Host left a bad review on my partner’s profile, lied and demanded for more money in text. Airbnb won’t do anything.

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Host left a bad review on my partner’s profile, lied and demanded for more money in text. Airbnb won’t do anything.

As mentioned.

 

We (group of friends and 2 dogs) stayed at a beach side property for 5 days. We enjoyed the property, had a great time, cleaned up after ourselves and took the trash out. When we left, we followed the instructions, thanked our hosts and promptly checked out.

 

To our horror, host left a bad review saying we trashed the place, there was fur and sand everywhere. They said it took 4 hours to clean the place. The fur was minimal but impossible to leave any out. When we booked the property, we specifically confirmed that it was dog friendly. Had they not want fur, they should not have allowed pets at all. 

 

Onto the lies, they said we left the place in a bad state. The property was by the beach and hence there was sand. We pay a cleaning fee but being a group of 6 with pets, we would be gladly to clean up more if there was cleaning equipment or house instructions. There was none. We used the oven to bake fish twice and didn’t expect to deep clean it. They claimed we left the oven in a BAD state and took 2 hours to bring it to an acceptable standard. At this point it’s just a gross and bizarre lie. 

Prior to receiving the nasty review, they sent a text message. We even asked how much the cleaning fee was with the intention to offer some form of payment to keep them happy. Partner has 10 glowing reviews from great hosts for the past 6 years but this has really left a sour taste.

 

We only responded to their review and can’t leave any. We originally left them a 5 star review but rescinded immediately after we found out what they did.

 

 

They even sent us a hand written receipt that says “extra cleaning $160, please pay” as if it was created hastily to extort more money from us.

 

Airbnb won’t remove their review and we are stuck with a permanent lie on our profile. Will it affect our future bookings? We are looking at alternatives and probably won’t use Airbnb anymore in the future. This is unnecessarily stressful. 

1 Best Answer
Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Mai2032  That happened to me at a vacation rental once, before Airbnb, and it was beyond infuriating.  It's a cynical ploy that certain long-time vacation rental owners have learned will bring them more money.

 

One outlier review among 10 glowing reviews won't cause most future hosts any alarm.  They'll be able to see pretty clearly what happened, and if they have any questions, they can ask.  Most will understand and won't hold it against your partner.

 

Just curious whether, looking back, there were any red flags with the listing, like previous bad reviews or anything else?  Probably not, because it sounds as if the host is skilled at blindsiding guests who've had a great beach vacation, write glowing reviews, and then get hit with the complaints.

 

Really sorry you had this experience, especially this year when you probably needed that break more than ever!

View Best Answer in original post

15 Replies 15

Just to add. We asked for photos of the “bad condition” they claimed we left the property in, they didn’t provide any. Only a dodgy hand written receipt from a “cleaner” (if there was any)

@Mai2032 how do you rescind a review? This just happened to me and I am by far beyond infuriated about the situation. I asked multiple times for evidence and they simply won't provide it. 

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Mai2032  That happened to me at a vacation rental once, before Airbnb, and it was beyond infuriating.  It's a cynical ploy that certain long-time vacation rental owners have learned will bring them more money.

 

One outlier review among 10 glowing reviews won't cause most future hosts any alarm.  They'll be able to see pretty clearly what happened, and if they have any questions, they can ask.  Most will understand and won't hold it against your partner.

 

Just curious whether, looking back, there were any red flags with the listing, like previous bad reviews or anything else?  Probably not, because it sounds as if the host is skilled at blindsiding guests who've had a great beach vacation, write glowing reviews, and then get hit with the complaints.

 

Really sorry you had this experience, especially this year when you probably needed that break more than ever!

Thanks for your reply.

 

no there wasn’t any red flag and they seemed like nice people, communication was great all the way to check out. We were shocked. They claimed the property was in a bad state and disappointing state even tho we cleaned the kitchen, wiped up, took the trash out (the reasonable standard from guests). 

we’re not sure if we will use Airbnb again after this, especially when queried with photo evidence, they refused to provide any.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Mai2032  The host can ask you for more money for over-the-top cleaning time, but if you truly feel you cleaned up adequately, you can offer less or stick to saying you didn't leave the mess she claims you did.

 

Of course a beach front property is going to get sandy, but it would be a nice gesture to sweep the sand out before leaving. Are you saying there wasn't even a broom in evidence? If not, you could have messaged the host to say you want to sweep up but can't find a broom. Then she would have either told you where one was, or told you not to bother, right? And while hosts don't expect guests to deep clean, cleaning out the oven after you've baked fish in it twice would have been appropriate. If I knew that I had created a dirty oven, and left sand all over, and lots of dog fur, I certainly would have contacted the host to ask about cleaning supplies if I couldn't find any. I wouldn't just walk away and leave it like that.

 

You say dogs were allowed, but was there also a pet fee you paid? If not, then you should offer something for added cleaning time. Some dogs shed very little and some shed a lot. My dog is a heavy shedder and I wouldn't dream of not trying to deal with the bulk of the dog fur before leaving a place, that's where asking for a broom would have been useful.

 

As to the review. If you have written a honest review, based on your experience both with the place and with the host before and during your stay, there should never be any reason to regret it. This isn't junior high school, where you say you think someone is pretty this week, and then when they say or do something next week you don't like, you then change your tune and tell everyone you think she's ugly.

