Experience/Advice with Retaliatory/Dishonest review

[Marija407]

Hi SuperHost Family,

I need your advice regarding a retaliatory negative review and associated ratings. I look forward to hearing about your experiences and advice.

This review is my first-ever review with a rating below 5 stars. I put everything into creating a five-star Airbnb experience which over the last 10 years was was appreciated by 193 Airbnb guests (early check-ins, late check-outs, welcome gifts, proactive communication, house manuals with neighbourhood recommendations, detailed instructions, quick and helpful communication), and amenities (fully-equipped kitchens, well-maintained and immaculately clean units, comfortable beds, gym access).
In 2015, I earned a reputation as a SuperHost – the top 10% of all Airbnb hosts. I’ve been proudly maintaining that achievement for 10 years.

On March 8, 2025, I made a mistake. I accepted a booking from an inexperienced Guest with only two reviews in eight years – one review was negative, where the previous Host reported additional cleaning and damage charges. During the booking process, the Guest asked for additional discounts several times, which I firmly declined! The Guest initially booked for one person but informed me that they were coming with their family (a pregnant wife and a 2-year-old), so I asked them to correct the booking. Unfortunately, I accepted the booking despite the red flags! The booking was made from March 10th to April 9th.

The Guest requested an early check-in, and, in my true SuperHost fashion, considering the needs of a pregnant wife and a 2-year-old, I allowed the guest to check in at 5:30 pm on March 9th, despite the scheduled check-in date of March 10th.
On March 11th at 5:30 pm (48 hours after check-in), I received a call from Airbnb. The Airbnb Support Rep told me that the Guest reported several issues: no heat, no hot water, dust, and a broken lock (all false). The Guest communicated with Airbnb before communicating with me. The Airbnb representative advised me that the Guest requested a booking cancellation and a full refund. At that point, considering all the red flags during the booking process, the lack of communication, and the dishonesty from the Guest, I concluded that it would be best to accept the cancellation and informed Airbnb of the same.

The Guest requested to stay additional nights, and at that point, I advised that I still accept an early cancellation, but as per Airbnb policy, the payment for nights stayed will be processed.

The Guest checked out on March 13th at 9:30 pm, and AirBnB charged them for 3 nights stayed.

On March 19, the Guest contacted me and demanded a full refund, to which I responded that we need to align with Airbnb policy, as Airbnb handles all payments and refunds. The Guest responded by threating legal action.

On March 28, I received a negative review with 1-star ratings:
- for check-in (despite me allowing a check-in 22 hours before typical check-in time)
- cleanliness (despite that the unit was cleaned as per the same standard, which the previous Guests have highly complimented, especially since several guests were undergoing medical procedures while staying in the unit)
- accuracy - heat and water not functioning (all untrue as the unit is located in a well-maintained luxury condo building)
- communication (despite maintaining the same high standard of communication, which can be easily validated in the other 193 reviews (all are 5-star)
- location not private (despite having access to an entire suite in a highly secured condo building)

I requested a review removal from Airbnb, which was denied. The rationale provided: The review is in alignment with the Reviews Policy.
This review is retaliatory as I enforce the Airbnb rules and did not provide full refund and is full of irrelevant information and contradictions (insects in a cold environment?!, marijuana smell in a non-smoking unit?!, door lock in a highly secure building?!) and personal attracts (I was labeled 'greedy' and 'rude' because requests for additional discounts were not in alignment with the Airbnb policy).

As a result, one inexperienced, dishonest, unreasonable guest with a negative review ruined my 193-guest 5-star streak, and I lost my SuperHost status! 

The damage of this negative review is enormous – it has a severe impact on future bookings, earnings, and my reputation.

I reached out to the Airbnb SuperHost dedicated line but didn’t receive much help other than a few templated messages without clear responses to my questions.

I’m interested in hearing about your experiences with a similar situation. Do you have any advice for me?

Thank you,
M

[Joan2709]

@Marija407 

So sorry this happened...

Unfortunately, there is not much more you can do, except I would immediately post a public reply to this review so future guests understand what happened. Be short, factual and non-emotional. I'm curious why the guest asked to stay for additional nights if the listing was as terrible as he stated?  

Just curious, what review did you leave for the guest? Why do you think he would make up all those false problems with the unit?

You already know you should not have accepted the booking due to the red flags (requesting discounts, previous negative review), so lesson learned there. Better to have not accepted the booking and maintained your review ratings, but hindsight is always 20/20. Most Hosts have experienced what you have if they have been hosting long enough.

[Marija407]

Thank you, Joan. Appreciate your response. The guest found a cheaper unit and needed a reason to request a cancellation and a full refund, as I have a firm cancelation policy. Their booking was for 31 nights; they stayed for 4 nights (check-in on March 9 at 5:30 pm and check-out on March 13 at 9:30 pm). They made up false problems, and instead of communicating with me, they went directly to Airbnb, reported false issues, and asked for a cancelation approval and a full refund. They stayed at the unit for 4 days and left the unit as found. I gave them a good review.  The retaliatory review was left as they did not receive the full refund they expected after their checkout - they were charged for a 3-night stay. A painful lesson to learn - I put everything into creating a five-star Airbnb experience, which over the last 10 years was was appreciated by 193 Airbnb guests and by accepting this booking from a Guest with only two reviews in eight years – one review was negative, where the previous Host reported additional cleaning and damage charges, I will now lose my SuperHost status during the April 1st review cycle. 

[Joan2709]

@Marija407 

So sorry...I think I would still post a public reply to his 1-star review and frankly, I would ask Airbnb to remove your review of him if you gave him a good one. You are allowed to have your own review removed. I wouldn't give someone a 5-star review after everything he did and put you through no matter if the unit was left clean or not. 

Removing Your Own Review

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3582

"...If a review no longer reflects your experience as a guest or host, you can contact us to have it removed..."

Hard lesson for sure. I work with other hosts and have also learned the hard way that a request for a discount is the first red flag and should be an immediate decline. I can't remember any of those bookings that the Host accepted who asked for a discount working out well. You can always decline politely, but advise that perhaps another property that is within their budget would be a better fit.

[Trude0]

I’m sorry this happened. 

Unfortunately, it seems that Airbnb have recently chosen to make it very difficult to have retaliatory reviews removed. I can understand they wanted to make changes, as I know some guests were quite aggressively pushing to have even not-too-bad 4 star reviews removed. But based on posts here, it seems Airbnb have gone a bit too far…

I suggest you don’t waste more time trying to get the review removed. Yes, it made you lose Superhost status this time. But the status isn’t that important anymore.

And the guest went so overboard in his eagerness to write a damaging review, that no one will take him seriously - especially when you have so many great reviews. They will see the review for what it is. 

I agree with @Joan2709 : 

1) Urgently contact Airbnb and instruct them to remove your positive review of the guest. You can’t write a new one, but surely you don’t want him to keep your positive one? He probably doesn’t know you can do this. 😏

2) Comment to his review, a short, unemotional and to the point comment - and don’t mention anything that can enable him to have your comment removed: Maybe something like ”This is a retaliatory review. The guest was allowed to cancel a month long stay after check in, in spite of firm cancellation policy, and was refunded for all nights except the 4 nights that he and his family of 3 chose to stay. He was disappointed with this outcome.” 

When I receive a request to book, I check not only the reviews the guest has received, but also the ones that he/she has written, and any comments from previous hosts. With any luck, future hosts that he tries to book with, will see your comment to his review, and think twice…