A false vindictive review because of homophobia

[Fabien150]

I am after some advice please since this is the first time we've had a negative experience with a guest. Our listing has consistently received 5 Star reviews since we started letting out our spare suite. Air BnB upgraded us to Plus status and I've been making sure that our guests are happy and that we can get Super Host Status in a week's time.

Sadly, we recently had a negative experience when a guest misled us and had a film crew of 6 people arrive after he checked in. He had told us it would be just him and a friend staying when he booked, but instead he used our home as a set for his music video without checking if this would be OK. Additionally, he broke the "No Visitors" rule when he had a night "booty call" that came and left without introduction after an hour in his bedroom. He also violated our privacy by going into our private bedroom and filmed adult-oriented scenes in our personal space, as well as on our private roof terrace and garden so neighbours could see what they were doing. My neighbour has since complained and I told her it would not happen again.

I reported this to Air BnB and they agreed he broke all the terms of booking. They said I could seek compensation but I chose not to bother with it since this guy is actually local so I don't want any trouble. I've since received a vindictive 1 Star review from this guest. His review is completely fabricated on claims we had rotting food, smells, dirty etc. We think this may be related to homophobia as when my husband came home late that night and he realised we were a gay couple, he packed his stuff, slammed the door and left abruptly without giving us the keys. As a result of this unfair 1 Star rating, it means we will not get our Super Host status which I've worked hard the past 6 months to achieve.

I've explained all this to Air BnB but they say they won't take down his false review. Which means my rating has gone from 5* to 4.6, dipping just below the Super Host 4.7* requirements.

My question is has anyone else experienced know what to do when dealing with a homophobic guest, how would you have handled it and I'd like to know also how to prevent it happening again. Thank you if you have any words of advice.

[Alon1]

@Fabien150 

I'm sorry for your experience.

The most disconcerting aspect is that 'he left abruptly without giving us the keys'.

If you have still not received the keys you should report it immediately to the police, because it is a criminal offence. 

(It happened to me once with a Londoner, and the police contacted the person and obliged them to return keys to police station, and sign a statement that the keys had not been copied.)

Still, you may wish to consider changing the lock and attempt to get Airbnb to pay for it. A police report will make the difference. 

A police report may also sway Airbnb to reconsider their decision not to delete the Review.

In any case, you should consider to write a Response to the Review which you can still do for 30 days following the upload of the Review. 

Unfortunately, you did not Review the guest himself to warn other Hosts.

Lastly, please note Super Host requirement is actually 4.8

[Gordon0]

Sorry to read this, @Fabien150. A pretty crappy experience all round. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but your first line of defence should always be how you vet would-be guests, this includes being very wary of locals.

Moving forward, I think you'll struggle to do anything about the review sat on your listing. Worse is that you didn't review him,  although you allude to why. Whether he was homophobic or not, he hasn't mentioned this in the review, so he's safe. And I'd be surprised if he saw your listing and didn't realise you're a gay couple as you've made it obvious. We haven't had any problems with this in 250+ bookings, so hopefully you won't see it again.

Pick yourself up, brush yourself down, and move on.

You've got a cracking listing.   

[Denis-Mark0]

@Fabien150Why didn't he realize you were gay until he happened to meet your partner? You communicate clearly in your profile description that you are gay.

Well, me and my husband are together now since 17 years and fortunately I can tell that homophobia against us was never a problem. (Although you never know what people whisper about you behind closed doors.)

I keep my private life out of my AirBnb-business. Guests don't get a lot of private information from me, and even if they want to know e.g. if I'm married they get unsuspicious answers. Someone could say I'm denying myself because I'm not open about my sexuality, but there are so many places and opportunities where I can be myself that I don't have to take every chance.

But in your case, it would not be an option to do so, because you are charing you home!

Is there anything else you could do? Because you can't be even clearer about where people are going to live.

Maybe you can make your welcome message absolutely precise by pointing out again that a gay couple will be the hosts.

[Yadira22]

Hi @Fabien150 

i am so sorry- I promise from my experience 99% of all guests we’ve had have been lovely! This person sounds like the other 1% and I think this is consistent with what a lot of hosts have experienced. 

Please do as @Alon1  suggests and also send Airbnb an email about the keys. Put extra pressure on them as to get in touch with the guest and perhaps with the police report and Original receipts for the door lock you can send in a successful request for Airbnb to cover the lock changes. 

Airbnb has a no tolerance approach to any type of discrimination and I would suggest you report this guest’s profile for this- at least as a minimum point of action and block them which is possible to do on the desktop site. 

Before blocking please respond to their review and say in a very concise and professional manner that the house was presented in a very clean standard and no complaint otherwise was ever reported during said stay and if it where you have investigated and remideed ASAP. As to avoid any further situations you suggest that any concern be reported to the host during the stay as to allow for a better overall experience. You wish them luck and that’s all!  Please do not reply to any negative comments made privately. 

