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
Lachristy0
Level 2
Atlanta, GA

they don't deal with them, unfortunately  you are enslaved to reviews as a host 

Anthony608
Level 10
Silver Spring, MD

I'm dealing with this right now.  A guest who checked in with a smile, reported no problems at all with the stay, and quietly departed the following morning.  3 star overall (my first ever) as well as saying we did not communicate with him (there were plenty of messages where we did, but he never answered) and he also stated the photos of the home were not the property listed, which was clearly not true.  3 stars as well in location and value.

 

I reported this to AirBNB and I really hope they take the review down.  He actually tried to cancel the day before, and couldn't because of the refund policy, and I think he left this review in anger.  Also, he specifically stated the kitchen was unclean, which made no sense since we just had a professional cleaning company come through.  I was looking around the kitchen to try and find some clue about what he was talking about, and now believe that he may have actually pulled the stove away from the wall (which would have taken a lot of effort) since there *was* a dark grease spot behind the appliance (I cleaned it today).  That's clearly someone looking for a problem to give a bad review.

 

I am hoping AirBNB is sensible.  I have a recent streak of 4 star people, for no apparent reason, and its upsetting this guy is trying to pull something like this now.

@Anthony608   Are you referring to your most recent review?  The only text that is publicly visible on that one is "You get what you pay for." Could it be that the cleanliness remarks were only in the private feedback?

@Anonymous- Yes, in his private feedback he stated the house was unclean, the photos for the house were not the correct property, and most incredibly of all, gave a 1 star in communication stating that the host had failed to communicate with him when he had been sent plenty of welcome messages and I had greeted him at the door and helped him find a restaurant for dinner. Also 3 stars in location and 3 stars overall. 

 

Communication and photos were clearly lies which is what I told AirBNB.  The guest was also overheard upstairs on the last night talking with his partner about deliverable leaving a bad review to get a refund.  On top of it all, just since last night, I now suspect the man in my house was actually the son of the person operating the account since the account photo shows a guy in his late 30s/early 40s, yet the person in the house looked to be about early 20s and didn't resemble the photograph.  I haven't talked to AirBNB about that yet; if they deny my protest to take down the review, I might call them back about that second issue.

@Anthony608  Airbnb is not going to remove a public review based on private feedback that's only visible to the host. And the star ratings are considered subjective - it's  a losing argument to insist that you deserved higher ones. You can't prove that the person on your property was not the one who booked, so that's not a case worth waiting on hold to make. I think if there's any basis for removing that particular review, it's on the "Relevancy" standard; one could make the case that "You get what you pay for" provides no useful insight as content. 

 

That's a long shot, though - it's very unlikely to work. You can post a public response, but to be honest I would just let that one go. You can't really argue with a tautology.

@Anonymous- You are probably correct.  Also, this was a situation where this guest was clearly up to something.  Its now obvious he pulled a heavy stove away from the wall to look behind it (I had to reset it today, actually) and that's not something a normal guest would do unless they are looking for an issue.  I also am wondering if his one sentence "you get what you pay for" review, while he also sent me some very negative private feedback, was since he knew that putting all his feedback publicly could have generated a negative public reply. 

 

He was very nice while in the house, no indication of any issues, and I wonder if he has done this before since he has positive reviews himself.

Karla128
Level 6
Vallejo, CA

Try this: 

ask if the guest is satisfied the cleaning. If not you will be happy to have the cleaner do it again. 
I had a guest telling me the day she arriving, so I had my cleaner cleaning again. My cleaner reported me the spider only at patio. Lol, some people having problem to see that. And assuming was not cleaned.  So I asked the guest again, if she prefer cancel it because in our area has lots Friendly spiders, not possible to keep them away. 
But she choose to stay and promised me will not use that against me. After she lived here for full month, she given me 5 stars everything. I think she realized that I was telling the truth. 🙂 and she was amazed how I take care business , even I was out of country. 

Curtis22
Level 2
Winnipeg, Canada

I just had guest at two of my listing throw parties and wrecked my property. After I sent a request for money the one guest phoned me and told me I wasn't getting any money but I was sure going to get a review, then went on to leave a bad review

The other guest also threw a party then did not leave until 1 1/2 after check out after we asked him to leave, he told me to enjoy my review and was documented. Then went on to leave 1 star

Airbnb support took weeks to respond then told me they did nothing wrong

@Curtis22 I hope that after these incidents, you've taken some measures to prevent home-wrecking parties from happening in the first place.

Alessandra334
Level 10
Rome, Italy

@Jolin0 i had the same issue with a false review by a guest that say great things to me during the stay and then left 2 star general and 1 the rest .  I call Airbnb with chat, photo ect they cancel... After few hours they put that on line for their mistake of judgement??!! I call again several time but thei Say Always no and finally Say that Airbnb don't cancel false review even the host has prove It .

Airbnb Is 100% pro guest . 

 

 

Alessandra