Guest changes name on account then leaves bad a review

[Anthony608]

A nice gentleman checked in to my residence and stayed with me for over two weeks.  He lauded the house and said he had a wonderful stay.  We spoke every day or so and at one point he advised our housekeeper he didn't need his room cleaned (he stayed over 10 days and we offer a mid-stay cleaning for long periods).  During this time, mostly at night, he apparently had a girlfriend who would come and visit and she was in the house about a third of the time he was.  He had listed on his reservation himself and another guest so this didn't appear to be an issue.

A few days before he left the entire account changed to a female name who we think is his girlfriend who we had seen.  They departed early one morning and we left a good review, but a day or so later received a very low review from the account which was now under the girlfriend's name.  The narrative simply said "Thank you" but left very low stars in all categories and 3 stars overall.  I sent a message to the account, asking for additional information for why we had received such a low review, and also asked for clarification about the account name change.  No answer.

I am thinking about contacting AirBNB to have this review removed.  What do others think about this situation?

[Helen3]

What grounds under Airbnb's T&Cs for reviews do you think you could get it removed under @Anthony608 

[Anthony608]

@Helen3- The review was written by someone who did not actually stay in the residence.  Also, the entire situation with the account changing names?  That can't be right as it goes against the AirBNB verification process.

[Helen3]

Well I'm not sure you're correct . @Anthony608 

You stated they have changed the name but it's still the same account so not a third party booking.

you admitted he had booked for two and it sounds like the partner left the review so it would be valid . 

[Anthony608]

@Helen3- I guess I will find out.  I reported the review to AirBNB, it just doesnt make sense.  The "partner" was a woman who was seen only about twice for about an hour as she visited the male living in the house.  She stayed for dinner once and the rest of time it was only him.  He mentioned he was "going to his girlfriends house", implying she lived in the local area and wasn't staying in the residence.

Also, the review gave extremely low stars in communication, cleanliness, and accuracy, when we talked to the man in the house every day, he remarked how clean the house was (declining a mid-week cleaning of the room by our housekeeper) and said the stay was great. 

I think what happened is he gave his girlfriend access to the account right before he left, she changed the name to hers, and for whatever reason she blasted the house in the review.  Maybe mad because he stayed there and not with her?  Maybe even some kind of breakup??  Who the heck knows.

[Anonymous]

@Anthony608   You're grasping at straws on this one. Users are free to change the alias and picture on their account, and couples are free to use a single account under one or both of their names - no violation there. And guests who didn't even enter your house are still allowed to rate it, so it's not relevant how much of the stay the girlfriend was supposedly there for.

It doesn't sound like you had much contact with these people during their stay, so you had no way to be privy to whatever issues caused the low ratings. You could contact them to ask what they feel would have improved their experience, but I see no reason to censor them.

[Anthony608]

@Anonymous- we actually spoke to the male in the party nearly every day and he said everything was great.  This is wrong on so many levels.  Why should this woman, who may have only been in the house 2 or 3 hours over two weeks be allowed to rate the entire stay?  I actually don't even know if the woman we saw is indeed the person who took over the account for that matter.

AirBNB is looking into it.  As a compromise they may remove my review since I reviewed the account under the male's name and don't know who this female guest really is.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Anthony608 why do you want your review removed? Is it inaccurate in any way?

[Anthony608]

@Mike-And-Jane0It was a three star review that simply said "Thank you".  One and two stars in all other categories when the male guest had said the stay was wonderful and reported no problem of any kind.  I think it was left by the girlfriend who didn't actually spend the night in the house ever and probably was only there fora few hours over a two week period.  We don't even know that she was here at all since the same time the male was speaking of another girlfriend and spending the night off residence at her house.

So irrelevant review, possible by someone who was not even the guest.  After talking to AirBNB, I think they are going to remove *my* review and take away the five star I gave since its unknown who is operating that account now.

[Anonymous]

@Anthony608   That side of it does make sense -  you always have the right to remove the reviews you write, as the author of the content. If you believe that the subject of your review is not the current account-holder, that's a reasonable cause to withdraw it.

I'm not seeing a reason to censor a review coming from that account, though. You accepted a two-person booking, and there's no rule saying that the review can only be published by the one who spent more time in the home, or who spoke to you more during the stay. 

[Anthony608]

@Anonymous- I finally got some type of answer from the guest.  Too long to explain in full, but basically I was dealing with someone who never had used AirBNB before and they actually thought I would be spending time with them, "having tea" (their exact words) and getting to know them during their stay.  Our check-in messages clearly tell guests that as the hosts we maintain social distancing and during the day I work from home in an office in the back of the house.  Apparently they thought I should have come out during this time and socialized with them, even mentioned going to do something together.  Clearly this is not how I operate as a host and most guests understand that.

The rest of it, they made references to the house just "being gross" apparently didn't like we had older carpet, comments about things not being clean, etc.  You have read some of the other posts - over the past three years we have rigorously enhanced how we clean and 99% of our guests have given us a sparkling clean compliment and that is not an exaggeration.  I think this was someone with hotel like expectations honestly who possibly was looking for issues.  The shifting between the two names was also never explained.  Maybe the guy enjoyed his stay but the girlfriend wanted to leave a bad rating.

So now that I know a little bit more, this one I will just walk away from.