Help Feeling blackmailed by guest - need your advice as to what to write

Jorge499
Level 2
Kumasi, Ghana

Help Feeling blackmailed by guest - need your advice as to what to write

I recently had a guest who booked  for 8 adults for 1 night. We had several airb&b message conversation and she confirm for 8 adults and that she will be arriving late leaving next morning. Long story short, she arrived around 9pm  with 15 adults. she said I should let her stay and we talk of  the extra guests charges next morning. When I came in the morning they have already left I sent her a message for additional charge and she replied that if i charge her she will write bad review and tell other never to come to my place. i have few days left to write my review. Any suggestion what to write? 

Jorge 

10 Replies 10
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Jorge499 

If the "blackmail"-conversation is in your Airbnb message system, you should contact Airbnb asap and inform them about the situation:

Contact Airbnb - Community Guide [Updated]

 

best regards,

Emiel

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Jorge499  If the guest wrote in a message that if you charged her for bringing 15 people when she booked for 8, she'd leave a bad review, that's extortion and against Airbnb TOS. Contact Airbnb, tell them what happened, and ask them to look at the guest's message to verify that she is attempting to extort you, in which case they will hopefully block her from leaving a review or remove it if she does. I hope when you say "message", you mean an Airbnb message, not a text.

And if you do leave a review, just be factual- the guest arrived with almost twice as many people than she booked for, said she'd deal with paying for them in the morning, then skipped out without paying. Don't mention the extortion or any Airbnb involvement in the case, as that could cause them to remove your review.

Jorge499
Level 2
Kumasi, Ghana

Thank you all for your prompt feedback.

Beverly21
Level 3
Seattle, WA

PLEASE READ MY MESSAGE IN THE "REVIEWS" SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY  POSTING. ON THIS TOPIC:

      THE TITLE IS:

          

              AIRBNB DOES NOTHING TO HELP HOSTS  IF YOU ARE 'SLIMED' BY AN INACCURATE REVIEW!

 

 

BTW- the review in question is not only inaccurate (all others are 5&4)  it has DESTROYED MY BOOKINGS!

 

Beverly G

Hello Beverly,

 

I really do sympathize.  Airbnb changed their content policy, it used to be a violation to write untruths or slander the host.  Now it's fair game.  I just received a review it was a "novel" from a crazy narcissist . The "novel" was  completely filled with lies, "They were too scared to go to sleep". The bedroom was too small. They shared the bathroom with two men. The location was wrong.  What was astonishing was she requested to extend her stay the night before, I didn't read her message until the next day, luckily she had made other plans.

 

Of course "lies" do not violate Airbnb  content policy even though they say there should be honest and transparent reviews.  This review was slander, I will respond, but it will no doubt hurt my bookings.

 

Good luck !

@Suzanne210  Despicable guests. But as long as you write a brief, professional response to that review, I doubt it will hurt your bookings- you have a long string of great reviews. My attitude is that if a guest is going to believe one obviously outlier review and discount the good ones, I don't particularly want a guest like that. I prefer more intelligent people who can see things for what they are.

@Suzanne210 , she appears to be advertising La Jolla Cove Suites. I wonder if she has a connection there. 

Despicable, as @Sarah977  says.

I don't know where to respond to a bad review  which

is false

Respond positively, professional and simple, potential guests will make their mind out of false reviews base on previous ones.

 

Sachin25
Level 1
Mississauga, Canada

It's better to forget about that extra charges, AirBnb doesn't help on bad review until unless there is offensive word. I had a guest who damage property, and I ask for money and she gave bad review and rating, AirBnb can see chat message but there is no offensive word so they cannot do for that unfair review. Later on when I check the places she stays, she did similar things in other places as well and she gave bad review. 

 

And AirBnb always encourage to write you true review but I guess that will not work, because I'm being truthful and got 1 start in everything and in chat message my guest is so happy.