Shame on You Airbnb!

[Rod-and-Elana0]

Well, I am so very disappointed with Airbnb. I've been using Airbnb for many years and I have hosted as well.  I have never given a "bad" review but the last place I stayed in, I felt it was important for me to be honest as I got injured due to negligence of the owner in making sure the property was sanitized.  

When you prepare an airbnb for the next person, it is crucial to make sure most, if not all touchable surfaces are wiped down.  Well, the dresser in the main bedroom was not wiped down at all because if it was I wouldn't have sliced my finger open on the numerous pieces of shattered glass right behind the handles of both top drawers.  The person cleaning the room would have definitely noticed all the broken glass when they cleaned it.  This made me look closer at the condo to make sure other things were clean and they were not.  They appear clean because the room looked neat, but the dust was piled high on many surfaces, the keurig still had standing water in it and a pod from the last person who stayed there, the garbage had slime on the lid, the pillow in the extra bedroom had hair all over it.  The condo was neat and if I didn't look closely at everything, after the incident, I would probably not have even noticed. 

So, when I told the property manager about the glass her reaction (plus the reaction the owner had towards another person who wrote a review that the place was left like a frat house) it sparked a red flag for me and I wanted to cover my butt.  So when I left the condo, I took video of every single room and how I followed all directions in her guestbook and left the place immaculate.  Well, of course this was my first time writing a "bad" review (mind you, I also listed a lot of good points to the property in the review as well) and I got massive backlash from the owner saying that I left the place "extremely dirty" and that I was a "story teller" and that the pics I took were probably after I stayed there (although I would needed to shed a bucket load of skin in order to produce that much dust, but that is besides the point).

Since i used this service regularly, I asked them to please take the lies down because it can hurt me if I go to stay in another location and they see an owner response saying I left the place extremely dirty. BTW the initial owner responded (before I wrote my review) that we were a "lovely couple".   I sent Airbnb all the videos, and pictures and according to them, they will not remove the review because, "it doesn't meet the criteria for removal in our Review Policy. We're only in a position to remove reviews that meet those criteria, and we can't make any exceptions". 

So, apparently... you can lie about someone and even if that person has proof (videos and photos) it is still okay with Airbnb that they lie about you and how you left their place.  That is terrifying because then anyone can write anything.  I gave them proof, that should have been enough to see I did not leave the condo "extremely dirty" and that it is a lie and they refused to remove it.  #shameonyouairbnb

On a more positive note... I did find some amazingly interesting hotels during my last trip that I would never even have looked at had I have stayed in an airbnb.  Also, you don't have all the added expenses that airbnb tacks on so it was actually cheaper... bye airbnb. There are lots of other options I have found.  I guess things happen for a reason.  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Rod-and-Elana0 At least the host only left a poor response to your review. What future hosts (if there are any) will see is the review she left  you which is positive. I do have some (limited) sympathy as to why Airbnb don't remove reviews as it would be a nightmare to determine who is telling the truth. In your case the reviews suggest it was you but I guess this isn't enough.

[Rod-and-Elana0]

I agree, however if I did not have visual proof then I can understand them not taking her response down.  Being that I had visual proof you would think Airbnb would take that horrible response down and not support that kind of behavior from owners and renters alike. 

[Elene640]

I had an incident recently, when I was away for New Years and the guests arrived with a pet, though I have a NO PET POLICY.

Their pet, peed and pooped on carpet, damaged pillow and woke up neighbors as it was howling all night. 

In addition to this, I had another airbnb guests staying in the house as well, who were woken up from pet owner guests at 2AM and 8AM knocking on the doors and windows and they slept on the coach in the living room area.

When I notified this to AIRBNB, even though I am a super host ( being years with the company, that apparently means nothing at all, comparing to this pet owner guests who have just opened their account) they seem NOT TO CARE MUCH !

I provided images, I provided another airbnb guests claims saying they didn't sleep and were bothered, I even had to reimburse one of the guest for the night she stayed. 

I tried to open a case, but the guest refused to pay for the damages. I have no one else to go now, as Airbnb doesn't care that the guests did not apply to host rules, nor that the guests actually ruined another airbnb guests night.

And after all this, I am getting an email that the pet owner gave me a low rating and that airbnb will close my listing for 5 days ....

The guest literally doesn't know how to read. The listing says basement level, and she was surprised that there were stairs. The house has been on airbnb for 4 years and no one complained bathroom have been upstairs, even pictures tell you that, and living in NYC the room has KING SIZE bed and is really large for NYC regular rooms, she complained it was small. ugh .... 

This is most disrespectful act from the company. It shows how they don't care ! 

[Rod-and-Elana0]

I'm so sorry you had to go through that and that Airbnb did not have your back based on your PROOF.  That is the key word here.  I understand that they can't decide on who is telling the truth or a lie but if someone has PROOF, then they should take that into consideration when making their decisions.  I gave them a very detailed video, along with videotaping the date and time of the video that showed every room in the house was left immaculate and I was so happy I did that just incase this owner lied. Well, that didn't matter because they never even took the "proof" into account. They probably never even looked at the video because if they did, they would have definitely known she outrightly lied.  

