Owners reluctant to write negative reviews

[Scott-And-Lisa0]

Hi- 

We are new Airbnb owners and have relied on reviews to approve guests. After reading many conversations in this group and reading many reviews, it seems owners are reluctant to give a bad review of a guest. Unfortunately we had a bad rental, one that none of you would appreciate. While the guest had good previous reviews, this group of “friends”  they had with them was different or it was just a very wild weekend. Either way we feel obligated to warn future rental owners of our experience with this guest. If owners are reluctant to give negative reviews, it’s tough to rely on reviews for future rentals.  Any suggestions , comments or similar situations would be appreciated. 
Thanks-

Scott & Lisa

[Sarah977]

@J-Renato0  Stating that a guest left the place a mess, or ignored the house rules, is what you classify as "gossip"? I doubt any other hossts would agree.

But it's become quite evident long ago that you can't bear for anyone to have a difference of opinion from you and always find it neccessary to be right.

[J-Renato0]

@Sarah977 

It seems to me that you want to play the censorship person of this community!

You are also distorting my words.

I have my personal opinion as I have always stated it.
It was you who firstly addressed me to critcize, I have the right to reply.

I have 4 listing and I am successful with them. 
So I have the right to have my say!

Airbnb has thousands of hosts and certainly they are doing well!
I am one of them. Every host has the right to have its opinion, whether you like or not.

[J-Renato0]

@Sarah977 

Another thing - I have just seen that you thumbe up a post that goes like that

"'X and X seemed at odds with the Airbnb concept and would have been better suited to hotel accommodation'."

What is the problem with you @Sarah977 ?   Be honest! Be coherent !

Gimme a break !

[Sarah977]

@J-Renato0 Of course everyone has the right to state their opinion here. Censorship? Did I say anything about thinking you shouldn't post your opinion? I just took a different viewpoint. 

As for what posts I "liked", it's never occurred  to me to check who "liked" my posts or anyone else's in all my time on the forum. 

As for me liking Gordon's post, he said his review stated that the guest seemed not to be in tune with the Airbnb ethos, not just that he wrote only "Better suited to a hotel." Also I never said that phrase should never be used, I said I prefer informative reviews, as I don't know what a host's criteria for using it would be.  I prefer facts that I can use to make my own decision, rather than another host's subjective opinion.  And I don't have to agree with every word in someone's post to thumbs up it. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@J-Renato0 I think all @Sarah977 meant was that she appreciates (wants) reviews that tell her what actually happened during a guests stay. I don't think it was an instruction that other hosts must comply.

[Ina25702]

@J-Renato0 Thank you for the useful links, I read them and rewrote a negative review in which I briefly and specifically wrote what I did not like.
But my question is why some hosts don't write negative reviews. So far I have found 2 reasons: 1. unwillingness to lose the medal superhost and 2. fear of revenge

[J-Renato0]

@Ina25702 

I am glad  to know the links were useful and helped you with the review.

As for your question "why some hosts don´t write negative reviews..."

1- Writing negative reviews does not affect superhost status.

2- I do not see reataliation as a reason, because neither the host nor the guest can see the reviews before both having posting the reviews or when 14 days after check out has passed.

However, what I have said above does not explain all the other reasons why some hosts does not write a negative review when some guest deserve it.

Sometimes it is a mystery. The ones who complain about bad guests and does not write bad reviews should have their say here!

Maybe only them know why they do not! 🙂

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ina25702 Leaving a negative review will not affect the super host status. All reviews are blind.

[Sarah977]

@Ina25702  Leaving a less than flattering review has nothing to do with Superhost status.

And while I've often heard this "fear of revenge" excuse for not leaving an honest review, it seems  to be a completely unfounded fear. A guest isn't going to come back and vandalize or burn your house down because you wrote a review they didn't like.

I'm quite sure that if that had ever happened, we'd have heard about it by now. Guests aren't generally nearly as emotionally invested in the reviews they are left as hosts seem to think they are, or that hosts are themselves about the reviews guests leave.

[Emilia42]

@Sarah977 I once laid into a guest on the review then blocked him. He called my work and started screaming. I obviously hung up on him and that was that. Just part of doing business, I guess. The real "fear of revenge" I feel is if a guest retaliates by reporting my listing for some untrue, unjustified reason. But still, it won't stop the Airbnb bots from suspending my listing for 5 days while they "investigate."

[Sarah977]

@Emilia42  Yes, that's a possibility. A good reason to wait out the review period until near the end for an objectionable guest. I may be dreaming, but a guest "reporting" a host for some bogus issue 14 days after check out might lead Airbnb to question the validity of it more than if they report the host soon after check-out.

While we mostly read the stories here about Airbnb automatically taking the guest's side and suspending hosts' listings, I've also read posts where the host said Airbnb dismissed the guest's claims at the outset. And since hosts tend to post only when they get shafted, there may be many more instances where the guest's report is given short shrift than we think.

It seems like the reporting by guests tends to be more for the purpose of scamming a full refund than as revenge for a bad review. But of course vindictive people are capable of anything.

[Emilia42]

@Sarah977 

I was recently told a concerning story by a local host. He hosted a young group and no reviews were exchanged. Six months later he was being investigated as this group had reported him for privacy concerns. Luckily, he had video footage to back up his side of the story but his listing was still suspended for the standard 5 day period while he worked things out with Airbnb. This was at the start of the pandemic and I thought that maybe the claim took six months to be addressed since Airbnb was so short-staffed. But this host was under the impression that these guests fell on some hard times and were trying to recoup some of their money (refund) from the stay 6 months piror. 

[Sarah977]

@Emilia42  Jeez, there should be some statute of limitations on complaints and refund scammers. 

Who ever heard of taking something you bought months ago back to a store expecting to get your money back.

[Brian2036]

@Emilia42 @Sarah977 

That is really distressing and if this becomes common practice CS will have a lot more claims to deal with.

Offhand I can think of some claims that would be nearly impossible to refute.

I don’t want to go into detail in case some of the con-artists haven’t thought of them yet, but they probably have.

Airbnb could curtail this extortion opportunity by merely refusing to entertain claims after a reasonable period of time.

6 months is certainly not reasonable.

[Mary4634]

I recently had two sets of guests that I would not recommend. One I wrote a bad review for. In retaliation they asked Airbnb to remove the good review they wrote for me. The  others I’m still deciding what to do. Every situation is different because each guest is different.