have no reason to and doesn't have any history of criticizing her guests.

Why would you put a hot pot on something that would melt? You are trying to excuse all your behavior and not taking any responsibilty. You should pay for the damage you caused.

And no, it isn't "common sense" to ask for a discount. If you can't afford the price of a listing, or it's more than you want to spend, you should look for another listing that fits your budget. Asking for a discount shows a sense of entitlement which generally continues during the stay and that is why most hosts not only dislike guests asking for discounts, but will decline guests who ask. Your financial situation isn't a host's affair.

[Lisa723]

@Tsang1 the host will most likely never see your response to the review-- but all other hosts considering renting to you will. I would not want to host you, based on your very long and defensive response to this review. If I were you I would ask Airbnb to remove your response.

[Anonymous]

@Tsang1  When you write a public response to a host's review, you might want to remember who your audience is:  prospective hosts considering your future requests. It takes a big leap of faith to trust a stranger with your home - hosts want to feel confident that their guests are mentally stable people who will treat their homes with care and respect.  

When you write an extremely long, unhinged tirade full of personal attacks against your host, you do not come across as a desirable guest. Nobody wants to hear about all the little grievances you had about your stay, and the fact that you chose to air them out only reinforces the perception that nobody should ever accept a booking from you again. 

I don't know where you come from, and perhaps it's a culture where asking for discounts is normal, but it might help to be aware that most occidental Airbnb hosts find this practice to be rude and disrespectful. What you're saying right up front there is: "I don't value your property as highly as you, and I believe you should take a pay cut for the privilege of hosting me." Experienced hosts will always say this is a sure sign of a bad guest. I agree with @Sarah977 that on this platform, you should use the search filters to find a place that suits your budget.

None of us were witnesses to your stay, and we can't know whether your host's review was accurate, but based on all previous accounts she seems like a credible and fair source. As hard as it is to receive negative feedback, I think you might need to accept this as a lesson in how to be a better guest. We can all benefit from learning from our mistakes instead of flying into a rage when they're revealed to us.

[Sarah977]

@Tsang1  You said " If we made it dirty on purpose, we would’ve threw it away not letting you see. "

Seriously? You think this is how guests normally behave? If a guest either accidentally or purposely stains or breaks something, it isn't up to the guest to decide to throw it away. I can assure you that hosts know how many towels they have in house- throwing one away isn't hiding anything.

Hosts have methods for getting most stains out of bedding or towels and can often repair things that get broken. And if they can't get a stain out, they will use that towel themselves in their own home or donate it to a homeless shelter or an animal rescue place, which are always appreciative of donations. 

Responsible, respectful guests report damages to the host, they don't try to hide it or take it upon themselves to throw someone else's stuff in the garbage.

And if a guest is forthcoming about things they have damaged, depending on whether it's an expensive item or not, the host will often just tell the guest not to worry about or, and thanks for letting them know. It's when guests don't own up to damages, or try to hide them, that really makes hosts mad, because it shows disrespect and a lack of responsibility.

And why do you think you deserved some special praise for cleaning up a house you stayed in for 5 weeks?  That's what all good guests do.