incident investigation

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Sophie-Louise0
Level 2
Foggia, Italy

incident investigation

Hi there everyone,

I am in the middle of Airbnb conducting an investigation into an incident that took place at our listing after I tried to dispute a 1 star review the guest left (due to the fact they left our gas cooker on and then complained of a gas smell, then complained about this in a review) I am so upset that there is now an ongoing investigagtion into this as the guests were to fault. Can anyone give me advice  so my listing does not get banned over this? 

1 Best Answer

@Sophie-Louise0 ,  You can be sure that the advice above from @Mike-And-Jane0  is correct.  There's really not a reasonable reading of the dispute moderation policy for reviews that would deem the review from L*** to be in any kind of violation, regardless of your suspicion that the guest was responsible for the gas smell. In fact, the guest's primary complaint was not about the gas itself, but rather the fact that nobody answered his calls for help. The relevancy of that is beyond dispute, but guests can decide for themselves whether they feel a host needs to be on-call at all hours whenever something goes awry.

 

I'm afraid you're getting a baptism by fire here; not only about the futility of disputing reviews, but also the fact that if you draw a safety or health hazard to Airbnb's attention, your listing may get suspended regardless of whether the guest is at fault. 

 

But if it's any consolation, your public response to the review was very classy and professional, and should assuage any concerns. Rather than resorting to unnecessary censorship, have a little faith in your prospective guests' intelligence.

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11 Replies 11
Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Sophie-Louise0 sadly by involving Airbnb in a futile attempt to get a review removed you have opened up a can of worms. It is highly likely Airbnb will suspend your listing until you get a report from a gas engineer that the gas leak has been fixed. Yes, I know there was no leak but Airbnb are often not clever enough to figure that out. Just reporting there is no leak may not be enough for them!

Thanks for replying, I live in Italy, will they also need the report translated into English, I don't quite understand how guests can be allowed to leave a review about an incident they created themselves. I would assume it falls under the 'out of my control' section of the review dispute process. 

@Sophie-Louise0 Airbnb do not judge who is telling the truth in reviews. I really think you have no hope of getting the review removed. Let's just hope you manage to keep listed!

@Sophie-Louise0 ,  You can be sure that the advice above from @Mike-And-Jane0  is correct.  There's really not a reasonable reading of the dispute moderation policy for reviews that would deem the review from L*** to be in any kind of violation, regardless of your suspicion that the guest was responsible for the gas smell. In fact, the guest's primary complaint was not about the gas itself, but rather the fact that nobody answered his calls for help. The relevancy of that is beyond dispute, but guests can decide for themselves whether they feel a host needs to be on-call at all hours whenever something goes awry.

 

I'm afraid you're getting a baptism by fire here; not only about the futility of disputing reviews, but also the fact that if you draw a safety or health hazard to Airbnb's attention, your listing may get suspended regardless of whether the guest is at fault. 

 

But if it's any consolation, your public response to the review was very classy and professional, and should assuage any concerns. Rather than resorting to unnecessary censorship, have a little faith in your prospective guests' intelligence.

Sophie-Louise0
Level 2
Foggia, Italy

thanks so much, I appreciate your kind words, it seems like I brought it all upon myself by writing to Airbnb to dispute the review. That being said and done, I did my best to damage control with the reply function, do you have any idea now where to go from here with the fact Airbnb have opened an official investigation, a written report from the gas technician? change to an electrical cooker so there would be no gas at all in the house again? I don't want to have my listing deleted over this fiasco. Airbnb said they wanted to speak with me, but haven't actually contacted me. 

@Sophie-Louise0   Over the long-ish term, switching to electric might be practical for other reasons - the Russian war can potentially cause more severe price increases and shortages for gas than for other fuel sources. But I wouldn't buy a new appliance over one lame review.

 

Since your listing hasn't actually been suspended, you might want to just wait and see if Airbnb actually requests anything from you. They use the word "investigation" to mean a lot of things, but most of the time, customer service is just a bunch of remote contractors fumbling around in the dark.

Sophie-Louise0
Level 2
Foggia, Italy

thanks! I am really grateful the input from yourself and @Mike-And-Jane0  it's been so nice to hear from other hosts! I am also so relieved you think the reply was well written, it was hard to write a calm measured, polite reply! I really hope nothing more comes of it, we shall see! but in the meantime thank you both so much! I have still got a lot of learning to do. 

@Sophie-Louise0 

 

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I agree with @Anonymous that your response to the review was very good.

 

I was just wondering if you do self check in or show guests around when they arrive? I hope that future guests will not be this clueless, but I also have a gas hob and I do tell guests to make sure they turn the gas fully off. It should be obvious, right? But I have learnt with hosting that what you think is obvious is not always the case with others.

 

Hopefully, your listing will be up and running soon and future guests will see from you measured and polite response to this review that it was actually the guests who were being clueless, and not that you did anything wrong. 

Sophie-Louise0
Level 2
Foggia, Italy

hey there,

yeah I have taken this as a time for host reflection and what I can do to make it better, how I can protect myself against people like this coming and potentially ruining my earnings by leaving 1 star reviews. I naively thought that taking it up with Airbnb would help and I could get it removed. No. out of the frying pan and into the fire! So thanks, I do walk guests round my listing, but I also need to include a reminder about the gas cooker and making sure its turned off and possibly that I cannot be available in the early hours of the morning. I have a very young child and I am exhausted by the end of the day. I just didnt wake up.  It blows my mind how out of proportion this has gotten and that it would never have happened if I hadnt flagged it up myself to Airbnb. I didnt realise they would slap ME on the wrists for it. 

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Sophie-Louise0 there is little you can do to protect yourself other than under promising and over delivering. Do rest assured though that guests like yours are rare so hopefully your future experiences will be much better. Time to (hopefully) put this behind you.

Sudsrung0
Level 10
Rawai, Thailand

My husband says never assume anything with guest.

Fortunately we are all electric but even that gets left on.

2 girls damaged my cooker by leaving it on, 

My only worry is in our villas we have BBQ's we know of one that got left on,