Revenge review

[Nina1093]

I had very messy guests who left a giant mess and 6 loads of laundry and broke a door handle in the new condo I host. When I brought up I might send them a request for extra cleaning and repairs costs they denied everything - even said there must have been someone after them in the condo. I was afraid of them leaving a negative review so I didn’t pursue my extra costs because they were denying everything and we all know airbnb doesn’t always reimburse. Anyways, they left a 1 star review - my first ever 1 star rating effectively knocking down my overall rating from 4.93 to 4.91. Airbnb told me the review will stand even though it’s clearly a revenge review. 

[Anonymous]

@Nina1093  Unfortunately the review doesn't appear to violate the Content Policy, so there's not really a valid reason to censor it.

You can, however, ask Airbnb to delete your reply. It's important to remember that your intended audience is guests considering booking with you.  Venting grievances about the guest and complaining about the star rating only make a host come across as angry and bitter - even if those emotions are justified, they're very off-putting from a hospitality perspective. The most impressive Host Responses display grace and professionalism in the face of negative feedback.

[Nina1093]

They trashed my place and then left 1 star review knocking down my ratings. For 65 dollars a night they got a new luxury 2 bed 2 bath condo for themselves and other people they brought in, used new linens and towels, had a luxury experience at heavily discounted rates due to pandemic, left a giant mess and then left a 1 star review. I’m justified in my anger. The system isn’t fair - and that airbnb doesn’t have our back is beyond disappointing 

[Anonymous]

@Nina1093  I'm not trying to tell you you're anger isn't justified - you're setting fire to a straw man there. But for the life of me I can't understand why a hospitality professional as experienced as yourself would want to present as a raging crazy person to your prospective guests at the moment you need them most.

As a guest, I've been willing to book plenty of listings that were besmirched by the odd outlier review - they happen to everyone, and as pros we don't need Airbnb to be our Helicopter Parent and make them disappear. What makes a bigger impression is how the host reacts to it, and that's where your response is a whole Soviet Military Parade's worth of Red Flags that behind this clean and businesslike condominium setting lies a potentially unstable person with a massive chip on their shoulder.

If that does not describe you accurately, perhaps consider that your response to the guest - as well as your response to my post - are sending the wrong message.

[Nina1093]

You are insulting in your responses. Wouldn’t want to host or stay with you based on what I read. 

[Anonymous]

@Nina1093  My intention is not to insult you personally (and I'm sorry if you were hurt by the bluntness), but rather to illustrate that an angry rant with TMI in the wrong context can give people what I assume is the wrong impression of you. Every guest takes a leap of faith when booking a stranger's home instead of something more predictable like a chain hotel, and it inspires more confidence when they see that you can handle adversity with professionalism and dignity. 

It's quite fine with me that you don't wish to stay in my home; as a dog owner I have to be rather selective with my guests, and if you bring that kind of energy up in here you're gonna get a lot of growls 🙂

[Mark116]

@Anonymous  I agree that responses are for the future guests, but I didn't really see anything in the hosts response that made her sound unhinged.  Angry yes, but not unbalanced or any reason not to want to rent the unit as a result of her responses.

[Anonymous]

@Mark116  I'm guessing you're referring to the comparatively restrained response to the more recent of the two negative reviews from this month. 

[Sarah977]

"I was afraid of them leaving a negative review so I didn’t pursue my extra costs because they were denying everything and we all know airbnb doesn’t always reimburse. Anyways, they left a 1 star review -"

This almost never works, according to thousands of posts on this forum. Bad guests almost always leave bad reviews, regardless of whether the host shies away from charging them for damages, or running around trying to accommodate entitled demands during their stay. If you host with the attitude of being afraid of a bad review, rather than dealing with bad guests appropriately, you will not come out ahead.

And further to what Andrew explained, hosts' responses to guest reviews appear on the host's review page, not the guest's, so it makes little sense to leave a response that reads more like a review- it isn't a warning to other hosts looking at a guest's reviews to decide whether to accept their booking. Instead it is read by future guests when deciding whether to book with you.

The place to talk about a guest's behavior is in the review you leave for them, not the response to their review. It's enough to say in the response "This is a retaliation review resulting from this guest being asked to pay for damages. (Or whatever the case may be) Please refer to our other reviews for  accurate representations of our listing".

