Bad reviews as retaliation?

[Shoshana5]

Does anyone have expereince with hosts retaliating with false reviews to punish guests for cancel their reservations? Is there a way to get support from airbnb?

[Lawrene0]

Are you "asking for a friend", @Shoshana5? There are no reviews, good or bad, attached to your profile.

[Shoshana5]

You read all sorts of things about airbnb and if it's safe and reliable. I have some worries about the reviewing process for future booking. Not used to the whole home "sharing" thing and it seems like airbnb mostly jsut acts as a fasciltator 

[Carolyn122]

I am only prompted to review a guest after they have checked out. I can only assume if you cancel you did not actually stay so there would be no review. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Based on what I've seen, hosts are more dependent on good reviews. Guests, not so much. When Guests get bad reviews I've heard they tend to delete their account and register with a new e-mail and start fresh. For hosts, this is much more difficult as we have set up listings with our accounts. 

Hosts need good (5 star) reviews from guests to become super hosts, and when reviews are not 5-star hosts recieve threatening emails and notifications from Airbnb that we are "not meeting Airbnb hosting standards" and that our "account could be suspended" if we don't improve ratings. 

From what I know, guests face no direct penalties from Airbnb for having a bad review from hosts. It's just that hosts might be reluctant to host guests with a bad review from a fellow host. 

[Linda877]

This has happened to me once, and I was so upset. There had been some damage to wall and there was an area that had recently been spackled, but not yet painted, and there were some very faint scuffs on the wall. The real issue was that I had recently had the home and fumigated for termites, and there was a small sticker noting that the space was safe, the guest didn’t believe it was safe, and tried to use the scuffs on the wall as a reason for wanting a full refund. I have a strict cancellation policy for this reason. AirBNB however did not honor it, I was very angry that they charged me $280 when this person canceled, I run on very thin margins. They refused to refund me that money, ut did erase the poor review that the guest had left, because there had been a dispute I was very unhapp

[Sasha129]

Yes, I received a full refund on an apartment in Geneva, Switzerland that was uninhabitable from the heat inside the apartment during the Europe heat wave in July 2019.  We rented for 1 month at close to 7000 E  First day moving in, second day realizing we cannot stay and we cannot breath inside. We cancelled and moved out asap.  We received a full refund from Airbnb!  The woman wrote a retaliation  review of me, accusing me of a dirty towel, insulting her, etc.. 3 paragraphs of negativity. I was there 3 days.  

I have had beautiful  rave reviews previously. About 20.   Airbnb won't take the review off.