Will Airbnb delete a negative review from a bad guest?

[Marie7196]

Hello, I'm relatively new to hosting. I do a monthly stay and this is about a recent guest that checked-out today. I have no intention of giving her a review because there’s nothing good to say about her stay. But I also don’t want her to leave me a review because she was a horrible guest.

Here are the things she did to my house on her one month stay:
1. The guest left the refrigerator open the whole night and next day, my one month worth of groceries got spoiled. When I asked her about it, she said it was an accident. But the fridge is hard to miss because she will pass by it every time she goes in and out of her room.
2. She smeared poop on my desk
3. She stole my bathroom caddy
4. Smeared blood on the light switch and sink
5. Brought dirty and muddy shoes in the bathroom, even though I provided her with pair of slippers, she will walk barefoot drenched and soaking wet on our hardwood floor 
6. She spits on the floor every time

In the beginning she seems nice and friendly. I fell for her sad story that she told me during her first week. So I became forgiving of her violation of house rules. One time she was hungry and she said she have no food, I cooked her breakfast even though it’s not included in my service. I also bought her cereal and chips ahoy so she will have something to eat when she come home since she like sweets so much. I went extra mile to make her stay enjoyable and comfortable despite the fact that she’s violating house rules and trashing my house because I pity her with her sad story.

I worked so hard everyday cleaning up after her mess because I want to be a superhost, and I don't want it to be ruined by one bad guest review. 

I reported her to airbnb today. I'd like to know if they will delete it in case she gives a bad review. I'm still waiting for the airbnb to message me back.

Did this happen to you? 

[Karen114]

@Marie7196  Thank you Marie for the kind words 🙂

[Huma0]

@Marie7196 

The spitting is beyond disrespectful (never mind the poop - clearly mental health issues going on here). I would have asked her ONCE to stop and, if she didn't, she would have been told to leave.

Anyway, as others have said, it's a learning curve. Whilst we do our bests as hosts to be kind to our guests and tolerant of small transgressions, don't ever feel you must put up with guests disrespecting you in that way. As you are new to hosting, I know that one bad review can make a huge difference. Actually, even if you are not new, when you host long term stays, every review really counts. However, none of that is worth putting up with this type of behaviour.

I've only once asked a guest to leave and Airbnb totally had my back on that one. However, the really important thing was that it was all documented in the Airbnb message thread with the guest, and that is why they backed me up. There was no 'he said, she said' situation. It was all there clear as day.

So, although I hope you never again have a situation like this, if you do find you are having real issues with a guest, make sure to message them about it via the Airbnb system. Even if you end up discussing something with them in person or over the phone, follow it up with a message summarising, e.g.

"Hello X, as per our earlier discussion, I would really appreciate it if you would stop spitting on my floor as I find this really disrespectful." The guest probably wouldn't respond but at least you have documented it. Some guests are stupid enough though to challenge you in the message thread, or even threaten you with a bad review if you don't give them this or that (e.g. a refund), and then you really have ammunition if you need Airbnb's help.

[Marie7196]

This is helpful, thank you!

[Marie7196]

@Huma0 

Thank you for your advise. Very much appreciated.

I will communicate via Airbnb message app from now on for paper trail.

Based on my past experience (3 bookings) 2 doesn't like chatting on the app, they prefer text. But I prefer talking to them personally.  But it's necessary to communicate via app from this day forward.

Btw, you have a beautiful Victorian house. 

[Huma0]

@Marie7196 

Thank you!

I also communicate with guests face-to-face about a lot of stuff and sometimes via text or WhatsApp. It really depends what it's about.

However, if it's something important, especially anything that could blow up into an issue or become contentious, I think it is much better to have it on the Airbnb system. It also demonstrates that you have been a good host and tried your best to resolve the problem. Otherwise, it's your word against the guest's.

When I called CS to ask tell them I wanted that guest out, the first thing they did was read the message thread. The reason I gave them was actually not the whole story, but the final straw that made me decide I needed this person out of my house. When CS read the correspondence, they could see that this guest was problematic in more ways than just that, but also that I had been very polite and reasonable whereas she had been quite the opposite. It made their decision really easy.