[Clare167]

If, like @Nina1093 , you have so many good reviews that a one star will only take you down to 4.91, then there's really nothing to fear. Your rating will remain excellent and it will be obvious that the poor review is an outlier.

It is more of a problem if you have fewer past reviews and/or (if you care about Super host) if you will make under 20 lettings over the year. I confess that I have twice not reviewed guests with whom I'd had a disagreement, and it worked; they did not review me. I've also had four star reviews where I had no inkling that anything was unsatisfactory for the guest. I do understand hosts leaving their review to the last moment, then making a judgement whether it's worth doing.

[John5097]

Thanks for sharing. So far I've only had a few guest stain some towels and I really haven't been sure how to go about it. On one hand I've only had less than $100 worth of damage for the first year so hardly seems justifified risking a confrontation with strangers who just paid me a lot of money. Once they put a white towel in with colors and made blue, another used a towel to wipe up a broken glass spill, (I agreed to letting todlers stay) and another was their honeymoon with makup stains. I'm not gonna lie, little things can bother me a lot, and I have to be careful not to overreact. In your case it appears that may have happened to some extent although I can't be sure at all as I'm just reading comments and wasn't there. I would try to limit what towels and sheets guest have access to if possible or clear instructions or one guest could ruin them all. Also try to be more specific and avoid saying "mounds of laundry" as it may sound like someone might just be frustrated at doing laundry or exagerating, and if you appear to exaggerate one thing people will assume everything else is an exaggeration. I think you have to be more preventive and make it clear exactly what your expectations are. It can be a real challenge though. I used to provide a cook top that wasn't in the listing, and had instructions not to cook meat that can create grease, so guess what happened? Guest, esepically with children cooked hamburgers every meal. Thankfully they didn't get grease everywhere but I got rid of the cook top ASAP and haven't had a single complaint. Just saying that's can be tough situation. There very well could have been mounds of trash these guest left so would be better to be more specific. I also had a guest leave a half eaten chicken in the fridge and a container of rasberries on the counter that bothered me but not really sure that's even worth leaving a negative review as I don't have specific instructions on cleaning and I can overreact to little things. Good luck! I hope you continue to get positive riviews and figure out how to manage these situaitons! 

[John5097]

Wanted to add that the reason I was bothered by guest leaving half eaten food on the counter and fridge, (although only two things that took 10 seconds to throw in trash) is that I was concerned they may leave a 4 star review, and that seems more tempting to leave them a less than glowing review. Some people just forget though and leave food of booze, or things I mail them, they meant to take with them. Just saying I think the entire process can leave situations like this where a host isn't sure how to respond. For example you brought this to their attention but then didn't follow through with a claim, that still elllicited a negative review. It can be a real challenge when host are trying to provide the best experice for guest. 

[Sarah977]

Re guests leaving food- it's not always about them just failing to clean up after themselves. Some people hate the idea of wasting food. Why throw half a cooked chicken in the garbage? Maybe they figure you'll eat it. North Americans cavalierly throw out perfectly edible food, which is pretty unconscionable. I've had guests leave food which was quite edible and I ate it myself or gave it away to neighbors. @John5097

[Mark116]

@Sarah977 @John5097  I agree Sarah, we specifically tell guests to leave perishable food and we will dispose of it because  otherwise over and over people will throw half empty cartons of juice and soda in the trash, throw their left over take out and  the plastic containers in the trash and it becomes completely vile.  I would much rather deal with pouring stuff out and not having any organic waste sitting in the garbage for 24 hours.  Most of the stuff we end up throwing away or putting out for the birds, but in some cases people leave pasta, sugar, other staples and we just leave them for the next guest after wiping down.  But that is my Depression grandparents teaching still with me, because I hate wasting something that is perfectly fine.

[Sarah977]

A friend of mine taught a environmental studies course in junior high in Canada. One of his projects with his students was that they collected all the garbage cans from the whole school one day and separated and weighed out each type of garbage. 80% of the "garbage" was "edible food"- entire sandwiches, whole apples and oranges, etc. The kids at school had just been chucking the lunches their parents sent them off with in the garbage. My friend's students were quite shocked at the pointless waste.

@Mark116