Manufactured Complaint?

[Elle82]

We don't offer communication in other languages, we had French Guests that arrived and mentioned there was no washing machine (it did not state there was one in the listing) 

Stayed for 2 weeks without a complaint apart from it was too far from the sea (states the distance in the listing) and the area was not what they expected 

Then 3 days after their stay,  they come up with a complain about it not being clean, they took a lot of photos to try to show it was not clean (saying they were taken on day of arrival)   We have asked for the original photos so we can see the date stamp on them but they will only send them via google drive which removes all that information.

No complaints made about the property at all on arrival or while they were there for 2 weeks, no opportunity to address their complaint which was all cleaning issues and outside space untidy which we are told by the management was made by them and they have rectified their mess for the next guest. They took photos while they were there and management claim it was fine when they arrived and the cleaning was like always, very good.

Do they have the right to now complain and demand compensation after their stay without mentioning their issues to either the owners or management? 

 After they left the management found they had turned off the water irrigation and killed a lot of potted plants and fruit tree's which are not cheap.

They said they would leave very bad feedback unless we pay them compensation, what do we do? 

Should compensation be offered?

[Mike-And-Helen0]

Do you have evidence of the threat of a poor review?

[Yadira22]

Agreed with @Mike-And-Helen0 @if you have this in writing and they leave a bad review after - it is reason to consider this as « extortion » and you can have the review taken down. 

Airbnb’s policy on extortion 

« 

What is Airbnb's Extortion Policy?

Reviews are a way for Airbnb guests and hosts to share their experiences with the community. Any attempt to use reviews or review responses to force a user to do something they aren’t obligated to do is a misuse of reviews, and we don’t allow it. (Find out more about how reviews work.)

This policy applies to situations including, but not limited to:

• Guests threatening to use reviews or ratings in an attempt to force a host to provide refunds, additional compensation, or a reciprocal positive review.”

@Elle82 given the manner the situation was handled is very unfair to you- personally I would not give any refunds or compensation. My general rule is all consideration for a guest goes the moment their goes for me as a host. 

If it was not clean they should have contacted you within 24 hours not after their stay. If the photos taken have the “desired date stamp”  on them, then showing you this should not be an issue. 

What you do is up to you as this your space but I wish you good luck and happy hosting! 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Elle82 Since these guests are bound to leave a bad review no matter what (unless they tried to extort you for a good review, as mentioned above, in which case Airbnb should remove their ability to review) , I'd send them a charge for turning off the irrigation system and killing all the plants. Those plants will probably be somewhat costly to replace. Of course, they will refuse to pay, but maybe they'll back off the refund game if you do this. They're manufacturing faults, when in fact, they caused damage.