Airbnb allowed review from guest who stole, threatened me, and police had to be called

Kimberley59
Level 4
Seattle, WA

Airbnb allowed review from guest who stole, threatened me, and police had to be called

Airbnb is not only not protecting me in a very bad situation, but they also allowed the same guest to book and do even worse to another host, and allowed this guest to leave a false negative review of my listing.

A guest booked for one person on my listing that has a security camera (clearly stated on the listing). Male guest arrived with two more men and immediately located and disabled security camera. After being asked multiple times, by myself and Airbnb, to turn security camera back on and update reservation per exact guests staying, guest refused and police had to be called.  It turned out they had 10-15 people in my unit, they smoked in non-smoking unit, damaged and stole, and then they physically threatened me outside the building when they were finally leaving.  I was in contact with airbnb throughout the incident, but then the contact dropped off from Airbnb.  I have been contacting Airbnb repeatedly by phone and email for nearly 3 weeks and nothing has been resolved.  They say someone will call me back, but did not.  Sometimes when I call in, the phone call just drops while I'm on hold.  They pass me from case manager to case manager, and claim that tickets weren't made before now.  From today, they are telling me that they will not remove the guest's 1 star review that is entirely lies.  Of course a guest who is involved in illegal activity and has to be removed by police is not going to leave a positive review for the person who called the police on them!

As well, Airbnb allowed this guest to book with another host after the incident, and that host reported in their review that the guest damaged their place, had multiple people in the unit, broke into another unit in the buildling and stole valuables there, and that other tenants feared for their safety.  They also called the police.

Meanwhile, this guest is still able to book on Airbnb, and I'm left being futher victimized by Airbnb.

 

25 Replies 25
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Kimberley59 

IMHO Airbnb  is not taking enough responsibility here. Such a guest should be removed from the platform and you should be rewarded instead of punished.

They're telling me that even if they remove them from the platform, they still won't remove the review!  The review just claims I was spying on them with my camera (well, it's advertised and they immediately disabled it!), and then they gave 1 stars on everything.  I have done longer stays mostly lately, so I have less volume of reviews.  This 1 star false review will cause me to lose my superhost status if not removed!  This guest did not even stay.  They were only there for 2-3 hours before I got them out and they "cancelled" the reservation.  When a guest has to be forcefully removed, they should not be allowed to leave a review, unless the host has wrongfully removed someone.  If it is known the guest has done something illegal, severely violated rules, etc, then they cannot be allowed to harm the host further.

Holy cow. 😞

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Kimberley59 

Let's face the facts:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/240658286

Do not give up to let Airbnb remove the false review !

@Emiel1 

what about this link? Because error 404 is shown

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I think that the link given by @Emiel1 is the profile of the guest hosted by @Kimberley59 . The guest was kicked out by Airbnb now. I guess that Airbnb might have a rule for getting rid of a guest. If a guest does not have two or more bad reviews with a below borderline star ratings, they don't stop them from booking.

 

I had encountered a similar guest like this one. The guest had two bad reviews out of four and was still able to book. He gave me a 1 star retaliatory review after I refused to give him a longer term stay out of Airbnb. He started to make trouble after I refused him and I had to call Airbnb to cancel his three weeks stay he booked in the middle. He was kicked out by Airbnb later after I gave him a bad review. But his review still stands even I appealed it after he was kicked out by Airbnb.

 

And in his review, he even put a personal attach insulting words on me. But Airbnb still ignored. I read the guest review to @Kimberley59. Since it is a one sentence review, it could be very hard to be removed because Airbnb really does not care about hosts at all wether the guest review is true or not.

 

This is horrible. I believe, what you saying is true. Airbnb has no regards for the hosts. I am fairly new to hosting. I also had a guest who broke 2 things in my home and turn my house upside down. I submited a resolution for compensation for the damages. Airbnb did not retrieve any money from the guests, for damages done at my house. Eventhough, I have a $250 deposit in an event of any damages.

