Revenge review- please read what I just got

Azzuri0
Level 5
Ubud, Indonesia

Revenge review- please read what I just got

"very disgusting hostess, an accident occurred and an urgent decision was made to fly away for an operation, on the third day completely different people were settled in the villa, although I saw it paid for another 18 days, they refused to return the funds, sadly 7.000 euros and such service. I wish this villa to be completely alone without visitors. the animal behind the picture lives on the vile, it is as small as a lizard that yells every night. the vila is stylish, but on the outskirts you can't do without a bike, but I don't recommend a lady"

 

1 star in every category, even though she didn't have a single problem with the villa in the 30 days she stayed, I just refused to refund her for the remaining 18 after her motorbike accident. CS say this review doesn't break their content policy, please give me your opinion?

18 Replies 18
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Azzuri0 

IMO already the first 3 words violate the rule "to be relevant":

"Profanity, name calling, and assumptions about a person’s character or personality"

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673/airbnbs-review-policy

Azzuri0
Level 5
Ubud, Indonesia

I mentioned that point to the CS and a few more like 

-Content that refers to circumstances entirely outside of another’s control- her accident
-no relevant information about a host and listing- almost whole review is her rant about not getting a refund
-complete lies that I put someone else in the villa as I rent exclusively on airbnb they  can see the villa was empty after her check out
The review is absolutely not objective , incorrect and with no relevant information.
 

@Azzuri0 keep calling and politely arguing your case until you connect with someone who will listen. I had the best luck talking to humans who understand ABB rules calling about 8am EST.  Don't give up!

@Azzuri0 It's rare that Airbnb's outsourced call center CS ambassadors are familiar with any Airbnb policy. You may need to be persistent and keep trying until you finally get one who knows what's going on. You may have better luck with a chat instead of calling. That way, you can outline the review policy violations in clear and concise point form, and link to the review policy, highlighting the relevant section. Good luck.

Kia272
Level 10
Takoma Park, MD

@Azzuri0 You know....sometimes it's not all about money. Your guest had an accident and had to leave  to get medical attention? And you couldn't find some sort of compromise where you could refund some portion of her money? It's not like she had an accident on purpose. Of course I don't know all of the details, but as I said, it's not always all about money. I don't get stays of the duration that you do, but I have refunded and would refund just to be decent, when something like that happens. That bad review may end up costing you way more than the partial refund you might have given her.  My two cents. 

She drove drunk, its personal responsibility, there is always travel insurance in the event of accidents.

She also tried to put put her friends in my villa after she left, but I also don't allow third party bookings..

@Kia272  have to disagree on this one. We had guests who tried to extend a stay because one got ill with the flu and did not want to leave the space. We had guests checking in right after. Though I had a lot of empathy for the guests I truly couldn't cancel others who had booked in good faith. This upset the guest who started making threats as though they would not vacate. I did not want to throw someone out who was ill, nor did I want to cancel on guests expecting to stay.

 

Sometimes hosts need to just fall back on rules. If a guest gets ill or injured during a stay and wants to vacate or stay longer its not always possible. I find the more that I bend my rules due to sad stories, the more guests take advantage. Best to approach with kindness and stick to the rules. They are there for a good reason. 

@Laura2592  In business, the wise decision is not always a question of who is right and wrong. Hopefully, we make the decision that best suits our business in the long run, not the decision that makes us feel righteous. 

In this particular case, had the host indicated that if the guest canceled, she would either refund xx amount of money, or refund any days that she was able to re-rent, that might have appeased the guest somewhat. Again, the host has to weigh the cost of a bad review, vs. the cost of the dollar amount of any refund granted. 

In this particular case, the host got lucky, because the guest sounds like a lunatic and was not able to post an even moderately coherent review. Had it been otherwise, that review could be costing the host a whole lot more than the payout she received.  

Citing the example of your guest who came down with the flu, your humanity kicked in in wanting to let them stay, when of course you couldn't because you had other guests coming. 

Approaching with kindness is an excellent philosophy that I wholeheartedly support, but sticking to the rules isn't always a long-term benefit to the business. 

In the same way that many businesses take returns without question, even though customers frequently lie about the reason, amount of use, or how it broke, they are weighing the cost of the return against the cost of losing that customer. Again, my two cents. Kia

@Kia272each host has to make their own decisions. But its never a good idea to negotiate with someone who is trying to emotionally blackmail you. I am sure @Azzuri0  did what she felt was best given the situation. I certainly would not want my guest to move in a bunch of strangers to complete their stay, nor would I be able to recoup my investment if they canceled halfway in unexpectedly. So I agree with her decision. Based on on the review alone this was a volatile, problematic guest. Reasonable people don't write reviews like that 🙂

 

And it does violate ABB policies. So I am hopeful it will be removed as long as @Azzuri0  is persistent.  I wish her well.

The review was removed, the guest truly had volatile behavior, the last motorbike accident was the worst, but she had multiple accidents and my staff had to pick her motorbike from a rice field once and then from a river which was particularly difficult, and I even offered her that my staff drive her anywhere for free, but she wanted to look cool and drive the biggest scooter she could rent, even the owner of the rental company had problems because the police impounded the rental scooter 2 times because she was driving without a license, and she would never even be stoped by the police if she  bothered to ware a face mask (they are only checking for people who break the covid protocols).

Ross648
Level 7
New York, NY

I sympathize and it has happened to me as well.    By the way, I disagree with @Kia272, I don't think that you should have refunded her but it is always nice to say that if the villa is rented by others then you will refund for those days it is rented.  

 

I don't think that AirBnB will take down the review despite the lies,  unfortunately.   My understanding is that any statement, even if untrue, reflects the angry and revengeful position of the guest, and they let it stand.  You have to prove extortion (refund me or I will write a revenge review).  Then CS will act.  

 As if the revenge review wasn't enough, I even got an airbnb email threatening to suspend my listing because of the low review, the whole review system is a joke..

Robin4
Top Contributor
Mount Barker, Australia

@Azzuri0 

Your listings are currently showing review star ratings of 5* and 4.85* so there is no way Airbnb will suspend your listings.

 

Azzuri, seriously, I would not worry about that review....it says far more about the guest than it says about you. Your other reviews are wonderful, you are obviously a great host and all those who read your reviews will realise that this was the guest from hell. Everyone else, all 120 of them are wrong and this guest is right....What th!

 

What you need to do now is write a very diplomatic review response. You have one month to do that. Write something like....."We try our best for all our guests and a read of our reviews will see we generally succeed. If we didn't on this occasion I am really sorry, we can't change the course of history. I wish Natallia all the best and I hope her future holidays are maybe a little less accident prone. Something I unfortunately don't have any control over!"

 

Something like that will see you as a dignified, diplomatic host and make the guest look even more of a fool!

Give it a go Azzuri!

 

Cheers.........Rob

 

@Ross648 greetings from a fellow schoolhouse owner 🙂 Yours is very cute.