A guest apparently was able to see my review before writing his.

[Maria2661]

I very rarely right a not so flattering review as I have been luck to have had the majority of my guest being very good to great ones. However, I had an unfortunate experience with a guest who arrived on Thanksgiving day and almost ruined it for us.  But, what I really wanted to share was the fact that about 5 minutes after I posted my review, he contact me through the Airbnb text thread and told me in short that if I did not withdrew my review he would write a really bad one. He used the same tactic as sending a barrage of texts which I did not respond. Instead, I immediately contacted AirBnB and told them that the guest was able to see my review and that he was demanding that I changed mine. The first thing that AirBnB said that it was impossible for the guest to have seen my review without posting one. They said that the guest was possibly guessing that my review was not going to be a good one. I then told them that the guest was being very specific and only about what I had said. At that point they transfer my online chat to an expert on the subject. Eventually, that person told me that because the guest was committing extortion, once he posted a negative review of me I should send AirBnB a screen shot of the review and they would delete it.

I took a screen shot of the guest's harassing  texts and uploaded it to AirBnB.One good thing is that the guest did this through AirBnB and everything is there!

[Annette215]

Sorry this happened and I’m glad all the exchanges were on Airbnb! Are you sure he was able to read the review? Typically a guest will receive a message letting them k ow that you left them a review and that they should do the same. Perhaps he knew your review would be a bad one through his previous interactions with you and didn’t want you to leave one at all?

[Maria2661]

Hello Annette, I really did believe that reviews were seen when mutual reviews were submitted, but the first thing he said was,"you didn't need to do that" and went on talking about things that only someone who read my review would have known.

I don't know if he tried to leave a review on me or if Airbnb removed or contacted him before he made any attempt.

I was really concerned and did not want other hostesses/hosts to go through the same experience.

[Cor3]

Hi @Maria2661 ,

I’m sorry this happened to you.

But I’m with @Annette215 here. As you wrote: The previous guest demanded you to withdraw your review, rather than changing it.

Indeed, when the ‘first’ review is posted, the person on the 'other side' is immediately informed about this event (by mail).

And the person is encouraged to write their review (in order to be able to see, what the other person wrote).

I must admit: There may be a glitch, so once and a while, on the Airbnb platform.

But in theory it is not possible, to see the actual review of the other party. While you haven’t posted your review yet (and still with the ability to post a review).

And yes, this is extortion, by your previous guest!

It’s good you reported it in already (including evidence). So, you should be able to get a possible revenge review to be taken down again, when it is posted.

[Maria2661]

Hello @Cor3 . Sincerely, it was scary and I am not easily scared. I have wonderful guests and I feel I have a duty to the community to call out what I think and know is not right. I am a lawyer and the red flags sparked bc of my trade.

I did a research and it seems that there is a glitch  going back to 2017 (as far as I had time to look). I sent screen shots of the texts he sent me and apparently (bc Airbnb has not contacted me about it) , he either did not post a review or it was taken out. Thank you for your post!

[Cor3]

Hi @Maria2661,

So, it seems to have been a glitch.

And I can imagine, this must have been scary!

Fortunately, Airbnb just recently issued a new review-policy. Which covers these type of issues.

[Maria2661]

Hello everybody, the guest that I mentioned above, did leave a poor review as he threatened to do so. I saw it yesterday and got in touch with AirBnB support. I was contacted this morning. I'll keep you guys posted when I get contacted again. AirBnB support is investigating this matter.