Airbnb review content policy

[Jacob193]

I spoke to an Airbnb case manager, who told me, repeatedly and adamantly, that Airbnb will only remove review content that is both illegal and violates intellectual property rights. Their policy as written is as follows (with emphasis added):

The following content is never allowed on Airbnb:

• Content created solely for the purpose of advertising or other commercial content, including company logos, links, or company names
• Spam, unwanted contact, or content that is shared repeatedly in a disruptive manner
• Content that endorses or promotes illegal or harmful activity, or that is profane, vulgar, obscene, threatening, or harassing
• Content that is discriminatory (review our Nondiscrimination Policy for more info)
• Attempts to impersonate another person, account, or entity, including a representative of Airbnb
• Content that is illegal or that violates another person’s or entity’s rights, including intellectual property rights and privacy rights
• Content that provides specific details or outcomes of an Airbnb investigation
• Content that is sufficient to identify a listing’s location or other content that may pose a personal safety risk to an Airbnb community member

To me, this clearly says that any illegal content is a violation of their content policy, but the case manager assured me that this was not the case. Am I crazy?

[Daniel1598]

@Jacob193 I agree with you, either seems more fitting than both. I'd imagine that Airbnb would intervene if illegal content was posted or there was a blatant violation of IP. But what is your point exactly? It'd be helpful if there was a specific situation that the community could ponder.

[Jacob193]

Yeah, that's what I thought "or" meant. I kept trying to explain that to the case manager and she just kept cutting me off and repeating the same line to me.

In this case I'm talking about defamatory content. Based on my understanding of the law, at least in my state, if I can provide evidence that shows beyond reasonable doubt that a guest posted something that is categorically false and has the potential to harm my reputation, it's their responsibility to take the content down.

But, so far, they're not even interested in seeing the evidence that I have, saying that it's the guest's "right" to post whatever they want.

In general terms, they're right, and I wouldn't ask them to take down content that was merely negative or was untrue in a more subjective way, but I think that it's reasonable for me to ask them to take down something that constitutes libel, especially given that: a) libel is illegal, and b) their policy forbids illegal content.

What surprised me is that I've spoken to three case managers and they haven't even tried to argue that the statement didn't constitute libel and that they haven't even indicated a commitment to removing reviews that contain blatent falsehoods. Like, if a guest wrote that my description was innacurate and my room was in a brothel, or that my furniture was all bolted to the ceiling, does that get to stay up too?

[Sarah977]

@Jacob193  "Like, if a guest wrote that my description was innacurate and my room was in a brothel, or that my furniture was all bolted to the ceiling, does that get to stay up too?"

Basically, yes. It's insane and maddening. Guests can say pretty much anything they want. They can claim the place was full of bedbugs and even though the host knows that's a lie, gets pest control in and submits a statement from them saying that no insect infestations of any kind were found, Airbnb will suspend a host's listing and send them threatening messages.

You could read through this forum for days and read hundreds of cases of outrageous BS like this.

As far as Airbnb is concerned, guests are gods and hosts are cannon fodder.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jacob193 

I am afraid @Sarah977 is right, and your only option is to reply to your guest's review. Be short and professional, you are replying to your prospective future guests, not to him.

[Jacob193]

Well, I can't say it was short, but here's my response (I thought it was better with the spaces, but it looksl ike Airbnb removed the formatting):

[Jacob193]

I've now spoken to probably around half a dozen Airbnb reps, and not one of them has answered my question about illegal content, preferring to repeat a line about how their review policy encourages "honest portrayals," as if a boldfaced lie is somehow honesty.

Here's my Twitter thread that I've been ranting on if anyone wants to pitch in or something. From what I've seen on the forums, I don't think I'm the only host who feels unsupported by the company: https://twitter.com/JacobPritchett/status/1121192648159551488

[Cathie19]

Well done @Jacob193 . You have let your future guests know that you are willing to assist them, to make their stay a better one. You respect them.

🙌🏼 In your review, you  haven’t become subjective or emotional. Most importantly, you were not rude, nor did you belittle or berate the guest as a guest, or as a person.

🙌🏼

Cheers!

Cathie

[Jacob193]

Don't worry, I'm saving my emotions for the Airbnb "support" people. (Just kidding, kind of. I only got emotional once; I've mostly just been blunt.)

I love my guests and I want them to know that I'm here for them. I always treat my guests with courtesy and care, including this guest. This was the first review he has ever written, and it was his third booking with me. I'm almost positive that he posted those lies because his bookings were fairly close together and the review I wrote for him before showed up in the middle of his stay because the fourteen day period expired. And in the review I wasn't even mean, I just gave him a slightly less than dazzling review that, if anything, was generous.

I accept honest feedback. I take it all seriously and even adjust my way of doing things so that I can improve. But that's not what this was.

[Sarah977]

@Jacob193  Good response, yes, a little long, but certainly not a rant. You were polite and professional, corrected the mis-information for future guests, and impressed on future guests that many issues can be avoided if they simply pay attention to the written and verbal information provided. It makes the guest look like a right ninny without insinuating that in any way.  

[Jacob193]

I hope people see that, but the lie hurts, and if people believe it, it's a big deal in my area. I can't stress enough how important air conditioning is in central Arizona; you can die without it.

And it has the potential to cause real harm to my business and reputation, especially given that negative reviews have a disproportionate impact to begin with.

[Kelly149]

@Jacob193 A host recently sued a guest (&abb??) about an untruthful review. She won. 

There was dog dog toy that looked like a gun involved. 

Btw, if I were going to give a guest a lackluster review I wouldn’t allow them to come back. Cancel. Block. Done. 

[Susan17]

@Kelly149 

Yes, the case you're referring to was Airbnb. The host was Jeannette (also a member of the CC), a 5 year Superhost who was delisted on foot of a defamatory review by a guest. She took both the guest and Airbnb to court. The judges in both cases tore strips off Airbnb, with one stressing, "I think it's wrong for Airbnb to have somebody sign that  (T&Cs), I really do", and "It's not right what Airbnb is doing. Airbnb at least needs to tell the truth"

https://youtu.be/oIrFlISFC1w

[Sarah977]

@Kelly149 @Jacob193   I was going to ask the same thing- why was this guy accepted back for the third time when he wasn't a desirable guest?

[Jacob193]

He wasn't nightmarish or anything, he just wasn't very clean and did some odd things that would have caused problems if I wasn't prepared, so I just noted them in the review. I didn't think he would book again so quickly.

I think I clicked "wouldn't host again?" But apparently Airbnb doesn't care about that question very much. I have instant book on, (which is fine 99% of the time), and it's very bad to cancel an instant booking unless you have a legitimate reason, which I didn't, because he didn't break any rules.