First negative review and horrible guest

[Alice487]

I've been hosting for three years now and have an overall 4.9 rating and all positive reviews from guests. I had my first terrible guest experience. He rented one room in a house where my husband and I also live along with our dog. He rented the room for $30 a night, my first mistake in lowing the price so much (it was low season for us).

He cooked three meals a day and made a mess of the kitchen with spills on our stovetops that he never cleaned up. I came home multiple times to the stove left on with an open fire in my kitchen. He fed our dog one time out of the leftovers from his plate and the second day, my dog naturally ran up to him and he raised his hand and hit my dog while yelling at him to get "the f**k away". He later wrote that our dog was annoying (we list in our listing that a dog lives here and if you are allergic or not dog people, please book elsewhere). 

I had called and reported this to Airbnb before he even check-outed of listing that hitting my dog was physically aggressive and leaving the stove on multiple times was a fire hazard and could have burned our house down. Airbnb recommended that I continue hosting him so I don't get a bad review. And since I didn't have a camera in the house recording him being aggressive to my dog, that it was all hearsay or leaving the stove on, it was all hearsay. So I did continue to host him. He finally check-out a week later and wrote me a negative review "Rude Host" was all he said. 

I'm trying to fight this with Airbnb and no luck. I was never rude to him but did ask him multiple times to please not leave the stove on as it is very dangerous and to please just make sure to turn off the stove when he was done cooking. It baffles me that maintaining safety in my house has led to a negative review and Airbnb won't do anything to help me in this situation even though they did recommend that I continue hosting him even after I had reported the safety issues to them. 

Has anyone had a similar situation like this? I know that I should just overlook this one negative review and keep hosting but I do feel very unprotected by airbnb in situations like this. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Alice487

How awful for you - just reply politely and professionally to his commet along the lines of; After x years of hosting and getting Superhost status, this is the first time we have ever had a very difficult guest. 

ALso, give him a thumbs down - remember people will see through one bad egg - it would not put me off booking your place.

And in future - I would;; take more control and ask him to leave immediately.

Good luck!

[Helen3]

What awful behaviour @Alice487 but I really can't understand why you let someone stay with you who

1. endangered your property by leaving the gas cooker on

2. most importantly hit your dog

Anyone who did that to an animal would have been out on their ear. I wouldn't risk them further abusing my dog.

It is beyond belief that airbnb would have given you such advice, however, you are a highly experienced host so must have known allowing him to stay wouldn't prevent him from leaving you with a negative review.

Hopefully you left him an honest review and gave him the thumbs down and a three star review so he can't IB with other hosts.

[Alice487]

Hi Helen, 

As soon as he showed aggression towards our dog, I called Airbnb and reported him and asked them to cancel the reservation. They informed me that since I didn't have videotape evidence of the incident, that it's hearsay and would be considered a host cancelation which meant the guest would be refunded in full (tho he had already stayed for 6 nights at that point) and more importantly, I would lose my super host status because I had canceled on a guest. 

That was the only reason I let him stay, I didn't want to lose my super host status which I've worked for the last 3 years for. 

But this experience has been enlightening for sure in addition to being frustrating. I've been on the phone with Airbnb all morning and the case manager assigned to my case won't even call me. He only messages me thru Airbnb and I've asked him to call me twice but he is saying that the case has been closed and there is nothing further they can do regarding the review. 

Anyways, you live and you learn. 

[Helen3]

I too have been a superhost for three years and I know we work hard to get and keep it.

However for me the health and safety of a dog would far outweigh keeping superhost status to be honest @Alice487.

I think the reaction you got from customer services was ridiculous. I am sure you recorded incidents regarding the gas stove and dog on airbnb messaging so there was a track record, so they should have checked this.

It sounds like you didn't get great support - as you say live and learn.

[Sarah977]

@Alice487 When you get a terrible case manager (this one gave you an outrageously wrong response), and you can usually tell that they are terrible right from the outset,  just thank them for their time and tell them to close the ticket. It's pointless to continue dealing with a clueless and unhelpful CS rep. Just call back again, don't mention that you've already talked to someone about this, aapproach it like it's a new issue, and hopefully you'll get someone more helpful and understanding. You might have to do this a few times.