Review from guest who broke rental agreement

Batt27
Level 1
La Grange, KY

Review from guest who broke rental agreement

We received a poor review from a guest who broke the rental agreement by having 11 people when they booked for 5 and the limit is 6.  The review is based entirely on us calling them out on the additional guests and asking them to remove those people.  They didn’t comply and we got Airbnb involved.  Airbnb called the guest to ask them to remove the additional guests and ultimately at our request ask for additional guest fees.  The guest did neither.  We tried getting them to comply with the rules and dealt with Airbnb’s slow support almost the entire week of the guests’ stay.  Unfortunately Airbnb gave us bad information and said we couldn’t evict the guests completely without providing a refund for the unused nights.  They have admitted this was wrong and provided us with a sizable credit for the error.  We were trying to protect our 2 bedroom condo and now Airbnb is saying we can’t remove the review.  We feel like Airbnb is really letting us down as hosts.   Does this seem right that this review wouldn’t be removed?

6 Replies 6
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Batt27 

Airbnb should not only remove the review, but also remove this guest from the platform.

it is not a review, it is exposing violations of rules and terms..

BTW You can  leave a comment on the review.

Thanks @Emiel1.  It’s really disappointing Airbnb would let a guest get away with breaking a rental agreement AND leave a retaliatory negative review that further penalizes a host.  Any thoughts on the best way to escalate our concerns beyond the front line support representatives?

@Batt27  Airbnb didn’t let them get away with violating your house rules. You did. Why wait the week for Airbnb to help you, when it was concerning enough to you to continue following up with them? You have to enforce your own rules, it’s your home and asset. 

You could try to escalate the review on the grounds that it doesn’t provide any relevant information  to help a future guest make an informed booking decision. 

i would highlight that part of the review policy and continue opening the case until you get a resolution. That could take a while but you might be successful if you have the time to be persistent.

Thank you @Marissa160.  Airbnb told us on multiple occasions that even though the guests had violated the rental agreement, if we evicted them, that would be considered an “alteration” and we would have to refund their money.  We didn’t want to lose the rental income, so we continued to pursue getting the extra guests to leave.  Airbnb was extremely slow in responding and we continually received messages that “my shift is ending, my colleague will be following up with you on this case”, which they rarely did.  This drug on for days.  When we talked to our third or fourth support person we learned that we could have evicted the guests without giving them a refund.  Had we known this we would have evicted them immediately. Airbnb proactively credited our account for the bad information. We are very disappointed in the way Airbnb has handled this entire situation.

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Batt27 It is obvious from the review that the guest had a party and then, due to the party goers being drunk, let them stay over. I suggest you approach Airbnb again quoting that their Party Review Policy means the review should be deleted.

 

Thank you @Mike-And-Jane0.  I appreciate the advice.  In reading the policy more closely I see that I was wrong in the impression I had that the policy only pertains to gatherings of 16 or more people.  Any party that causes disruptions, which theirs did, could be a violation.  I will pursue this angle with Airbnb.  Thanks again.