Removing a 1 star

[Raymond-and-Elaine0]

During the Q&A sessions in November 2017 and 2018, Brian Chesky said that any stars that were outlier would be examined and removed. 
I have 199 reviews, 189 are 5*, 8 are 4*, I is a 3*. I have now received a 1* from a guest who had planned a family reunion with her children and grandchildren without informing me and in total violation to our very clear house rules about bringing in extra guests. Her review is not in violation of Airbnb review policy so I understand this will not be removed but the stars are  clearly  revenge motivated. Can anyone help please?

[Elena87]

@Raymond-and-Elaine0 

What Brian said compared to what was actually delivered concerning outlier reviews were miles apart.

In the end, if a guest gave four stars to the sub categories then decided to give a two or a one star for overall - then a pop up box appears asking 'are you sure?' which can be overridden easily. That was the 'new tool'. About as useful as a meringue hammer.

I'm sorry that the guest tried to pull a fast one on you, but glad your stood firm.

Can't see airbnb removing the review as you say, so you might have to chalk it up as experience.

[Sarah977]

@Elena87  I'll have to remember the "meringue hammer". Never heard that one before- it's great.

[Nanxing0]

@Raymond-and-Elaine0 It is a common sense that none of us can stop a small number of guests from bsing and there's really nothing we can do about it. That's the nature of this business. Always bear this in mind, that if you have more than 100 5-star reviews on your profile, nobody is going to give a xxxx about the couple bad reviews. It's not going to harm us at all. Everyone with reasonable judgement can tell that if there are >100 5-stars and a couple of 1 star, those posting 1-star reviews are most likely lying or nit-picking. And in most cases, the bad review you give to the guest will do much more harm to them than the bad review from the guest will do to you. Just move on.

This happens in hotel industry as well. I remember years ago when I did road trips often, I usually booked motels and inns on websites like priceline or hotels.com. When I look at the reviews of those hotels, even a lot of 5-star luxury ones can hardly reach 4.5/5 stars rating, while most motels and inns are rated anywhere from 2 to 4 stars. After some trial I found the fact that a >3.5 star rating means the service is very good, while >3 is at least acceptable level. Even some rated 2-3 stars are not bad as well. 

[Raymond-and-Elaine0]

Thank you @Elena87 @Sarah977  and  @Nanxing0  for taking the time to reply to me, I appreciate it so much.

I know that one 1 star out of 200 5 stars will not greatly effect me overall, it is my Super Host Status that I work so hard for that will be at risk, especially as all of my bookings were cancelled due to Covid 19. I just wish all the hype and promises than Brian talks about would actually happen. I'm still waiting for the Super Guest badge promised for the end of 2018. I would also like to know how many thumbs down a guest has received and their star ratings, only available to me if I install Instant Book which due to Covid , I have removed.

This is my only revenue at the moment and I am so disappointed that Airbnb decided to believe a new guest with only four reviews over a long time and faithful host with an impeccable reputation, all 5 stars and wonderful reviews from happy guests.

[Nanxing0]

@Raymond-and-Elaine0 Your super host status will not be affected either. If you looked at the super host requirement, for the star ratings it only requires a 4.8 overall rating. As long as you keep up with all the requirements of the super host you will not lose it. Apparently when they made the requirement of super host they considered the possibility of such incidents of disrespectful guests bsing our service.

For the instant booking, I used to have it on but now I turned it off due to the COVID-19. It's actually suggested by Airbnb customer service since there's local government restrictions the instant booking cannot take into account of, so we have to manually enforce it. As far as I can see turning off instant booking does absolutely no harm to any of our achievements. One myth is that Airbnb might put listings with instant booking ON to a higher priority in search, but it's never proved.

[Alyson2]

This has happened to me. I am an 8 year host and just got a1 star from a guest who has stayed 4 times with Airbnb. They have believed him over me. U am considering leaving Airbnb.@Raymond-and-ElaineO