What can I do if client wrote bad review, which is not true?

[Irina4]

I had one client from France, young girl. I meet her at airport at 4 o clock morning. I accomodate her. Apartment was clean and nice. Later she ask about wi fi. I brought for her my own portable wi fi. My phone with new sim card I bought for her. 

Next time she got some trouble with guys outside house. My husband went with here to police to solve the problem

then her mother send for her money and she couldn't receive it because she had ony ID, no passport. I ask her to change to my name and I come with her and received money for her.

Then we arranged two excursions for her: dolphins house and desert Safary. 

Then she stayed few more days, then booked. Then my husband send her to airport. She didn't pay for transfer, because she didn't have money. 

When I come to apartment to clean, I found mess in apartment. I cleaned 2 days after her. 

And after all those troubles, she wrote very bad review. 

I was so disappointed that I cryed. I spend so much time and no thanks

How can I manage those situations? I am really surprised

[Irina4]

I don't know, I didn't check her papers. She said she had her ID. I surprised also. 

[Tom196]

Irina,

You really go above and beyond. There's no pleasing some people.

Is there any recourse?

My issue with a review is that the person never showed up and gave me two stars. It turned out to be snowing and on the day of arrival, she canceled because she was afraid of the snow. This was a holiday weekend where we were full on both sides and would have certainly filled those days. In addition, a month ahead of time I told her that it was likely to snow and that she could cancel at no penalty right then, but she said she didn't want to cancel. 

Then she canceled less than 24 hours before arrival, wrote a nice note thanking me for all my help and asked for a refund. When I refused, she gave me a two-star review.

I wonder if it's possible to get a review like that removed.

I don't have a problem with an honest negative review. We just had a guest who felt the house was less private than expected (it's a private apartment, but in our house - the ground floor) and gave a three-star review*. We try to be very clear about the arrangement, but it's his right to give three stars. But someone who is a no-show and then gives two stars?

*I also think he complained about the privacy not because of noise, but because we're a no-smoking house and he was vaping and it reeked of pot vape in our house when he was vaping in the downstairs and I asked him to stop. In seven years in business and hundreds of reviews on TripAdvisor and VRBO, we've never had a noise complaint. I think he was hoping that the "private" house would let him vape even though it's no smoking. But whatever, as I say, I don't dispute his review. It was negative, but ultimately fair. 

[Steve143]

Hello @Tom196,

Contact Airbnb customer service and ask them to remove the review. Guests who did not stay are not allowed to leave a review and she, presuming it's Xiaohan, actually says that they didn't stay.

Steve.

[Tom196]

Thanks Steve,

I was looking for a "flag this review" or "report this review" or something. But as you suggested, I just emailed them.

It's not a huge deal, just mildly bothersome. We have a ton of good reviews on VRBO and TripAdvisor (I think with well over 100 reviews at this point we have one four-star and the rest are five; less success on AirBnB for some reason), so this doesn't kill us.  

I truly felt bad for her. I'm sure she would have come, but she couldn't convince her mother. It was sad and I hate keeping money for a no-show, but in a week when every hotel in the region was full, I just couldn't bring myself to refund.

I actually work for a hotel and we've gotten long, detailed reviews attacking us and when we check, the guest reviewed the wrong hotel. In one case, he said we refused service and sent him away at midnight, refused to refund his X dollars, etc, and when we looked, he checked in at 9pm and stayed the night, the amount paid was totally different than what he said he was charged and the "no children" policy text he was quoting from "our" website was actually from a competitor website while ours was full of family specials). Fortunately we've never had anything like that for our rental!

[David126]

@Tom196

How did you email them?

[Tom196]

Hi David, 

That's what tripped me up. It's not an obvious process because they want you to exhaust the online resources first (totally reasonable). So what you do is this:

Go to the Contact Us page: https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact_us

At the bottom, choose "My question is about something else"

Under "What is your question about?" choose "Hosting"

Under "What can we help you with?" choose "Account and Profile" (my problem at first was I was looking under "Manage Listing")

You'll get a second select box. Choose "Reviews" and then, below the help box, click "I still need help" and choose "A review by a guest."

I sent an email saying that the Content Policy 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/546/what-is-airbnb-s-content-policy

says "Reviews that do not represent the author’s personal experience" are not allowed and I have a review from a guest who never stayed here.

One nice thing - because we communicated almost entirely through AirBnB anonymized emails, the conversation history is all there for customer service to look at. That's why even when a guest cancels or changes via text or direct email, I always ask them to go in and send a message through the system so that it's in the message history in case there's ever a problem.

Tom

[David126]

I would rather call or tweet, set up a Twitter account just in case I need to contact them through that option.

[Andrea9]

@Tom196

>>... communicated almost entirely through AirBnB anonymized emails, the conversation history is all there for customer service to look at..."

I've always been wondering in how far Airbnb can see into those emails, if they are re-routed through their system leaving a record...

So to satisfy my curiosityand garnering of knowledge - did the rep actually say they could read them? I always thought they only saw the on-line message page.

Thnks!

[Tom196]

@Andrea9

I think that as long as you use the obfuscated email address provided by AirBnB, all comunication gets archived in the message history. It's only if you communicate with your direct email address or SMS that the AirBnB reps can't see your communication and you would need to provide documentation.

[Andrea9]

@Tom196

Thanks for that,.

Of course I use my personal email account ,  but by using the 'obfuscated' address as addressee, it's probably re-routed through the Airbnb system where the contents of what I sent are collected. Kind of what NSA does with all digital communication...

And after that passed on to the real guest address.

So that's why guests occasionally haven't received them or only with grafics but missing text, as happened recently... something got lost in the pipeline...

[Tom196]

@Andrea9

Yeah, I don't run backup programs anymore. I count on the NSA to intercept all my communication and if need something, I'll just file a Freedom of Information Act request 😉

[Irina4]

I really feel sorry for your situation. I think, some people do not realize, that they affect others by wrong comments. May they feel sorry after that, but what is done is done. 

I wish all the guest will be happy and friendly

[Marguerite17]

great post-- I would also like to know what to do in these situations-it seems that some guests are using the threat of a bad review to force refunds they are not entitled to. 

[Shani5]

I have received two bad reviews in a row. One let fly that the apartment was dirty and smelled. The apartment is cleaned weekly and again before a guest comes to stay.

Part of this review also said the kitchen was very old - yes it is and I acknowledge that to all my guests - there is nothing I can do at the moment - until I can afford to put a new one in. It is, however, freshly  and clean  and neat.f

There was a final comment that the group didn't like the decorating. It was all redone last year and since it is my primary residence I decorated for me. But people can move cushions paintings anything

The second review said that the management was disgraceful. I was working when the client came and was on a late shift. I told the client where the key was. He opened the key but didn't think he could go upstairs.

[Shani5]

Sorry - I had a computer outage.

He didn't contact me directly but had his partner tell me through Airbnb that I was wrecking his holiday. I left work early to come and sort it out and he had already gone and found so where else to stay.

I  am risking being dropped by Airbnb and have no idea what to do about it. Your help would be greatly appreciated.