Scammed

[Dana1784]

I had a guest named ** who scammed me and left me a 1 star review! She claimed there was no water and I sent a tech, she refused to let them in, and then later claimed no hot water… and then left me a 1 star complaining it was a dirty airbnb all trying to get a refund! What do I do?

**[Name hidden due to privacy concerns - Community Center Guidelines]

[Elisa]

Hi @Dana1784  😊, 

Welcome to the Community Center!

I'm sorry this happened to you.

I’m tagging a few hosts to see what advice they can share with you: @Helen3, @Bettye6, @Laurelle3, @Mike-And-Jane0, @Patricia2526 and @Karen4131.

Thank you in advance, everyone!

[Helen3]

I'm so sorry this happened but a couple of things to mention. @Dana1784 

1. if a guest told me there was no water and she wouldn't let the engineer in, I would have told Airbnb and the guest I'd need to cancel the booking immediately as there was no water and they wouldn't let the maintenance person in .

2 it would have been so helpful for your fellow hosts if you'd left an honest review to help warn us about this guests behaviour 

3. Appreciate you were upset but your response to the guests review was not helpful . It would have better to factually point out what happened to help put your case across 

[Mary1523]

Hi there - not a nice situation but just need to check as you didn't post much detail.

How do you know the guest is lying? Maybe there is an issue with the water. Stranger things have happened at my place. Do you clean yourself? Do you know water was running and it was clean? Some guests do not like strangers coming in, especially if it's not agreed up front. It could be legitimate. Have you been in since they checked out and the water is fine?

The answers to the above determine your next steps. Assuming there is no proof of lack of water and you know it was clean.

Not sure what your communications within the airbnb platform were with the guest re no water, but the more you have, the more you can try and get support from airbnb re the review. As a superhost, you can call and speak to someone.

Depending upon what airbnb say and if they will remove review, then problem goes away. Don't refund. Rate the guest down.

But if the review stays, you can reply factually publicly to the review in a professional tone to the facts. I see that you are a superhost, so your rating will be impacted probably. And all that comes with that unfortunately. But it's not the end of the world. You will still get bookings albeit might be slower in my experience depending upon how much you turnover nights.

Alternatively, if you have discovered that there  were water/issues, you could ask for the review to be removed on the basis IT WAS TRUE ie there was no hot water so it classifies as a significant issue that made the place uninhaibtable and they have to remove the review then according to their policies. That means a refund is the right thing to do in this situation.

What can you learn is the bigger question?

What type of rating did this guest have? Where they good or a new unknown? If the latter, did anyone else join the group booking, because if no one did, then thats a flag for me. Was it last minute? Any of these shout warning signs for next time...

Not sure of the sequence of events and what timeline you are on post guest exit, but providing a refund won't change the review as they are locked after 14 days. The guest would have to request airbnb to change it saying they lied, airbnb won't remove it anyways because if you refund, they will see that and wonder why the guest is changing their mind.

Good luck, regs MK