Airbnb support not doing their job

[Madison30]

Hey folks, 

just wanted to share an experience to see if anyone had any suggestions on what to do because I am at a complete loss. 

I have many Airbnb properties and pride myself in being a top-tier host, last month a guest booked my airbnb for his underage sister and they threw a massive party. Our other guests were disturbed, the cops were involved, there was over $500 in damages and I lost a week of revenue because I had the listing shut off. 

Airbnb support did help me through the case as I had to devote hours to back and forth to receive compensation (the bad guest never replied to either end). But they also left a 1 star review, now I’ve got pictures of my trashed unit, they were notified the night of, I did all the due diligence on my end yet this guest (who never stayed or entered the Airbnb) left a 1 star which paused my listing & is now ruining my Superhost status.. is there anything I can do? Support seems pretty ineffective so far which is mind boggling with all the proof in pictures of damage and more. 

With many listings we all know how hard Superhost status can be to achieve and I’m really disappointed that one bad guest who abused the platform to trash my home can also make a lasting negative effect on my business. 

[Alon1]

@Madison30 

It seems like a straight forward case of violation of 3rd Party Booking rule.

However, it's not clear to me if you were aware it was a 3PB at the time of booking?

a) If you were aware of it, unless the review violates Review guidelines, you will not be able to have it removed. The most you could do is leave a Response. But if you haven't done so already, the 14 days deadline seems long gone past 'last month'. 

b) If the Guest didn't inform you it was a 3PB at time of booking, you can have the Review deleted

based it on being a violation of 3PB

I know this from experience. Last year I also had a listing paused for 5 days following a 1 Star review from a 3PB. In my case it wasn't declared by the Booker at the time of booking. However, having the Review removed took some considerable time and effort till I found someone at CS who properly exercised T&Cs. 

In short, if it is case b) then you just need persistence in finding the right person at CS.

[Madison30]

Hey Alon! Thank you for your response!

I'd say it's a pretty straight forward case as well as the guest completely violated the third party booking rule and left $500 worth in damages which Airbnb covered. It seems odd to me that through all of that they still haven't removed the review after knowing a party was thrown which violates my house rules & thier own 3rd party booking policy. 

This case opened for about four weeks now with no sucess on my end. I've dealt with numerous case managers at this point and am completely exhauseted with this. They have stopped reponsing to my messages and I just don't know what to do anymore.

As for your point a) I am aware that it violates the content policy... when I realized this I thought for sure that would be the solution to my issue but now Airbnb is asking me to prove that the person who booked was not actually at the apartment that night. They reached out to him with no success. But since I was not there that night and the neighbours (at the time) called the police, I cannot prove that this guest was in fact never there. The police report is not availble to me since I never phoned them regarding this incident. My best next bet will be to file a police report and try to see if they can put me into contact with an officer who responded to the situation that night. I'm just not sure that they will do that. I have to prove that he (the guest who booked) was not at the apartment the night of this situation so I hope that the police ID'd every single person in the unit upon arrival otherwise I have no case. Seems a bit ridiculous.

I appreciate your advice and will continue to fight this because it's going to cost me my Superhost status which I have worked endlessly to get for my numerous properties. I am just in complete disbelief that no one I've dealt with has been willing to help me fight this.

[Alon1]

@Madison30 

Correction re Response to Review. Not '14 days', but 30 days after Review was written.

[Alon1]

@Madison30 

Thanks for detailed response and more explicit account.

I didn't reckon with your not being able to verify Booker's absence.

(As a live-in Host I would never experience it.)

However, I must confess that I  perused your Reviews for February (along with your reciprocal Reviews of the Guests), and can't readily identify the Guest in question. 

In any case, it seems you have nothing to lose by requesting Police report. 

.

Finally, on a positive note, even if you don't overturn this 1 Star Review, given the frequency of your bookings, you should be able to regain your Super Host status within one or two quarters.

Best Wishes.

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