I have been a part of Airbnb for over 3 years, hosted over 700 guests, and have nearly 500 reviews. For the first time ever, I have had to reach out to Airbnb customer service due to guest review. The review that was left that was not only a completely false, revenge review that was a result of a request for damages caused by the guest. But the review is extremely discriminatory and clearly violates Airbnb's content policy. The guest used the word "racist and pervert". To give a bit of a back store. Approximately 2 weeks prior, an Airbnb guest broke a glass shower door, Airbnb covered the damaged under the host guarantee. As a result I had to have a contractor replace the shower glass, the shower glass was custom and had be ordered and delivered to the house. Now to get back to the reservation with with the false discriminatory review. The shower glass was delivered to the property minutes before the guest's check-in, I was notified and immediately reached out to the guest checking in to let them know, and ask if it would be ok if I stopped by within the next 30 minutes to move the heavy and fragile glass off the front stoop and out of their way. The guest said of course no problem at all. So I did just that. I was there 30 minutes after communicating with them, moved the package into the backyard into the shed, and unpackaged the door (as I had to confirm with the courier there was no damage within 24 hours). While unpacking the husband of the guest came out and started chatting with me, complimented the property on how beautifully renovated and asking if he could help in anyway. I thanked him for his kind words and replied that if it he and his wife didn't mind, it would be helpful if I could take a quick measurement of the shower the glass was intended to be place in, to confirm the door dimensions were correct. He replied "of course not please feel free." I was in and out of the property in 30 seconds and left. Fast forward to checkout. The place was left in a disastrous state and between the stained rugs, linens, broken decor, and additional cleaning costs the guest had caused $500 of damages and additional cleaning costs. Per Airbnb's policy I had to notify the guest of the damages and initiate a claim before the next check in. The guest retaliates with a 1 star review accusing me of being a racist perve. I am a white male, the guests were an African American couple. Here is the review "I would not recommend this place at all . The host was very intrusive ! He came by the property while my family & I were there to do “measurements “ & was in the backyard for a prolonged period of time . Instead of waiting until my family & I checked out to do any “work “that needed to be done he lingered around the house .. it was very creepy & very inappropriate. I assume that he was being racist or he was being a perv .. either way I would not come again to find out ."
I am making this post as I have had an open case on this matter for nearly a month and after 4 calls to customer service and over 6 hours on calls/ hold. I continue to be told the department handling this will reach out to me, no one at Airbnb has responded to any of my numerous emails or even sent me an email to acknowledge the case is being reviewed. I have spoke to Airbnb representatives, Autumn, Ana, Anne, Varun, and Puja K. None of them have connected me with the department reviewing this case or done anything more than state "they will note our conversation and escalate it to the proper department." NOTHING HAPPENS! As you can imagine beyond a 1 star review being damaging to my ranking system and superhost status. The false verbiage of this review is extremely damaging to both my business and me personally.Â
The case numbers I have been told that are open are 888701621 and 89110528.
Hosts, any advise you may have about how to get Airbnb's attention would be appreciated!
It's clear to me Airbnb has been grossly negligent in there lack of response to this issue. I don't know what else to do other than have my lawyer begin the process of filing a defamation of character suit against Airbnb for allowing this content to remain on their site.
Thanks in advance for any help or insight any of you can provide. Hopefully this post will get the attention of someone at Airbnb.
David