Why doesn't Airbnb care about false reviews?

[Hodjat1]

Hello fellow hosts,

I never used to complain about reviews even they were low rating ones. I always tried to see them as a way to improve my listing. But recentlly I'm facing with false reviews with very low ratings where I see them totally false reviews and based on lies, misunderstanding or guests faults.

Here, I'm giving three example which I communicated about them with Airbnb:

1- There was an one star rating review which calls me "Host is very rude and arrogant"! Why? Only because they were not repecting house rules and I had ask them several times to respect house rules! I communicated about it to Airbnb and told them that I believe it is a personal attack on me and has nothing to do with my listing, but Airbnb support team said me that it was their perosnal experince and doesn't violate Airbnb review policy!  (By this low rating, Airbnb paused my listing for a while!)

From a fellow host from Budapest, Hungary! 

2- The second one was a guest who was supposed to do check-in at 5 pm ( it was his suggestion), he was not replying my messages  but at the day of check-in (3:42 pm), he wrote me that he cannot make it and will arrive 7 pm. Even though  I didn't have to wait for him, but I asked my wife to wait for him for 2-3 hours, but when he arrived he even couldn't ring the bell or open the door! So, he gave me a two star rating because of check-in and cummuncation! I again asked Airbnb to review his rating because I don't see any fault from my side in cummunication or check-in, but I got lower rating! Airbnb support team considerd it as guest's personal experince! 

3- Today I had another low rating reviw(3 star) because guest thinks that my listing description was not accurate! My listing clearly mentioned as a private room. But guest doesn't understand differece between entire place and private room, and gave a low rating review. I reported it to Airbnb and waiting for their feedback.

Because of my last experinces with Airbnb support team, I lost my hope on them and don't see they want to improve their reviews policy and we as host with efforts we put of our listings do not get what we deserve! 

[Alice595]

@Hodjat1 It is because Airbnb want hosts to work hard in order to keep rating high. Low stars bring your rating down. Then you will work hard to get back. A one star rating needs to have 19 five star ratings to bring you back to 4.8 required for a Superhost.

[Hodjat1]

@Alice595I know this but in case there is a real problem with my listing or my hospitality. What is the relation between personal attack or false reviews to working hard??? I have learned a lot from more than tens of reviews I have received even though some of them were 3 or 4-star ratings but when it comes to personal attack or false reviews, do you think it help me to work hard, if yes, so you are wrong!

[Alice595]

@Hodjat1  It may not help you to work hard. But many hosts who rely on Airbnb to rent their units for income to cover mortgage and other expenses will have to. That is why Airbnb does not care if a review contains true facts or false lies. It could cause them much more work to just make a good judgement. Therefore, it is double edge sword. It could force many hosts to work hard while it could force some hosts quitting to list on Airbnb.

[Hodjat1]

Why doesn't Airbnb change/improve its policies? Airbnb gets 20% (from guest and host) of every booking, so should improve its policies, hire more people to overview reservations and reviews and etc! 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Hodjat1 

we rent the same apartments with the same furniture and amenities and the same style for 3 years. All our guests get the same welcome message, go through the same check-in procedure, see the same description and the same photos.

So if 95% are happy and feel comfortable and 5% are not happy or face problems then it is obvious they blame us for their own mistakes.

[Tracey149]

Feel your frustration. I too have had guests that complained about there being a bed in the studio style suite. The layout of the suite was well detailed and photographed. Guest must not have even looked at listing. As a host when you have everything in order and can prove the guest's complaint is false and unfounded. Airbnb do nothing!

[Christie91]

I have a same issue as you. My guests expected my place was “Entire place”, although it was set as “Private room” in my listing and I also mentioned that “As a guest, you will have your own bedroom and bathroom, share with us common spaces like kitchen, dinning and living room” in “The Space” and in my confirmation message. I got 2-star for my accuracy as well. That misunderstanding also leads to “The Value” rate, which they thought it is less perfect when sharing the apartment with hosts. 

I contacted Airbnb team and they stayed with the guest side. I am a new Airbnb host (nearly 2 months) and got 11 reviews in listing. I was lucky to meet very nice and polite guests, making friends with people over the world, but at the same time it is very stressful and disappointed with 2/11 guests I hosted so far. It turned my day so bad since I made a lot of efforts to please guests and kept asking them if they have any concerns or questions. One of my guests also left the complaint that why I didn’t show them how to use the microwave/oven even they never ask me. Or “a hair” on the floor in the bathroom could lead to 4-star and problem with the cleanliness.

Lots of things I have to deal so far so I blocked all the future days and thinking about disable the host account after finish the final booking of my future guests. I learned much more experienced when hosting and I couldn’t handling those stressful things anymore. I was dreaming to become a Superhost, but now I think it is good for not having problems anymore. Those crazy guests could say anything they want and never admit their mistakes, even lying or claiming for sth you never think about.

[Karen1887]

I recently had a negative review which was unjustified...The guest's child had apparently caused the electrics to fuse by posting a peg into toaster which must have set it on fire (I noticed melted plastic and the toaster was broken) they had blame a mobile air-conditioning unit - which was working perfectly fine and  I wanted to leave a response to explain and refute their accusations... 

Following the instructions on the Airbnb help page - there was no button to click which says 'Leave a REsponse' - so I cannot!

Is there an email address for Airbnb to report that their instructions are false? Does anyone know how to respond to a review, after the 14 days? It is about a month now. Karen