[Huma0]

@Rod-and-Elana0 

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if you have proof or not of the host lying. The fact is it doesn't matter if someone lies in a review/response. 

Once upon a time, you could have a revenge review removed if you could show that the host or guest was lying. I had one removed a few years ago when a guest turned nasty after being brought up on damage, rule breaking and cleanliness issues. The correspondence, as well as the contents of her review proved that she was lying and the review and ratings were removed.

This is sadly no longer the case. The review policy now clearly states:

If you feel a review is untrue

While we encourage and expect all community members to post reviews that contain objective and accurate information, Airbnb doesn’t mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews. We expect the author of the review to stand behind the content of their review.

So, basically it doesn't matter if you can prove the review or response is untrue. Airbnb does not want to get involved and added this to the policy to cover themselves for cases such as yours.

[Makell1]

Yea, I just had someone lie about my place to give it a low review and Airbnb doesn't care. 

I guess as hosts we should unite to make them care, as without us, they would not exist... 

I understand that they are trying to make it a good thing for both parties, but if the host calls and addresses the issue, we should be taken seriously. 

[Julieanna0]

This is most definitely making me rethink hosting on Airbnb at all.  It’s really not worth it when you think about it.  If someone claims something against you,—even if you have proof it never happened, (or that it did happen), you’re still liable as they don’t care.  

Airbnb needs to be sued for deceptive trade practices. They claim they will cover us,—when, in truth, they don’t.  

Also, suing them for defamation of character appears to be on my radar.

[Huma0]

@Rod-and-Elana0 

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about the host's response. That appears on her profile, not yours, and she left you a nice enough review with no complaints. 

I do believe you, by the way, because although the host has lots of lovely reviews, the listing has quite a low cleanliness rating.

I also noticed this section of a review from August:

"We chose this unit as it was pet friendly, and it did have a strong dog odor. It was clean overall, and the unit felt like it had been ignored for awhile - a few maintenance items needed to be addressed with drawers and handles."

And from April:

"Generally not kid-safe with lots of breakable trinkets and broken glass on the dresser drawers."

So, clearly, the broken glass has been an issue for many months or even longer. It doesn't necessarily mean the drawers weren't cleaned, but it's still not great! 

Still, there are clearly cleanliness issues. While some guests mention the place being clean, there are some who clearly thought otherwise, including the one you mentioned already, including these:

"We had a disappointing arrival with a less than acceptable experience with cleanliness. The sheets were not cleaned and the whole place needed quite a spring cleaning! We were unable to stay due to these issues, but Maria did make it right and refunded our trip."

"A bit neglected; light bulbs, Christmas decorations still out, etc. Could use a thorough cleaning."

While some guests describe it as spotlessly clean...

It seems to be that the host is a remote one and relies on her cleaning crew. She seems confident that they are doing a good job because the place is spotless when she goes to inspect, but they may be pulling the wool over her eyes and only cleaning sporadically.

If she continues to ignore feedback from guests about cleanliness issues and also doesn't deal with things like broken glass, she is just shooting herself in the foot. I would hate to be a remote host.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  It's such a bad look for a host to refuse to acknowledge that guests can be telling the truth about things like cleanliness, when multiple guests mention the same thing. 

Unless the host cleans the place themselves, or does a thorough inspection after the cleaner is done, to deny that some areas might not have been cleaned properly is pretty arrogant. A response like, "Sorry this guest found the cleaning to be wanting. I'll be talking to my cleaners to find out what might have happened there", makes the host look caring and attentive to issues and isn't that hard to say.

And I can almost always tell if the guest is telling the truth, because guests who lie usually have an entire litany of complaints and nothing good to say at all, whereas those who are being truthful usually mention a lot of positives about a place as well. In other words, their reviews seem balanced and not like they are trying to seek revenge for something or are people for whom nothing is ever good enough.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Yes, exactly. I copied the comments as they were relevant to the OP's post, but those were from reviews that also contained positive comments. Even the guests who didn't stay at the property because they found it too dirty said something positive about the host. None of them seem like revenge reviews or unreasonable guests.

If a host receives a one-off review about an issue that is contradictory to the rest of the reviews, it's easy to dismiss that as something random to do with the guest. E.g. I once had a guest mark me down on cleanliness and choose 'floors', which I thought was odd because the floors had been thoroughly vacuumed and mopped right before their arrival. On investigation, it turns out that they didn't like my Victorian floorboards creaking, so just clicked on the only place they saw 'floors', which was under cleanliness. That is a rating I felt I should just ignore.

On the other hand, if several guests are complaining about the same issues, the host really needs to pay attention to that. I had two reviews in the same week where I was marked down on cleanliness due to 'smells'. On closer inspection, it turned out that my housemate had some smelly cheese in the fridge! Obviously, I didn't let that happen again. 

This host has a handful of reviews mentioning cleanliness issues, specifically that the place looked neglected, like it hadn't been cleaned in a while, needed a spring clean etc. But who knows how much private feedback she has about this issue. Many guests do not want to criticise in the public review and leave private feedback about the issue instead, or just reflect it in their star rating. The host trusts her cleaners, but it's pretty clear something is going wrong. Also, why on earth not fix the broken glass issue on the drawers? Guests cutting themselves on broken glass is not okay!