How does Airbnb deal with untrue reviews

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Jolin0
Level 2
California, United States

How does Airbnb deal with untrue reviews

I had bad experiences with my previous guests. I always check with my guests after they have checked in.
One of my guest said everything was great after she checked in but turned out she said she didn’t happy with my house even before she entered into my house and I have cleaning issues and things not working ,etc ( never mentioned during her stay) in her review.After I read all her reviews I realized she lied because she got nothing to do during her stay in LA( everything shut down because of pandemic)and wants to blame on me.
My other guest who didn’t read my house descriptions carefully 
before he book my house, after he arrived he said he doesn’t like my house because we don’t have ESPN channel. Then I don’t feel right so I granted him to leave but didn’t refund his cleaning fee because I found he smoked inside my house after he left. Because of this he left me a very bad review. I called Airbnb to see if they can remove these two ridiculous untrue reviews. But I’ve been told they didn’t violate any rules of review, so the reviews can’t be removed. I believe the review system is for people to know each other better base on some true information but not platform for attacking each other.I checked their review policy but Airbnb didn’t mention anything about how they gonna deal with untrue reviews. In that way, why we need reviews? For protecting guests without thinking of host? I feel like they don’t care about the truth.

1 Best Answer

@Jolin0 Airbnb isn't going to remove a review just because you disagree with it, so that route is a dead end.

 

Most guests are capable of recognizing that one outlier review might be retaliatory and dishonest, if it's drastically contradicted by the other recent reviews. One stinker won't necessarily sink your listing. However, when you have several recent reviews taking issue with the cleanliness independent of each other, prospective guests are going to think something's really going on there.

 

I don't know what your actual cleanliness situation is like, but even if the guests were being dishonest about some things, it's still important to demonstrate in your response that you take this feedback seriously. Prospective guests will feel more reassured if they see that you've acknowledged the problem spots and taken measures to improve on them.

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24 Replies 24
Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Jolin0 I think its fair to say you have zero chance of getting the review removed. What I would suggest though is that as you have at least 4 recent reviews complaining about the cleanliness of the place you put your efforts into cleaning instead.

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

You have my sympathy @Jolin0 . Looks like you've been unlucky with some entitled, trailer trash type jerks with unrealistic expectations. You have many great reviews, not just OK, but great!

 

Wishing you nicer guests in future! 

Jolin0
Level 2
California, United States

Thank you! We are using same cleaning crew and same standards as before, sometimes even more strict. So I’m pretty sure there were no problem at all. I’LP keep trying to make it better but most people came recently were not as good as usual. To my opinion, those good family were chosen to stay at home at this pandemic time but those people who came out were more like seeking free stay. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I don't know how the Covid regulations work where you live @Jolin0  but as you say most sensible people are minimising their travel during Covid. (I thought California was under lock down too)??

 

In the UK it was illegal to host all but essential workers from March to July and we just came out of lockdown in England on 4 July.

 

Sounds like if you are choosing to host guests during a period of restricted travel in your location, that you would be better vetting your guests before agreeing their stay to understand the purpose of their trip and why they chose your place to ensure there is a good fit.


What sort of spot checks do you make with your cleaning company? Do they send you  dated stamped photos of each room when their cleaning is complete?


Sometimes we think a supplier is doing a good job because they have done so in the past. But we need to have systems in place to ensure continued good quality.

 

I agree with @Anonymous  respond to bad guest reviews calmly and professionally addressing points raised, so future guests can see you have taken issues seriously.

This is why I participate in cleaning this is why I meet and greet the guests this is why I need them and do a walk-through I have white floors at white furniture and have white cabinets and countertops if there's dirt there it's an obvious but I am leader of the clean team my problem is we're in Florida and they want to bring sand in the house I tell them you bring sand in this house you're getting your charged financially.... it's ridiculous I am a clean freak am I guess expect a clean house and I expect a clean house as well.... and I put them on notice respectfully but if you're not part of cleaning then you have to have a lot of faith in the people that clean for you I don't. And that's why I'm there to supervise and partake to make sure that house stays clean.