To maybe put off people who are homophobic I would suggest you update your photo to include your partner- this is what I have mainly seen on Airbnb! In this day and age I am so sorry that this still exists and frankly it’s no ones business but some people will always need to have an opinion on how others « should live their lives » *SMH*

i wish you luck and keep on going- you’ll find your way of dealing with those 1%. 🙂

[Denis-Mark0]

Excellent idea, @Yadira22, to update the photo including the partner.

I had guests doing so, and I was totally familiar with them at first sight, figuring out that we frequent same party locations! 🙂

[Fabien150]

Thank you all for responding.

I should have pointed out the lock was changed the next morning as our neighbour is a locksmith and he did this free of charge for us. Hence I don't feel the need to claim this cost from Air BnB nor the guest.

Yes that's correct, I am reluctant to leave a response to his false review because he doesn't live that far away. Given his group had turned aggressive when I asked them to leave my private bedroom and roof terrace, my husband and I decided against leaving a negative review for fear of repercussions. I think this is something Air BnB don't seem to appreciate when I say we don't feel safe doing that.

Incidentally, I was under the impression I cannot "vet" or cancel any bookings without a valid reason when you have a Plus listing. I know I am allowed one cancellation per year, but I am unsure if a "gut instinct" about someone being local would be a valid reason.

[Alon1]

@Fabien150 

Thanks for clarifying change of lock.& key.

I would still advise you write a Response to Review, because your principal audience for Reviews are prospective guests. You can write it in a way that conveys the Review is misleading when compared to your other Reviews....

   Other contributors to this thread may help you with more specific wording with emphasis on professionalism and diplomacy. 

[Gordon0]

All things said, @Fabien150, I think you've made the right decisions. Now it's about making sure there's the right level of probing communications in the future so you don't experience the same. You absolutely can turn down bookings if you find they're not going to fit. For instance, find a friendly way of confirming what's what when a booking comes in, especially if you smell a rat.

For instance, I go back to all bookings with something along the lines of;

'Thanks very much for your booking. We appreciate we're one of thousands of listings in London, so we're grateful you chose us. To make sure you know what to expect, here's a summary: one guest for two nights in our non-smoking double deluxe (no smoking in/around property). As you'll have seen from the listing, this is our house, so no visitors, please.' 

If we get any flak (I've had the odd "what, it isn't the whole house?"), we deal with it immediately and crisis gone. 

Hope this helps.

[Kelly149]

@Fabien150 you can't cancel, but you also don't have to let people run all over you.

-lock the rooms guests shouldn't be in

-6 people (and a camera) arrive for a 1 or 2 person reservation, you stand at the front door bidding them all goodbye while they leave, immediately

stand up for yourself (ABB won't) immediately after booking (@gordon's message is a great one), at arrival, during the booking and during the review process.

Stand in front of a mirror until you get comfortable hearing yourself say "I'm sorry, that won't be possible."

[Josee6]

I would try again with Airbnb. I had a guest who booked for 8 (8 is my max), and 15 showed up but not the one who booked. They had a big party in my condo, left food on everything, stained all my towels. After they left, I let him know that there were too many people, even by fire code, and that if the towels would not clean up, he would have to pay for new ones from the damage deposit. He answered me back with all kinds of insults and left me a 1* review based on fabricated facts. I am also a Superhost with a 4.9 rating across 4 properties. The Airbnb rep listened to me, took the time to read the thread and agreed to remove that review altogether, which I know is extremely rare. So please try again, you may get lucky with a different rep.

[Fabien150]

Thank you for advising to try again. I’m going to email to escalate as an official complaint and see if I can speak to someone else.

[Lisa723]

@Fabien150 I agree with @Josee6 ... retaliatory reviews are against Airbnb's terms of service and you have a strong argument that that's what this is. I don't think you have a persuasive argument that the review is due to homophobia (even if it is) so I would not pursue that. Also, the guest won't get any notice if you respond to the review and will likely never see it your response, but future prospective guests will. If you can't get it removed, I would respond with something along the lines of "This review is retaliation for my attempt to put a stop to inappropriate behavior that disturbed our neighbors and unauthorized commercial use of private areas of our home."

[Fabien150]

Thank you for this suggestion Lisa, that’s a perfect response to his review. I think I shall do this once I speak with my partner. Appreciate the input

[Sarah977]

@Fabien150  As to losing your Superhost status, if the reservation took place on Oct.1 or after, that rating that pulled your stats down won't be counted towards the assessment period that just ended on Oct.1.  It will be on the next period ending Dec. 31. So you have until then to hopefully pull the rating back up to 4.8 if you can't get Airbnb to pull the ratings and review.