Dear hosts,
I know this topic has been discussed numerous times which is actually what makes me wonder why hasn't it been solved? The oldest posts I've found with a quick search are from 2017. I've read some crazy stories about a house being completely destroyed by having an illegal party and Airbnb still didn't remove a bad revenge review. My story is nothing compared to this but this subject needs to be addressed again and again until there is a solution!
My guest that left a couple of weeks ago stayed only 5 days and left the apartment in a very bad state. Instead of a normal 1 h turnover cleaning it required a 2,5 h deep cleaning. There were multiple trash bags left in the apartment, the fridge was full of food leftovers, the sink was clogged with dirty water and a mountain of dishes, one burned pan, the cutlery drawer and the dish shelves were full of dirty dishes. Also, the cabinets, the walls and the doors of the studio apartment were full of some sort of blue liquid from top to bottom. I sent a payment request for 50 euros which would cover the pan and the extra cleaning fee for the cleaner and the guest refused to pay extra because "I've already paid for the cleaning" referring to the turnover cleaning that was charged together with the stay. I tried to explain to him that it only includes the bed linen and towel rental plus disinfection and light cleaning but not a mess that he created causing my cleaner to be late for another job and lose the third due to this. The guest would have paid for the pan but not the cleaning as he wanted me to compromise and basically forgive the extra cleaning. I don't think I should tolerate someone not respecting the check out rules or the property altogether.
When I accepted the booking request the guest didn't have a single review and was just registered in the same month. As we are all first-timers at some point I don't mind taking this kind of booking but due to Airbnb's strict "we don't remove reviews" policy, I am forced to start declining them as there are no guarantees that it's not going to be another messy guest that will refuse to take responsibility for his behaviour. After the checkout, I noticed that one review appeared and it had a low rating especially in the cleaning. So clearly the guest doesn't understand how to behave in an Airbnb. I decided to sacrifice myself and leave another review as a warning to the future hosts but this was a mistake and now I will have to suffer the consequences. The guest replied with a revenge review of 2-star general review and 1 star in the separate sections. I have never gotten anything less than 4-5 stars so this is completely false and a clear case. But not to @Airbnb. I complained and got a phone call saying that they have a very strict policy about removing the reviews and it's not possible.
I find it ridiculous that they can't look at the consistency in the quality of our hosting and remove reviews that are clearly revenge for the money claim. There should be more flexibility with these kinds of cases where there are payment requests and some irregularities involved. Also reviewing time should be much shorter so that we could start the claiming process after the reviewing period. Maybe these issues would be less frequent.
I'm very disappointed. I've been a super host since 2019 when I've started hosting and now this first and the only bad review has completely destroyed it. For me, this is my only income but apparently, we haven't suffered enough during the pandemic so let's take another hit...
eltzub