And they still allow the guest to leave a review. This is so ridiculous and disrepectful to all the hosts that provide their homes. The guest wrote lies about everything. As I suspect they would. I have been trying to get this review removed from site and I keep getting bounced over the place.

Any advice on how to spot a low life from staying at your home?
And does anyone have the VP direct number from Airbnb?


@Kimberley59   I had a similiar incident where a guest "hot boxed" my house  when we have a no smoking rule. I immediately contacted airbnb requesting the guest be asked to leave for breaking the house rule. Airbnb contacted him and he ended up leaving (only stayed approx 2 hours total).  The guest exchanged some words with me when he left, and of course he was also able to leave a review (but thankfully he did not). 

 

I find the majority of guests who will see a negative review on a listing that has an overall good rating would not be bothered by that. I would just leave a professional response and move on. Can't please everyone, and in the end its the cost of doing business, especially with how much airbnb is changing. 

 

Best of luck!

 

It's not that simple. The 1 star review effectively decreased my average enough that I will lose my super host status. The same for the other host involved. As well, I haven't hosted much on that listing so now my average is low despite all of the other reviews being 5 stars. But the real point here is, Airbnb is not refusing to remove or block reviews from guests even if they break Airbnb rules, house rules, and laws. Essentially, a guest could even kill a host, get convicted of the crime, and still the guest's review would be allowed. That is absurd. Any guest in extreme violation of air bnb rules, local laws, etc, should be banned from the platform and not allowed to leave reviews. Instead they were allowed to straight away book with another host and violate them and their property in the same way the very next day. 

@Kimberly59We just had guests who stole from the unit. AirBnB PAID us for the stolen items, but STILL let the guests post a 1-star review! Then they had the nerve to email us and say that since we'd received a 1-star review, we were in danger of being de-listed! All that we did was not let the guests steal our property, and AirBnB is threatening to kick US off of the site! Ridiculous.Last year we had another guest who set up an illegal restaurant in one of our units. We had to call police to force them out, we have VIDEO of it, AirBnB let them post a 1-star review as well!!  AirBnB is the WORST! We are signing up for EVERY other marketing site we can find and can't wait for the day that we can tell AirBnB where to put the policy on reviews which they don't care to follow themselves. 

 

Kimberley59
Level 4
Seattle, WA

This is some sort of coverup. Someone at Airbnb just removed a bunch of support messages sent to me and it looks like they closed all my cases so that I cannot reply or get help.  Another host is experiencing similar issues with similar case from same guest!!

@Kimberley59 

Airbnb is routinely removing entire conversations in support message threads, and abruptly closing unsolved cases, as standard now. Reprehensible, unconscionable, shady behaviour. Any host involved in a dispute with a guest/Airbnb, needs to screenshot every single message in a support thread, every time, as soon as they appear. It's the only way for hosts to have proof the conversation ever took place, should they need to take the matter further. 

Mike1034
Level 10
Mountain View, CA

@Kimberley59 Have you file damage claim in the resolution center? Prepare a list of damages items and their photos, invoice of extra cleaning, replacement cost of damaged items, etc. send to Airbnb. A specialist will be assigned for your case. It will take about a week to two to get some money back.

 

Do not expect Airbnb can do much to the guest. Airbnb is more interested in making more money than hosts' security and safety. A lot of measures could have been taken before these bad incidents occur. e.g. Airbnb should tight the requirements for a person to become an Airbnb user and more restriction for a guest to make a booking request. But this definitely will hurt Airbnb's growth.

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Kimberley59 

it's interesting how Airbnb is fast and efficient to suspend or unlist a host (even a superhost) without any investigation and based on a single complain (even without any proof) of the new user without any reviews.... but it is so slow to remove a bad guest (even when the police is involved)

 

This practice has given Airbnb a bad reputation and made it an undesirable neighbor. I wonder why bad guests are so protected? They harm Airbnb, hosts, neighbors and the entire hosting bussines.