@Jolin0 Airbnb isn't going to remove a review just because you disagree with it, so that route is a dead end.

 

Most guests are capable of recognizing that one outlier review might be retaliatory and dishonest, if it's drastically contradicted by the other recent reviews. One stinker won't necessarily sink your listing. However, when you have several recent reviews taking issue with the cleanliness independent of each other, prospective guests are going to think something's really going on there.

 

I don't know what your actual cleanliness situation is like, but even if the guests were being dishonest about some things, it's still important to demonstrate in your response that you take this feedback seriously. Prospective guests will feel more reassured if they see that you've acknowledged the problem spots and taken measures to improve on them.

I had a very bad experience with an host Khansa and i had a lot to say after staying at her place. I simply could not stay there even though she wanted me to continue living and helping to  pay her rent. She said that she have a lovely room with a bathroom , that was not the case, the room was smelly her stuff was still in the room, the carpet was dirty with cat pee. the bathroom was old fashion and therefore not easy to use. However, We never had a dispute, yet she wrote a horrible review about me kicking her cat multiple times ...People  if i had done something like that wouldn't she have reported it and kick me out of her home?  I couldn't bear it no more i told her that i was leaving and why i was leaving , she resented it and . decided to post stuff that was not true. How does one resolved these reviews that are simply not true? Why should anyone be allowed to write any  kind of reviews that they want to. Additionally, how can Airbnb fix this?

Jolin0
Level 2
California, United States

Thanks for all your reply! So basically, Airbnb doesn’t care about the truth of review. Looks like what we can do is just take it? How often do you have your cleaners washing walls, clean windows? Thanks

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Jolin0  One of your spaces has a 4.3 for cleanliness.  That's really low.  As @Anonymous said, if more than one recent review mentions a lack of cleanliness, that's enough to put others off from booking.  And as everyone said, Airbnb won't remove a review that is the guest's opinion.

 

Rather than fighting to get the reviews removed, maybe look into a new cleaning service.

Jolin0
Level 2
California, United States

I totally understand. I’m totally fine with bad reviews but it has to be true review. Cleaning is the most easiest attacking tool holding by guests. If there’s something piss them up, they gonna use that to attack you. Like the one I mentioned, she said she’s a black family and she think our community doesn’t like her, so she put those angers on me. Thank you anyway 

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Jolin0   You have three entire house listings in three different cities with almost 300 reviews.  Whew!  You are a very busy person. 🙂  Given so many reviews and Air BNB criteria expectations of 4.8, it might be useful for you to do some research and get feedback for your own understanding of why your listings are not meeting standards.

There are a lot of reasons why people give 4 stars or less instead of 5 but overall, guests tend to give 5 stars, expecially with so many guests thus far.  Reviews are opinions and thus not subject to truth.  That is the most difficult concept for any business owner to understand about the review process.  Air BNB  Content Policy addresses several issues, but truth is not one of them I'm afraid.  

Jolin0
Level 2
California, United States

@Linda108 Thank you Linda, as I said I’m totally fine with bad reviews but recently I had lots of issues with my guests. Because of I’m renting entire house out, so there were lots of people booked my house for party, 100% damaged things. If I ask reimbursement from my guest, they will definitely gave me bad reviews. Because we didn’t do anything wrong on my side, so the easiest way for them to fight back is to say we have cleanliness issue. I’ll make more effort on cleaning part but I still don’t think Airbnb review policy is fair. 

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@Jolin0  if a review consists only of demonstrably, factually incorrect statements, you can contest it on grounds of relevance. A guest can't just say "the property was actually in Venezuela and the host is literally a saltwater crocodile." 

 

But opinions about matters like cleanliness are subjective, so there's no point in characterizing them as untrue. It's hard to take negative feedback from guests who acted dishonorably, but it would be an astonishing coincidence if several consecutive guests all made up the same imaginary problem. Have you been personally inspecting all your properties between guests? Are you taking measures to monitor them and actively prevent parties or excess visitors?