Reviews

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Hello...having a serious issue getting a review taken down that clearly goes against review standards and is actually criminal in some of the content of said review. Trying to speak with someone directly on how far they will let a disgruntled guest go before they consider something criminal or against review standards. This is a perfect example of why a lot of hosts don’t even write bad reviews for bad guests, because fear that retaliation reviews won’t be taken down EVEN when the bad review from the guest walks/crosses the line of criminal. Any suggestions would help!

[Colleen253]

@Eddie-and-Kris0 You may be able to have the review taken down on the basis of her calling you names. Refer to the review policy,

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

Contact CS by chat so you can link to the policy. Many reps aren't familiar with any ABB policy. 

Good Lord that review is long. Rest assured no future guest will be able to digest it. A long rambling review like that just makes the author come off as totally unhinged. Unfortunately, the same can be said for your response, which is easily 3 times as long. Keep in mind that your audience for responses is future guests, and your primary aim is to reassure them that booking with you is a good idea, while at the same time perhaps briefly  refuting the claims and directing future guests to refer to your many 5 star reviews. Be professional, always.

Your response would put me off booking with you more than that review would. You may want to get Airbnb to remove your response. 

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Hi Thank you for taking the time! We were directed by Airbnb to leave a thorough response since they wouldn’t remove the review, I like the idea of a short and to the point response myself! Will try to revise!

[Sarah977]

@Eddie-and-Kris0  You can't revise a review or response. All you can do is ask that it be taken down. (Hosts and guests can get their own reviews and responses removed, just not the other party's). But make sure that if they remove the response, they also won't remove your review.  Although it could have been more concise, other hosts need to be warned about her.

Be really leery of taking a CS rep's advice. They are all outsourced now, barely trained, and often give out bad or completely incorrect info. You'll get much better advice on hosting forums from other hosts these days.

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Thank you!

[Dale711]

Hi  @Eddie-and-Kris0 

So sorry to hear about your experience.

Airbnb should take down your review.

                        “ Calling people racist is abuse, shames them into worse behavior.” 

Airbnb needs to concerning this truth: that learning from—and with—one another is the first step to making justice real - remove the revenge review! 

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Thank you Dale and Dan! This feedback makes me feel so much better about the horrendous accusations in the bad review! 

[Sarah977]

@Eddie-and-Kris0  This review is so unhinged and so obviously an outlier that no prospective guests will take it seriously. Calling you racist, when you are obviously a mixed race couple, should be grounds for getting it taken down. But I wouldn't waste a whole lot of time or stress on it.

I do agree with Colleen that you should ask for your response to be removed. 

Responses appear on your review page, not the guest's and should only be used to briefly correct misinformation or lies for the benefit of future guests, who couldn't care less about the behavior of your past guests.

The response to this review should have been something like "This is a revenge review left due to this guest not reading the listing information, being called out for her rude and entitled behavior, and being requested to pay for the extensive damage she caused and the huge mess she left behind. The accusations of racism are ludicrous- we are a mixed race couple and all are welcome here who show respect."

Your review of her is also far too long. I realize you were angry, but all other hosts need to know is general info, not all the gritty details. " Worst guest ever. Failed to read the listing info and house rules, violated house rules and instructions multiple times, no communication about arrival time, despite a clear request that this was required, caused multiple damages and left the home in an unbelievably filthy state."

People tend not to read through lengthy reviews and responses, which defeats the purpose of leaving them. It's always best to wait until your initial anger has dissipated before writing a review or response for a terrible guest.

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Agreed Sarah! Thank you very much for taking time! We already tried to escalate the name calling to no avail. We were directed to leave a thorough response lol, so that’s what we did...we will try and revise the response if possible 

[Sarah977]

@Eddie-and-Kris0  In the future, consider that when the first few days of a guest's stay seem to present one issue after another, it's usually best to tell them that it isn't a good fit and cut their booking short, because things will likely get worse, not better. Best to be rid of them ASAP. 

Yes, it will be a loss of income, and yes, they will leave a bad review, but bad guests pretty much always leave bad reviews, anyway. And the income loss will probably be balanced out by what you saved in damages and cleaning and stress.

[Mark116]

@Eddie-and-Kris0   You will want to look up the current guidelines and then fit in her rant to whatever is prohibited. 

I would think you should be able to get the review removed because she calls you a racist slur, and/or because her diatribe [and yours] about the electronic gate is irrelevant to future guests because she was breaking the rules to use it.

Your response and review was much too long.  Something short and sweet, XX was a challenging guest who broke multiple house rules, caused numerous damages and generally required significantly more of the host's time to deal with,  and became upset when these many issues were brought to her attention.  For these reasons we cannot recommend her to other hosts.

Here are the relevant guidelines of content that is prohibited:

• Content that endorses or promotes illegal or harmful activity, or that is sexually explicit, violent, graphic, threatening, or harassing
• Content that is discriminatory (review our Nondiscrimination Policy for more info)

I would say calling you a 'racist Karen' is discriminatory and harassing.

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Thanks Mark for the feedback! We’ve definitely been told in this feed our response was to long but took the advice from customer support to leave a fully detailed response if the review is not removed, short and sweet seemed better to us also, but hindsight ya know. In regards to the review being removed, we escalated the case as we are Plus hosts so they sent our case to another representative who deals with Plus hosts and they also denied removal. I guess the name calling in the review policy doesn’t apply when guests call hosts names? We are now pretty much being ignored by Airbnb when we asked if being called a RACIST KAREN doesn’t qualify for removal due to name calling by the guest

[Mark116]

@Eddie-and-Kris0  I've never tried it, but some people say you should just keep going until you find a reasonable CS rep.  You want to keep repeating back Airbnb's own language...being called a racist karen is both discriminatory and harassment. I've sometimes had to demand a yes or a no answer from reps to stop the glib PR speak.  So, you could try that....something along the lines of......I want to be clear is Airbnb's position that being called a racist karen is not discriminatory or harassment, please send me a confirmation message.  

I agree w/the other hosts though, I wouldn't expect this weird review to have an impact on your bookings

[Eddie-and-Kris0]

Thank you soooo much for the feedback! I will definitely continue to try! Using the advice you’ve given!