Airbnb failed me

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

We recently had a bad guest experience that ended up being way more complicated than necessary.  Ultimately, the guest was allowed to leave a review - feel free to go take a look at his review of us and our review of him for more details.  He lied in his review that we have no air vents in the guest room and that the temps were over 90 when he was here.  I was able to show to Airbnb that both of these things were lies.  We DO have air conditioning vents and the temps were in the 80s.  We asked for the review and lowered star ratings to be removed (in particular Accuracy which he marked us down because we don't have A/C!)  Nope, somehow this doesn't violate the Content policy which clearly states there is a violation when: 

• Reviews that do not represent the author’s personal experience 

So, it would seem if you just believe hard enough that things do not exist, this is somehow your personal experience.  I really feel let down by Airbnb. 

On top of that, his response to our less-than-positive review (we actually gave him a 1-star for communication and we've never had to be that harsh with ANYONE!), indicates that he had some sort of conversation with me the night he arrived back which is completely UNTRUE as I retired to my bedroom for a shower and early night in bed around 8pm.  I never even saw him again after I gave him the tour of our home until the morning when he announced he was checking out.  He put all the conversations he had with my husband on me somehow. 

Luckily there's that 3-star rule (whether it's a combined 3-star score or a simple 3-star score on any category) where someone who sucks enough to get a 3-star can never book again because unless they're a pyschopath why would they?  

Clearly I need a break from the madness.  Too bad we're booked for the next 8 weeks.  I think I can block off a few days to try and give myself a rest from the testing demands of guests and Airbnb. 

[Maggie-and-Norm0]

I had the same problem with Air when a guest brought a children to my suite, against house rules and over the limit of 2 people in unit. They just let her trash me(( and bring down my rating.

[Carolyn122]

I am sorry this happend to you. I feel like I got super lucky with my last terrible guest. I think they had written a review, we got the notification to write ours and we believe in that short amount of time she went it to edit whenours went live. We were left with a single letter review and a slew of 2 stars. I do not believe the single letter was on purpose as the rest of the private feedback was better written and horrid. 
We are now 4 reiviews past that nightmare and doing ok again. We did close down for 4 days to get in a batter mind set to give our future guests the good service we have always tried to give.  I hope your future guests are wonderful. Ours thankfully have been. 

[Mariann4]

The reviews are published simultaniously @Carolyn122. Once you finish it and make it public you cannot edit it. So your guest can't edit her review after seing what you have written. This is to avoid reviews from being adjusted.

Mariann 🙂

[David126]

@Alice-and-Jeff0

I like you response to his review, short and to the point and anyway now covered by good ones.

Then you can go to town on his side, where it is unlikely any prospective guest of yours would go.

I have a lot of volume, lots of short stays, and my solution is slightly different. To keep my sanity I do not usually look at reviews and never comment on them. Any weird ones are likely to be buried quickly anyway.

[Farah1]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 sorry to hear about this, I know it can be frustrating. Do you know why airbnb alter the reservation instead of canceling it? Is it the "solution" so you can keep the payout? Today is my day off from the airbnb biz, nobody is checking out that means I do not need to prepare any room/unit and I can relax and focus on my own company. A rest and day off are sometimes needed.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Farah1 - it's speculation on my part because their excuse for paying us in full was for the "miscommunication and confusion".  I think he got someone on the phone in the AM and did not tell them that he had already contacted them the night before and immediately asked for a supervisor who didn't do due diligence to look up the open case.  When I got on the phone with a rep after I got a notice that the reservation had been altered, she said she was trying to understand it because 2 cases were open and got on the phone with the rep who did the alteration. The phone rep said she'd follow up with an email once she had it sorted and hours later we received an email from the supervisor not the rep.  It would seem to me, if they wanted to refund him, it would have been easier to cancel his reservation and we would only be entitled to the cancellation policy payment, which is what we expected, and would have been way less than what they paid us - and provide him with a full refund. His reservation was for 6 nights so we would have only been entitled to 50%.  I'm also going to guess, based on his attitude, that he probably wasn't very nice about talking to them either because he says in his response to our review that they refunded him 100% which seems a little ridiculous for being hot. 

[Ken28]

@Alice-and-Jeff0

That's disappointing, *yet unsurprising*, that Airbnb didn't honor the cancellation policy that you have in place. It's not the first time I've seen that happen - where a guest cancels via use of an 'alteration' done by Airbnb.

Sucks for two reasons:

1. They get refunded for all unused nights, regardless of the cancellation policy.

2. They still get to leave a review, and they're VERY likely to leave a bad one.

I've had no luck yet fighting vindictive reviews but if you ever feel you were shorted any money, I urge you to look at Arbitration as an option. Have prepared some valid reason, though, for why you are owed the money. Let me know if you have questions regarding any of that.

[Mariann4]

I'm so sorry @Alice-and-Jeff0!

Not cool 😞 You are the hosts that keep Airbnb straight. And then they don't help you... Ridiculous!

Mariann 😞

[Cormac0]

@Alice & Jeff Super hosts

I don't believe him! Carlyle is obviously a sweater, pun intended. Any posts of yours I've read has always put the Guests requirement at the apex of your arguement.

It would be my contention that anybody reading your reviews would realise that Carlyle’s review of you is an oasis of angst, and would quickly disregard it.

Regards

Cormac

The Explorer's Club Krakow III

[Delphine-And-Michael0]

We had a guest that left us a horrible review that was very bad it took several calls eventually it was removed.  My argument was that they broke my house rules and therefore should not be allowed to leave a review (in my case they booked 5 guests and ended up being a total of 8).  

The fact that they lied in their review should be reason enough for it to be removed end of story.  

[Todd-and-Reese0]

I read somewhere that once you open a dispute, especially that ends up in cancellation, neither party can leave feedback, but now I've seen several folks saying they still can. I thought AirBnB wa trying to keep the dirty laundry hidden, but I guess not!

[Helga0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0, sorry for you, but the review is not entirely bad and you took care of the lies very well in your answer.

your review was very long and stood out at his page, as the others are all short and much better. I'd guess that if he reaches an airbnb representative first, who looks at his page first, his claim was believeable. 

What's strange is, that you both could mention the resilt of the airbnb intervention in your mutual favour. That's usually a reason to get that part censored. 

As a future guest, I wouls see a calm host with a technicality challenged guest. It's reassuring to know, that the host will stay calm in any circumstance. 

As a future host, the review and answer would give me pause: that's a guest, who may be nice based on the other reviews, but unable to communicate. He runs and complains to airbnb for a temperature difference? 

[Helga0]

... phone limits

My personal limit is: no, you can't open the window in winter to get the temperature under 16 C and I won't heat it over 25. I have had discussions on both and those extremes already have me sneezing, when they follow each other, as can happen. If every guest left for a temperature difference of a few degrees, we could not keep hosting. 

[Joanna85]

I don't have many bookings for August...probably due to the extreme heat we get here...and I am not doing a thing about it...since February when I started hosting we've been booked solid and summer has been rough for me with a stretch of goofy guests.  I"m looking forward to the break.  I think a break is needed for all hosts at times to be able to get yourself together again and regroup your 'hostess with the mostess' attitude.  

Bad reviews get buried with other bookings, so don't fixate too much anymore--even though it is hard not to.  I try to not really even care anymore- I, like David, don't always read the reviews right away.  I just clean the space and move forward and try to shake off the last guest! Airbnb is not super helpful when it comes to helping deal with tough guests so I just take it all with a grain of salt and do the best I can.