AirBnB removes guest's negative review for stating the truth.

Russell49
Level 10
Katoomba, Australia

AirBnB removes guest's negative review for stating the truth.

So 14 months ago I had a 0-1 review guest who left a disgusting mess of "DNA" all over the expensive quilt covers and tried to hide it, left dirty dishes all over and didn't clean up after himself. 14 months later AFTER his stay, he complained to me that it wasn't fair that I left him a negative review. I wrote it tactfully and honestly.

 

I stated in the review that he was new to the platform and that he left a mess on the quilt covers that he tried to hide, dirty dishes everywhere,etc....

 

AirBnB decided to remove the review stating it was against their policy. WTF? If a host cannot honestly review a guest's stay, it will only be a problem for other hosts in the future.

 

I am now so annoyed at AirBnB that on principle I will not be taking bookings for a while. Ratings and reviews are the hosts only and final option of fairness to warn other hosts of misfit guests. When this is taken from us, it sets a bad precedent.Between this action and removing my superhost status over 0.1 %, I have pretty much had enough with this company. They need to learn WHO provides their product and service. I simply feel AirBnB's business model has gotten worst in the last few years.

61 Replies 61

@Russell49

next time, just try write: fact: 1,2,3,etc. and give no personal opinions. At the end, I will make sure add” I do not recommend him, but maybe he will be a perfect guest for other host. “ 

airbnb can not kick your review out from that. 

@Karla128I get what you are saying, but one has to ask how warped it is when "the meat of the matter" in a review is totally ignored and taken down just because of a narrow as hell ambiguous technicality that falls lightly in the realm of opinion.

 

The important info is disregarded and in favor of the most slight detail. It's BnB's way of saying "forget the host's issues with this guest and over-represent the smallest non-emphasized detail in the review to appease this useless guest". Doesn't it seem odd in the slightest?

 

Let's be honest. How can it be a strong judgement of character by saying "they tried to hide the mess they made" when in fact they made the mess in the first place???? It is not far fetched or an attack on someone's character to mention this.

 

I honestly feel that if Airbnb can remove this review 14 months after it was made, then I should be able to claim expenses from the guest 14 months later....in a fair system anyways.

Sorry about what happened to you. 
‘with 7 years experience, we have many good host canceled the “instant “ booking. You will be better off to have some emails back and forth to pick the good guest. Trust your gots , it always protect your home. 
‘when things happening. You’d better have a good solution to Handel it at once. 
‘it is your home!

Karla128
Level 6
Vallejo, CA

I had the issues to see guest with reviews and can not see their commons on host. And I had guest had few good reviews and behaved like new first time, don’t read house rules at all. 
‘they broke house rules and wonder why ? To those they think how their life style should be perfect. 
I see USA host has lots more problems from local guest. We have much more % bad guests last year,from hosting 7 years experiences. 
I realize years ago. Airbnb lost their principle years ago. When they grow so fast. And, yes, if Airbnb has only 2 stars reading themself. Not much hope to get 5 stars guests visiting your home. Those who still checking us, are mostly because our lower price and better offering in market. Risk is on host. Sadly. 
‘when it comes to cross country travelers, they only stay short days, unless they have to stay 2 or 3 weeks from Covid-19 requirements from each country. Then, who is protect host? if they caught virus on their flight? Risk is still on host. Is it worth it for host? Unless it is your 2ed home . 

@Karla128  When you look at a guest's reviews, just click on the host's profile photo on that review. That will take you to that host's profile page, then scroll down to look for a review from that guest. Some guests will show a history of finding some kind of fault with every place they stay.

 

Also, if the host gave the the guest one of those "Nice guests" uninformative reviews, you can then check to see how that host has reviewed his other guests. You often find the host leaves exactly the same "Nice guests" review for every single guest, in which case, you can't really trust that host's reviews at all.

 

There is also a Chrome extension, Air Review, you can download which shows you the guest's review, the host's review, and any responses that were left, all in the same place, so you don't have to keep toggling back and forth. 

 

Although my Air Review isn't working properly, and some other hosts said theirs wasn't either. It always says the host didn't leave a review, when in fact they did. Maybe I need to uninstall and reinstall it again.

Thanks for your tip, I will check into it. 
also, I have found some guest had 4 positive reviews, but could not find the guest left any reviews to host. To me, a red flag. It is not worth my effort to host stressful guest for any amount of money. 😞

I also had guest had 15 over great reviews and asking to reduce the rent. That is also a red flag to me. 🙂

Karla128
Level 6
Vallejo, CA

@Russell49 

I agree with you. 

If you try Twitter.  You may get better result from airbnb. 

Have you tried it yet?

 

I knew they must be removing negative reviews because I am finding it hard to believe that nothing negative, at all, has ever been written about any of our guests, and we've had a few really bad guests.

@Judy525 That doesn't mean negative reviews were removed- many hosts just don't leave honest reviews. And some hosts, as is evident by posts I've read on this forum, even if they have been hosting for awhile, are under the mistaken notion that if they don't leave any review, that the guest's review won't be published, or that the guest can see the host's review before posting theirs, so they are scared to post anything negative.

