Remove a false negative review

[Sue1654]

Is it possible to remove a negative review that was false? I had to have the police remove a guest due to numerous issues.  He was vengeful and  he left a negative review that was not true. Airbnb intereve ed and resolved my issues with this guest but the review is still there.

[Sarah977]

@Sue1654  Sorry you got such a bad guest. There isn't anything in his review, unfortunately, which violates any of Airbnb's review policies (yes, guests can lie- Airbnb will say "It's a reflection of the guest's experience") so I think you'd just be wasting your time trying to get them to remove it (altho you could try). Luckily you have a bunch of great reviews and your rating is still showing as 4.89 (I realize you might have had a 5* rating before his review).

When you get a lying review like this, all you can do is respond to it, as you did. Your response makes it clear what actually happened, but it isn't a great response, IMO. It reads like a review of the guest rather than a response. It's just much too lengthy and you could have made things quite clear in about 3 sentences, not a very long paragraph. A lengthy response also draws attention to the review, so that what would have a been a long bad review with a brief host response now takes up half a page with a "drama".

Try to learn to condense responses- their purpose is to correct misinformation or a false picture for future guests. Your response appears on your review page, not the guest's, so it doesn't help other hosts as far as warning about the guest- that's what the review you write is for. And it looks better to future guests if you just leave a short, professional response. Which will be easier to do if you don't rush to leave a response- it's tempting, and human nature to react right away when you read lies about yourself, but it's best to wait until you've calmed down for a few days, so the response isn't at all emotional and you can stand back a bit from it. I wouldn't even use a bad guest's name in a response, I'd just refer to them as "this guest", which also takes it out of the personal realm into "Just the facts, Ma'am".

Don't worry about the review- it's such an obvious outlier among your good reviews and will soon get buried on a back page. And if it makes another guest like Brian think twice about trying to get away with behavior like that or moving on to book something else, that's a good thing.

[Heidi588]

It sucks that his review impacted your rating, but I like that he wrote it, and that you responded. It will work to your benefit.

First, he showed his true colors with the name calling. But even before that, as he went on, it became obvious to me he was playing the victim and that he was a jerk. The name calling was like the punctuation mark of run-on jerkness. 

Your response countered every lie and point he made.

If I were a potential bad guest, I would know that you weren't an easy mark, that you keep any eye on things remotely, that you won't hesitate to act swiftly to protect your property, and that law enforcement responds to that property.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sue1654 Do you/did you have 2 listings? I can see the bad review on your profile but not on the listing. All very strange.

[Heidi588]

@Mike-And-Jane0  same here. 

[Anonymous]

@Sue1654 the review in question dates back to February - and clearly it hasn't stopped you from having several successful bookings since then. And while the guests' account of the incident may be inaccurate, it doesn't seem to say anything negative about your property itself - all I really get out of it is that the guests were total douchebags who broke your rules, and you took reasonable measures to enforce them. An honest guest would not be deterred.

[Brenda425]

I had a guest lie as well , my experience was not as bad as yours, and everyone here is being supportive but it opens a bigger conversation, "Why are guests allowed to lie and Airbnb does not step in and help, why don't they support their hosts more? The other thing of note was that the review of 2 stars that I received took me out of Super Host status which does impact my business as I have had many guests say that when they searched for a place they only would look at Super Hosts. I I supplied Airbnb with a transcript of texts between my guest and I proving what I was saying and they did nothing. Also writing a response is great but here is the problem, when you expand on the guests review you will see the whole of his review but the only way you see the response is if you open up all of the reviews, the response is not visible unless you do this. Bottom line is anyone can stay at your place and lie and bring down your rating and there is nothing you can do about it because Airbnb does not protect hosts from this kind of abuse even if you can prove what you're saying is true. They need to change the policy!!

[Stacy37]

I've recently experienced exactly what you're saying and I agree it's so completely unfair that AirBnB allows guests to flat out lie about the details of the property and the only recourse is the reply to the review that doesn't show up in the initial search.  It seems AirBnB gives lip service to supporting their hosts but fails us in practice!  Incredibly disappointing!