Help Recovering from Bad Review

[Brandie20]

Hello Community!  

I recently had a situation with a guest--my first bad experience--at a time when we count on hosting for our livelihood.   I feel sick over this, as I always do whatever I can to go above and beyond for my guests; I even buy little gifts for kids when they stay.  Or if someone's flight is changed, I'll adjust the stay, so they don't pay for the first night.  Anything I can do, I will do.  Excellent customer service is my jam.  BUT, I have a disgruntled guest who didn't get what she wanted (to make my place her forever-home) and retaliated with false claims, bringing my score down from 4.8 to 4.17.  

I am seriously striving for SuperHost; I recently bought all new bedding and pillows etc., investing over a grand in improvements before this guest checked in, which is an extra kick in the gut.  

SO, my question now is, how on earth can I repair the damage and make this listing more attractive after this negative review? 

I would greatly appreciate your feedback!

Here is my listing:

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/11657871?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=edb93905-dead-4f3e-a842-...

Thank you in advance!

With gratitude,

Brandie 

[Sarah977]

@Brandie20  It's a drag that he tanked your rating, but the written review isn't damaging, as he admitted it was his fault for not reading the description thoroughly.

But honestly, your place is misleadingly advertised and this will happen again. 

It isn't an "entire residential home" if someone else lives upstairs. It should be advertised as an entire guest suite.

So I suggest you change that and consider it a learning experience. And your hosting life will be a lot less stressful if you don't get wrapped up in agonizing over ratings and reviews and Superhost. 

Successful hosting means getting bookings and nice, hassle-free guests. As long as that is happening, there is nothing to be concerned about.

[Brandie20]

Hi Sarah,

The top review is not the bad one… scroll down and you’ll know it when you see it 😉

But regarding your feedback on the accuracy of my listing, I attached my options.  “Entire place” is the best fit from the options I see.  I’m not seeing the option you suggest.  Let me know if I should be looking somewhere else.  

Thank you!

Brandie 

[Sarah977]

@Brandie20  Yes, entire home is the main category, as it is self-contained and private with it's own entrance. But you should work "Guest suite" into your title to make it clearer to guests. And I would put wording making the living situation clear in the very first part of your description, rather than where you currently have it, much further down.

[Brandie20]

[Mark116]

@Brandie20  You can try to get airbnb to remove it on the grounds of irrelevancy, the guest's beef with a repair person is not relevant to anyone else's stay.  You will probably not succeed, but you can try, if you try this make sure to read and have handy Airbnb's rules on removing reviews so you can point to the language that applies.

The guest's review was a super long rant, which few people are going to care about or probably even read.  She doesn't actually have any complaints about the space itself, so I wouldn't worry too much in the long term.

In the short term you could run a custom promotion to raise your listing in the ranking and get some other reviews to drop this one lower down.

[Brandie20]

Super helpful suggestions Mark, thank you! 

[Erin6028]

This is really helpful. I will side and say AirBnB will do nothing to delete the review. They are polite on the phone and text when you submit your request, but will do nothing in regard to the review being untrue. I am facing this dilemma and an expensive lesson as I have invested tens of thousands of dollars into our property and our rating was tanked due to a disgruntled guest that trashed our place. Any further suggestions on how to recover?

This is also our livelihood and I have wanted to provide a homey space for a large party and a positive experience as we have had as travelers for years.

One further question, how do we do a custom promotion?

[Sudsrung0]

One way to do it, is go to your calendar and adjust some weekend rates which ever suits you best in your area.

Or after a holiday do a special rate, always after a holiday it can go quiet,

[Emiel1]

@Erin6028 

You already commented on the review, so there is not much more to do regarding "damage control"

Promotions can be made in section "promotions" on the listing calender.

[Sudsrung0]

@Brandie20 

Dont worry to much we all get them, 

Airbnb are not that stupid if you notice the bad reviews end up at the bottom of the list.

I had one a couple of months ago it's almost disappeared,

I also think it's about how you reply to that review I have had a couple of guest comment about that bad review, "What was up with that crazy woman? 

As suggested make some adjustment to your listing details, it might help