Revenge Review and Airbnb Support

[Stella479]

I ve got a one-off bad untrue offensive review  from my guest Bassam " the hostess was a disaster with horrible service and experience".  It happened right after my reimbursement from him for extra cleaning. 

One specialist ignored me and all proofs. She just closed conversation

Then I called Airbnb and another support specialist he promised to help but after a while as robot send me same message "Typically, we don’t remove reviews because they help to create a clear picture of the types of experiences our Hosts and guests enjoy. There are occasions when we do consider their removal, you’ll find out more about these in our Review Policy:"

I sent him screenshots of our chat with Bassam whe he insult me and threaten but Airbnb support also ignoring this. 

Feel terrible as superhost. Please any ideas? Who went through this? May be to run petition from Airbnb hosts to change REAL policy about revenge guest reviews?

[Anonymous]

@Stella479  You can post a public response to the review,  simply saying that it was retaliation for your compensation request. But in this case I think it would do more harm than good, because it will just make the review stand out more from the others. And prospective guests might be put off when they see you've demanded money from previous guests after checkout. 

For reference, the actual review that you mention is:

the place was good but the hostess was a disaster with horrible service and experience plus the blankets and pillows don’t get washed after every client

I guess you could argue that calling you a "disaster" goes against this guideline in the Review Policy:

To keep reviews relevant, we recommend avoiding the following:

• Profanity, name calling, and assumptions about a person’s character or personality

But they call it a "recommendation," not a requirement, so I'm not sure that flies as a reason to censor the review. 

[Helen744]

@Stella479 . this is a perfect reason to have a review removed . This is not about the house, but about you personally and is damaging to you . It should be removed as not relevant to a description of the guests stay ,but a personal attack on you  and your abilities ,nothing to do with the house. H

[Helen744]

this person calls you a 'hostess' this is not what you are . You are the host , male or female and the opinion about the bedding is not relevant as its obvious its unprovable .Few people wash blankets and pillows after every guest but covers are in place for this reason H

[Gwen386]

@Helen744 I wash blankets after every single guests, whether I know if they used them or not. And, the only reason I don’t wash pillows after every guest is because each pillow has 3 cases. The first case is perspiration proof, the second one is a pillow cover, and the top one is 100% cotton. 

[Huma0]

@Gwen386 @Helen744 

I don't use blankets (I have duvets with covers and bedspreads) but would wash them in between guests if I had them. Pillows, no. I also use pillow protectors.

However, if this guest thinks that Airbnb hosts normally wash pillows in between guests, he is mistaken. Hotels do not do this. They often don't even wash the decorative bedspreads/runners for months.

[Helen744]

@Huma0 I have duvets or doonas as we call them and extra blankets , which it is up to the guest to use or not . All sheets and pillowcases and duvet covers are washed but during covid I did not have cushions or extra throws or blankets at all, now those things are only washed when they need to be or replaced when they need to be. I try not to freak out about germs anymore and do a little decorating.H

[Gwen386]

@Huma0 This is why I do wash them. I was utterly grossed out the first time I read hotels didn’t do it—not even the 5* ones. So I make it a point to strip their bedding and put on my own. I even have a friend that just makes a run to a Walmart and purchase all her bedding.

I make it a point to go above and beyond hotels. I guess another reason I do less traveling. 

[Huma0]

@Helen744 @Gwen386 

Exactly. I think that if guests like these realised what even 5* hotels do as standard, they would realise that a lot of Airbnb hosts go above and beyond that, whilst charging substantially less. 

[Stella479]

Thank you @Anonymous  and @Helen744  for advice.

But my support agent got pretty passive agressive to me and want hear nothing, he ignoring facts and proofs. Is there any CS agents on the forum who could help?

About blankets and pillows cleaning sounds same weird for me as washing matrasses after Every guest. I clean it once a year or after it get dirty. Pillows and blanket filling like bamboo fiber not used for regular daily washing. 

[Anonymous]

@Stella479   It seems like basically everyone's instinct when they get an unflattering review is to demand that it get censored, so I guess the CS operators must get pretty fed up with getting constantly badgered by that.

I can understand your frustration here, but on the other hand I think you can give your prospective guests a bit of credit too; anyone with a few brain cells sloshing around in there isn't going to let one poorly-written mini-rant out of dozens of great reviews deter them from booking. This review may hurt your ego, but not your business.