1-Star Review by the Competitor renting out in the same city

[Gayane2]

Recently I had a case when a lady who later turned out to be a host in the same city as me for the same category accommodation (4-6 people) stayed at my place and left a 1-Star review at the end for NOTHING!!!! Mentioning that she heard cars passing by in the street. I contacted Airbnb Content Center and they still consider this review unbiased, relevant to her experience about my apartment and they didn't see any conflict of interest to remove it.

I'm trying to raise the issue whether the competitors (those who host in the same city) can rent others' apartments in the same city (say for a day or 2), and leave 1-star reviews for nothing just to harm their reputation!!!! 

And how is Airbnb going to deal with this situation? 
Thanks for making AirBnb platform a better place free of abuse of people with unfair intentions!

[Helen3]

When this person booked did it not show up on their profile that they were a host in your area @Gayane2 ?

Do you ask guests about the purpose of their stay and why they chose your place?

This sort of vetting will help ensure guests are a good fit and minimise the risk of competitors using your place in this way.

[Gayane2]

The person who booked was from Paris and to my understanding she still lives in Paris, but has a place for hosting in my city, Yerevan. (btw, she added it right after her stay, so I couldn't even see it at the time of booking)

I have Instant booking on and according to Airbnb verification anybody can book my place. 

We can never judge a person or even suspect before finding out anything wrong about their behavior, right?

Do you advise me asking detailed questions to guests about their intentions and purpose of travel before confirming booking? 

I guess there should be other elaborated tactic for such kind of reviews, as not all the guests have bad and unfair intentions, and we shouldn't bother all the other guests with such questions, because 1 or 2 guests in a while.

[Helen3]

I use IB and as part of my IB process I ask guests:-

1. Who is accompanying them

2. Why they chose my place

3. Purpose of their stay

I also only accept guests with clear photos of themselves on their profile.

This means if guests don't answer these questions I can ask Airbnb to cancel (I do have to chase sometimes for a response).

It is up to you whether you include vetting questions or not. I find it helpful in weeding out those trying to make third party bookings, or guests who haven't read the description of my area.

[Gayane2]

Well Helen,

Before booking I really got sufficient answers to your questions.

1. Husband, kid, and sometimes mother could stay with them
2. Coz it was a good option for 4 persons (2-bedroom, rare find)
3. Tourism, travel, as they were traveling from France

And clear photo was in place, too. Booking was done on their own behalf and my title states that the apartment is on the 2nd floor right in the center, photos show downtown area, street view with cars, so it's clear that cars can pass by in the street.

My issue is what to do later when the Competitor leaves 1-star review just to harm your reputation?
If it didn't yet happen to you (well, it also hadn't happened to me before that case), you can't exclude that even with all your 3 vetting questions in place it can't happen.

So how to deal with it afterwards?

[Alexandra316]

@Gayane2I don't really know what else you can do in this situation, apart from what you've already done by responding to her negative review. It's very difficult to get a review removed by Airbnb unless it's abusive or mentions an Airbnb claim. You could try contacting them on social media, if you haven't already: I like Twitter @airbnbhelp. Maybe worth a try at least.

Also, I personally don't like hosting other hosts. Whether they're actively out to get you or not, I've found that on average they're more critical and less forgiving than other guests. It looks like you didn't realize they were hosts when they booked, but maybe something to watch out for in future. 

[Gayane2]

Thank you so much Alexandra316 for your response.

Yes, you gave me a good hint of contacting them on Social Media, maybe it could be a bit helpful to be draw their attention that it was apparently biased review and simply for harming competitors.

Sure, I also noticed that sometimes hosts (who have listings elsewhere) are a bit more critical, e.g. they can write cleaning service was not provided during our stay (while they rent the whole apartment and own the key for themselves), or one wardrobe was not enough for us. But that's Ok for me, I can take it easily, as it still seems they share their experience.

Cheers!

[Susan17]

@Gayane2 

[Gayane2]

Thank you so much, Susan!!!  
I got familiar with it too before Contacting Airbnb Content Team, and Airbnb Support Team wrote me the following without removing the review!!!!

[Rowena29]

Hi @Gayane2 

I was about to post the same info about competitor reviews but I see @Susan17  was already all over it and that you were already aware.   It seems from what you've posted that you contact airbnb CS through email. I would be inclined to let them close this case and try again, with a different CS rep and this time I would phone.  People have reported that they achieve different outcomes with different reps. Some people ring 2, 3, 4 times.  It may even be useful to post something on Twitter like "airbnb is ALREADY violating it's new rules"  something along t.hose lines?  Something that gets attention without making you sound hysterical   Airbnb has only VERY  recently made these statements about rivals so quite possibly you got a inexperienced CS rep.   I would quote the relevant sections to the CS rep you were talking to adn ask them to explain. or ask for you query to be escalated. or all of the above.   

Good luck with this. It would be very distressing and it's obvious you are a host who takes the time to keep informed. This is not your fault.  

Regards

[Susan17]

You're welcome, @Gayane2 

The new review and content policies were only introduced last week, effective from December 11. Unfortunately, it appears that Airbnb neglected to inform or educate their CX staff about the changes, so you'll need to respond to Mark's email (if the ticket hasn't already been closed), and include the clauses that I highlighted above to support your case for the immediate removal of the offending review. You can also find them in the links below. If the previous ticket has been closed, just call Airbnb and ask your CX to email you, so you can respond to that. Best of luck!

Airbnb's udpated Review Policy

Airbnb's Content Policy 

How Airbnb moderates disputes of our Review Policy 

Also, here's the thread that discusses this introduction of the new policies...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Making-reviews-more-relevant-and-useful-for-our-c...

And the Q&A Video with Laura Chambers, GM of Core Hosts and Community, with further discussion on the issue

https://youtu.be/U0wrRaY0qw0

And finally, it's also worth having a quick look at the Guest Standards Policy 

[Gayane2]

Thanks Susan and Rowena for all the helpful hints.

Yes, I accept I need to be more consistent and persistent and contact other agents.

The case is not closed yet, but I'm still busy convincing Mark that if a person hosts in the same city, in the same category is a competitor. He didn't even bother to check that she's a host!!!!

So, looks like we all are busy doing the job here and Mark just gets paid for copy/paste messages 🙂

You're just Great and soooo helpful!
Cheers!!!
Will keep you updated.