 

As a host, if I have a guest who communicates well, is pleasant during the stay, and leaves the place clean and tidy, and I leave her a good review, just because she may send me some rude message the following week, or leave some complaints in her review, that's no reason for me to rescind or regret my review of her. Because it was my honest experience of her when I wrote it.

 

Airbnb reviews aren't reviews of who someone is, they are reviews of host/guest experiences up to and during a stay. Nothing more. And if a host or guest gets an unexpected bad review, that's what the response option is for.

 

You say your friend has good reviews, one bad review won't ruin his/her life nor prevent you from ever being accepted again,. And I assume your response gave your side of things, so it's your word against theirs. (Too bad you didn't post under the profile in question- if you do that, other posters can read the reviews and responses and better advise you)

 

As a host, if I had a booking request from a guest with a bunch of good reviews and one bad one, the first thing I'd do is look at the host's profile to see if they have a history of giving bad reviews to their guests to see if it was a pattern. If it was, I'd discount the review. If not, I'd just ask the guest if they could tell me a bit about that stay. And then I'd make what I expected guests to do before leaving really clear so everything went smooth.

 

I read one post by a host who accepted a guest who had a horrible review, and when he arrived, she just said "Whatever you did at that place in Italy where you got the bad review, just don't do that here" 🙂   The guest laughed, said okay, and turned out to be a fine guest. 

 

I don’t really know what you meant. You are clearly biased against my post saying this isn’t junior highschool and all that unnecessary stuff. Clearly you can rescind a positive review after finding out the host lie about you and sent you an extortion note? Also what you choose to do with your review is of no interest to me and good on you, just because others doesn’t feel the same it doesn’t mean you can be condescending and lecture them what to do. 

 

i clearly said there wasn’t a cleaning equipment and we followed the cleaning instruction of the house whilst paying the additional cleaning fee. Sure enough our words against theirs and of course hosts will side with each other. Why bother replying?

you also ignored a few other things I said in the post. Maybe you shouldn’t host if you expect your guest to deep clean? Why did you assume we didn’t clean the oven or have excessive pet hair? You are clearly putting words into my mouth.

 

@Mai2032  No, I wasn't being biased and I often take the side of a guest against a host. I wasn't saying you were in the wrong, I was saying what I would do in terms of asking for a broom or other cleaning equipment. Because if I sent the host a Airbnb message asking if there was a broom around, there would be a record of me having made the effort to sweep up the sand and dog hair. Then if the host replied "don't worry about it", I'd have ammunition if she tried to charge me. 

 

Asking for money for extra cleaning, whether it's warranted or not, isn't an "extortion note". Extortion would be her saying "If you don't pay me this money, I'll leave you a bad review". Extortion is threatening someone with something if they don't do what they want you to. Making a bogus claim may be rude and nasty, but it isn't extortion.

 

You said you cooked fish two nights, you never said you cleaned the oven after. Sorry if I made an assumption.

 

I most certainly don't expect my guests to deep clean, so don't make assumptions either. I do leave them a broom and dustpan, though, because I'm also in a beach town and I just figure they probably don't want to get out of bed and have to walk around on a sandy floor in bare feet. But if they don't mind, I'm going to vacuum and wash the floor anyway when I clean, so it's no big deal to me. All I expect from guests in the way of cleaning is pretty much what you said you did- wash your dishes, clean up any personal messes, don't leave garbage around, that's about it.

 

And yes, if I stayed somewhere, had a good time and the place I had booked was good, I'd leave a 5* review and even if the host gave me a bad review, I wouldn't rescind or regret the review I left, because it was a honest review of the place and my stay. The fact that the host was nasty after the fact and left me a bad review wouldn't have bearing on that. I'd just leave scathing response to her nasty, lying review.

 

 

 

 

Heidi588
Level 10
Santa Cruz la Laguna, Guatemala

I'm curious, how were you able to rescind your five star review?

We contacted Airbnb, explained our situation, show them the dodgy receipt and they took our review down. But they can’t do anything about their review on my partners profile, we could only respond to it publicly. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

That’s amazing -

 

I have never heard of Airbnb deleting a guest’s review because the guest wasn’t happy with their own review in five years of hosting @Mai2032  It is against their own T& C to do this. 

 

Not sure why you are posting rather than your partner but tell him if he doesn't think the claim is valid he can deny it and say the host hasn’t provided any proof in terms of photos of additional cleaning needed and a hand written receipt could be written by anyone.

@Helen3  I was under the impression that a user, either host or guest, could ask to have their own  review removed. That's quite different than asking for the other party's review to be removed.

 

I remember reading a couple of posts here where hosts asked to have their own review of a guest removed, because they said something like "XX and YY were great guests", and the guest got upset and messaged the host about it, because while the host assumed they were a couple, the guest was actually carrying on an affair, unbeknowst to their husband or wife.

@Heidi588 @Helen3  Under authorship rules you can ask to have anything you've written removed.  I understand why @Mai2032 got her review removed - I did the same thing this summer with a guest.  I'd written her a nice review after my housekeeper said things looked fine.  We found hidden damage later and I asked her about it - I didn't ask her to pay, I just asked her what a stain was so we could attempt to clean it.  She didn't answer but left a low-star review in revenge.  I later asked Airbnb to remove my review of her and they did.

You can have any review you want removed . . . as long as you wrote it. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I stand corrected - thanks for the clarification @Sarah977 @Ann72 

 

I was thinking of trying yo get the other the other parties review removed when within Airbnb’s guidelines 

 

Apologies @Mai2032