@Domenick0 I hope by a short, polite review, you don't mean you will portray these guests as desirable, because they aren't, and that would be unfair to other hosts reading the review. (Are you aware that hosts who don't use IB can't see guest star ratings?)
The strategy hosts use if they think a guest will leave a bad review is to wait until the review period of 14 days is almost over to submit your review, if the guest hasn't left a review yet. That way they may no longer have time to leave a review when they get notice that you have.
These sound like the type of guests who leave bad reviews no matter what, and there's nothing you can do about that if they have already submitted a review.
If it were me, I'd have reported these guests the second time they tried to book and I would have cancelled the booking, rather than simply expressed concern to Airbnb. They certainly wouldn't be 4 or 5* guests to me- more like 3*s.
As far as you responding to a review where the guest rated 4 for location, that was a bad move. Future guests have no idea what other guests rated, the individual ratings don't affect your overall rating, and there is zero need for a public response. You could have simply sent that guest private feedback if you wanted to educate them about the location rating, but I would never call out a guest for leaving 4*s for anything. It would be different if they left 2 or 3*s.