@Judy525  When you think of all the people in your life that you love and cherish the most, that really mean the world to you - I can guarantee that for each of them there's at least one person that thinks they're the scum of the earth. And vice versa. Everyone who you personally believe to be an unredeemable a*s*o*e has friends and relatives who genuinely love them and can't imagine why someone would feel otherwise. There's no doubt in my mind that even you yourself have some amount of both in your life - people who love you for all your awesome qualities, and people who think you're just the worst.


So wouldn't the same thing be true of guests? That some people leave an overall positive impression at one place but don't make such a good impression at another? It's not like anyone is genetically codified to be a "bad guest" - your worst experiences will probably happen with people who have been totally fine elsewhere.

 

It's totally normal that the really bad guests happen to be ones that others have rated as good guests. Sometimes the prior hosts were lying, but that's not always the case; we are all big and contain multitudes.

@Anonymous Well said. Also, some people bring out a side in someone else that others haven't experienced. We can have volatile love relationships where both parties seem to bring out the worst in each other and are always fighting. But each of those people can end up in new relationships that are respectful, happy and calm.

 

I had a good friend years ago who others found incredibly annoying. Another friend's teenagers even used to refer to her as Anne-oying. And I certainly understood why. She was whiney and a big complainer.

But when I went through a year of serious depression, she was the friend who helped me the most. Being caring towards someone who needed it, brought out the best in her. She understood, unlike the rest of my friends, that the way to help someone who is depressed isn't to try to cheer them up by inviting them to parties, or pointing out all the great things in their lives, but to just be there for them, in whatever way they needed. So she'd show up at my house, wash the pile of neglected dirty dishes and sweep my floor, then sit down next to me on the couch to watch a movie. It was the kind of companionship that helped so much more than the non-annoying friends' misguided attempts at making me feel better.

 

A guest I had, a young, charming, lively German gal told me about a bad review she got from a host who called her out for overuse of the kitchen, although the host offered full kitchen use in her listing.

 

This guest said "If I was disrupting the host's use of her own kitchen, why didn't she just tell me that at the time and let me know what hours of the day it would be okay for me to prepare my meals, which I would have totally complied with, instead of keeping silent and slamming me in the review?"

 

This guest did indeed cook a lot- elaborate meals with 20 ingredients twice a day. But she always cleaned up after herself and was a great guest who I enjoyed a lot. Nothing to complain about at all, as far as I was concerned.

Dee219
Level 2
Blackheath, Australia

Luckily I havent had to face a scenario like this but I did have a concern about the age of a guest (underage?) and behaviours that included some of the topics that must not be mentioned in reviews. I phoned airbnb and and outlined my concerns with the rep, who checked the guests age etc. In several years there have been a couple of guests who required some handyman maintenance and stringent cleaning after they left. In my opinion Russell's guest has been disrespectful to basic notions of cleanliness and hygiene.

@Anonymous 
 
I don't really see that being the case in my situation. If I leave a bad review, which has only been about 3 times in alittle over 1 1/2 year, it's because they really wrecked the house. And 2 of the 3 were first time Airbnb users. Your whole opening to your comment was really making the whole review thing alittle too personal with each guest. I'm not going to think about the guest's mom or sister and how much they must love this person, to determine what kind of review I write. Why would that matter to me? I am only seeing them as a stranger who rented the house and didn't show any respect as to the way they took care of it.
 
The way I see it, if I don't leave an honest review, then that would be my way of saying that I don't want to be mean and say anything bad about this guest....I'll just let the next host do it when they wreck their house. Or maybe even the host might worry about retaliation if they say anything negative. There's a very good reason for the review system and it's not there to hurt people. It's there to protect the hosts as well as the guests, so it's not doing anybody any good to sugar-coat a review.
 

 

 

@Judy525  Wow, I think you seriously misunderstood @Anonymous's response. 

 

He has always been a strong advocate of leaving honest reviews- he wasn't suggesting that you are forgiving in a review of what you experience to be a bad guest, he was pointing out why a host may see good reviews for a guest they experienced to be objectionable, or vice versa. 

 

It isn't necessarily that the past hosts left a dishonest review (which of course does happen), but that the guest behaved differently at that place, or the host has expectations of guests that may be different from yours.

 

There can be situations where the host and guest find they have a lot in common and get along like old friends, so the guest may behave very respectfully. But that same guest could be in a situation where he and a host just rub each other the wrong way from day 1, so the guest might be much more lax in cleaning up after themselves or adhering to house rules.

@Judy525  Well, I guess the actual point of that post didn't land, but @Sarah977 is correct. What I was trying to say - and I guess I wasn't blunt enough - was that having a bad experience with a guest who had no negative reviews on their profile is not evidence that prior reviews had been deleted. Even someone who wrecked your house doesn't necessarily wreck every house they enter. And you'll find that plenty of hosts who've had a bad experience don't write a review at all, in hopes that they won't get a reciprocal one.

 

What I was responding to is directly above, but I'll quote it verbatim here:

 

"I knew they must be removing negative reviews because I am finding it hard to believe that nothing negative, at all, has ever been written about any of our guests, and we've had a few really bad guests."

 

I don't find this hard to believe at all, for reasons that I've spent way too many words now trying to explain.