Bad and unfair review

[Mark1065]

I had a really bad review of my property. The apartment is in the heart of central london and the guest complained it was noisy and also hot.

the weather has been unseasonably hot and we don’t have air conditioners and said we didn’t. 

The guest also tried to get in at 8am instead of normal check in of 3pm. He was unfair throughout and basically thought it was a 5 star hotel. 

Whay can I do to delete such a bad review when other reviews around this date state that this review is objectively incorrect 

[Lisa723]

You can call Airbnb customer support and try to get them to remove it, but generally people have little luck with this. If you go this route document the falsehoods with photos, e.g. of open windows and fans. Fortunately your response is professional and informative so prospective  guests will likely not place too much weight on this review.

[Linda108]

@Mark1065  Two recent reviews in a row mention the heat and your response is off-putting for both.  I get that when you perceive lies you want to defend against it but it is generally better that all the great reviews do the job of "defending" you, as you point out.  

[Matthew285]

@Mark1065 there will always be guests who are displeased, and I am sorry you had two in a row.

It is very difficult to have a review removed unless it violates Airbnb's content policy, and I don't see anything in the review that does that.

I agree with @Linda108 about your response. You do a great job of explaining the situation, but the host never looks good when they say bad things about a guest.

[Mark1065]

I was just being fair. The weather has been very unusual. The location is just off Oxford Circus and like most I don’t have air conditioning. 

I advertised the property correctly and honestly. The last guest also wanted his money back and I told him I was not a hotel and had been honest. 

[Robert1114]

I got a 1 almost a year ago. The guest was wrong about something and I was in a meeting for 30 minuets so couldn’t help. The person didn’t even stay the 30 minutes but decided a cruel review and a 1 rating was appropriate. Up to that point I had a 5 rating. It takes 19 5 ratings to make up for a single 1 rating and get to the 4.8 value recommended by AirBB. AirBB would not remove this outlier so I am just waiting for the year to end as they only keep 365 days. I think it is absolutely absurd not to remove outliers. Anyone would know to do this to get reasonable statistics. 

[Matthew285]

@Mark1065 I do understand you have a right to say what you said about the guest, and you are most probably completely correct in your criticism of them.

I am just saying it doesn't make the host look good.

And what does it gain you?

Mainly, though, it serves very little purpose. Your public response to the guest's review of you is pretty much only seen by people looking at your property. Other hosts will not see it, so it does not serve as a warning to them. The main audience is your potential future guests.

Do you think reading that criticism of your guest will make someone want to book with you more, or less?

[Elizabeth429]

@Mark1065,

Could you not get a fan?

[Mark1065]

 We had fans on each room. He is deliberately trying to emphasize the problems. He has been trying to get his money back and his review was untruthful. That was my point. 

I own the business underneath and he effectively had a concierge. I always help guests but on his occasion he was unreasonable.

[Sarah977]

@Mark1065  No one wants or should have unfair reviews, but I'd have to second what @Elizabeth429 said. Instead of excusing the situation saying it has been unseasonably hot, you could have kept your guests comfortable by buying a stand-up fan. They're not expensive.

[Mark1065]

they had one in each room !!!

[Sarah977]

@Mark1065   Ah, well then, apologies.  Guest was obviously pretty demanding and unable to cope with circumstances that are an act of nature. Of course if you have to pay for the cost of running AC units (not to mention the purchase and installation), which isn't particularly cheap (and guests are notorious for turning it up full blast, leaving windows open and going out all day) you'd have to charge more for your places. Then the guest would complain about that, too.

[Kate-Mary0]

Dear Mark 

Unfortuantely you'll always get the bad review every now and then. The best course of action now would be to reply appropriately. When you reply show that you care about the bad Airbnb guest review and that you want to see to it that everything is handled properly afterward and in the future. How about apologizing about the lack of air con by acknowledging that the weather was unseasonably hot. Thank him for bringing it to your attention and state that you're now looking into getting air con for the future (you can always use automation to ensure that guests don't abuse the air con). 

[Rachel0]

@Mark1065  As a fellow London host I certainly understand the problems we are currently having with the weather but you are charging £225 per night and for that, if I were your guest, I would expect to be kept cool.  As for the noise issues - of course the guest should have realised in advance that the centre of London is not a country village and expected the noise from all night buses, busy restaurants etc - but I think you should mention the potential for noise in your listing, to cover yourself if nothing else.  The noise is the same all year, whereas this heatwave is temporary.  

As far as the early check in is concerned, you need to establish in  advance at what time the guest will arrive, and this can only be done via good communication.  If the guest wanted to arrive early in the morning you could have made sure that he had booked the previous night as well.  I always ask guests who are coming from far away - Australia, NZ, USA, Canada, Africa etc - for their flight details so that I can check what time they arrive at LHR.  

[Sarah977]

@Mark1065    When you have a listing where there is a lot of noise, I think it's a good idea to mention this in your listing- you can do it in a way that doesn't make it sound like a negative. 

"Of course, as the apartment is located in central London, right in the heart of a happening scene,  traffic noise is inevitable, so if you're a light sleeper, it's advisable to pack some earplugs." kind of thing.

It's also not a bad idea to have some packages of earplugs there for guests- they'll appreciate that you cared.