negetive reviews and refund requests

[Ben785]

hello hosts all over the world, lately i have been having some guest come and look for flaws in my house and then go ask for refunds from airbnb and the usually honer it and then on the top of all that they give me a 1 star review. i firmly believe this has become a new scam to get money back and we need to fight it. we have normal wear and tear and one can always find flaws in an old house or even in 5 star hotel. Airbnb is siding with these people all the time and there is nothing we can do about it. please lets all get together raise our voices and let it be heard by airbnb to stop these scams which is nothing but an illegal extortion. we have to made it a mandatory requirement that they give us 24 hours for remedy before they file a claim and place a negative review and add an agreement like homeaway that has a rental agreement which airbnb does not have place for that which is very unprofessional comparing to homeaway.

please support me on this cause if you have had the same experience, which i think its is going to become a norm in the industry when these scammers see that they can easily get away with it

[Anonymous]

@Ben785  Nearly all of your reviews from the last few months have reported issues with the cleanliness and condition of your facilities. These are coming from guests who have been positively reviewed by other hosts, with no indication that they're serial con artists. 

There are scammers out there for sure, and the sheer volume of negative reviews is likely scaring away the better guests. But the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that your property has not been delivered in the condition advertised for quite some time, and you have some very real problems to address there. Your responses to critical reviews often mention money and discounts, but the fact is that whether guests are paying $10 or $10,000 a night doesn't matter - the home still has to be clean and in the condition it's advertised to be. 

[Mark116]

@Ben785  I went back to Feb. and almost every single review mentions issues with cleaning and repair needs.  It is a lovely house in a nice area, so I would suspect if you can get a handle on the cleaning issue your reviews will improve, but you might have to offer discounts for a while since you have so many people who have said roughly the same things.  Once you have the cleaning issue addressed, then, yes, you could invest in a few upgrades to the furniture and home decor items, no need to spend a lot of money, I furnished our airbnb mostly from craigslist and things we already had on hand.