airbnb getting worst! its not about transparency! just keeping guests!

[Carl-and-Elodie0]

I had very few bad guests! oppportunist, agressive, non considerate etc.
I wrote reviews for them. Unfortunatly it doesnt go on their profile.
Here my last review, I only wanted to warm other hosts wich is the point of the reviews!

Lisa, Siddington, United Kingdom · Member since June 2016

"Warning!" Do not take a booking from this individual. This individual is a a manipulator, abusive and a lair. You have been warned the decision is yours. For the specific detailed information just message!"

Here what airbnb send me :

Hello Elodie,

We hope this message finds you well. Your guest Lisa has contacted us regarding the review that you posted for reservation 9NMDKM.

We believe in free speech, transparency, and clear communication. Our community is built on trust, and trust comes from honest conversation. We believe reviews allow our users to share their experience with the community and reinforce the transparency of the site by assisting fellow travelers and hosts in making informed decisions when booking. When we find that these fundamental aspects of our community have not been adhered to, we will step in to ensure the spirit of our community is upheld.

Airbnb’s default position is not to delete, censor, or edit reviews. However, there are some cases in which we may take the extraordinary step of removing a review or disallowing review responses:

- The review violates our content guidelines: www.airbnb.com/help/question/262
- The user leaving a review is suspended by Airbnb for behavior in violation of our Terms of Use or Airbnb policies or whose account is terminated for other safety reasons: www.airbnb.com/terms
- Airbnb is provided with a valid court or appropriate law enforcement order requesting removal of a review.

Based on the information we have seen, we have determined that it is in our community’s best interest to remove the review you posted of Lisa because it breaches our policies and standards. Because of this, we have removed the review in its entirety.

Please take care to follow these guidelines in your future Airbnb transactions. Thank you for your understanding and prompt attention to this matter. We hope you have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Christi B

I did not breach any of these rules.

My point is reviews dont mean anything, as airbnb want keep guests no matter what, they just make sure that these 'no wanted guests' keep using their website and find an accommodation!

"We believe in free speech, transparency, and clear communication. Our community is built on trust, and trust comes from honest conversation. We believe reviews allow our users to share their experience with the community and reinforce the transparency of the site by assisting fellow travelers and hosts in making informed decisions when booking"

Nothing is accurate in this basic, 'customers service' pre written answer!

[Grace16]

I think Airbnb hosts who have unresolved issues with Airbnb should start a FB page and Twitter to point up what now amounts to egregious issues with them, their platform and their overwhelming push to go public. TRANSPARENCY IS A JOKE AND AIRBNB HELP IS A BIGGER JOKE. WHICH OTHER BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY DO YOU KNOW THAT DOESN'T HAVE A WORKING HELP TELEPHONE NUMBER. WOW!  

All they want to do is make their numbers looks so enormous that when they float their IPO that they lure unsuspecting shareholders and comapnies seeking to acquire them or include them in stock portfolios. Caveat Emporum. Buyer beware.

[Grace16]

I think Airbnb hosts who have unresolved issues with Airbnb should start a FB page and Twitter to point up what now amounts to egregious issues with them, their platform and their overwhelming push to go public. TRANSPARENCY IS A JOKE AND AIRBNB HELP IS A BIGGER JOKE. WHICH OTHER BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY DO YOU KNOW THAT DOESN'T HAVE A WORKING HELP TELEPHONE NUMBER. WOW!  

All they want to do is make their numbers looks so enormous that when they float their IPO that they lure unsuspecting shareholders and comapnies seeking to acquire them or include them in stock portfolios. Caveat Emporum. Buyer beware.

[Grace16]

I think Airbnb hosts who have unresolved issues with Airbnb should start a FB page and Twitter to point up what now amounts to egregious issues with them, their platform and their overwhelming push to go public. TRANSPARENCY IS A JOKE AND AIRBNB HELP IS A BIGGER JOKE. WHICH OTHER BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY DO YOU KNOW THAT DOESN'T HAVE A WORKING HELP TELEPHONE NUMBER. WOW!  

All they want to do is make their numbers looks so enormous that when they float their IPO that they lure unsuspecting shareholders and comapnies seeking to acquire them or include them in stock portfolios. Caveat Emporum. Buyer beware.

[Ange2]

They removed it because it could be considered defamatory.

Yes,  I know guests get away with it, but we can't.

The way around it is flag the guests profile choose other and fill in the box,  thumb the guest down, no stars,  and say something along the lines of  "I do not recommend this guest, they are more suited to a hotel environment" and whatever else,  but keep it objective and neutral and impersonal  -   it's a faint praise be damned approach,  apparently acceptable to Airbnb BUT an enormous, bright red flag to hosts.

[Cormac0]

@Carl-and-Elodie0

Another way around the problem is not to except guest that have only recently joined Airbnb this might work for two reasons.

1. only people with a good track record will stay with you.

2. if every host adopted this strategy Airbnb would very quickly reassess how hosts are being treated.

It defies believe that hosts are being treated in such a cavalier fashion by Airbnb, we are placing considerable assets at the disposal of Airbnb to act as a conduit for guests and the balance of risk between guest and host is completely disproportionally in favour of the guest.

Airbnb, seem not to have a grasp of this and need to wake up or their going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

[Ange2]

@Cormac0   The majority of my guests are new with no reviews and 99% plus of my experiences have been great. In fact I have only had two truly terrible guests.

With IB you can choose "only guests with good recommendations", not sure if that is based on the thumbs-up / down function in the reviews or what. 

But hosts need to be honest as well. Many aren't for fear of a bad review, payback with low star ratings etc. that Airbnb will not remove but instead will penalize the hosts for, unfairly,  or the guest has threatened extortion if they don't get a good review.

As for "the goose that laid the golden egg"   what will probably happen is all hosts who are committed to delivering a great experience and take this seriously will leave because there is little support or protection for hosts and Airbnb will be left with irresponsible 'fly by night'  bad hosts, bad guests and terrible PR . But many companies still make a huge profit with such a profile so possible they won't even care.

[Sandra126]

Hosts are usually pretty savvy in reading reviews, between the lines. You need to be more subtle so that the guest will not simply delete their profile or complain to Airbnb. It is more effective. The line given above ''more suited to a hotel environment'' will give plenty of warnings. Any guest review I read which is of the ''A. stayed.'' type of basic wording I think did not do very well at their last place. I always use the words ''recommend to any future hosts'' unless I really don't which is maybe once so far. No ambiguity there!

Write subtly, write to enlighten future hosts, don't write to punish the guest (who is long gone)!

[Claudia365]

Airbnb is all about the guests and not the host. I had a very unpleasant situation with Airbnb guests. They invited street girls (hookers) to the house even thought the House RUles are indicating otherwise. The guests were drunk and I asked them to leave. Since they refused and were in such a bad temper, the police had to be involved. It was a very nasty situation, neighbors watching and me very upset. I called Airbnb to cancel the reservation explaining the situation (let me say that trying to get in touch with Airbnb is a hard work to do, specialy if your country does not have an Airbnb ofice) since I did not want to deal with the guest for refunding. I receive an email from Airbnb: " Due to this incident, I worked with management to give you the full payout and we refunded the guest on our end." However, not only was I discounted from my payouts the nights the guests were not hosted, but also an extra charge due to the reimbursement made to the guests. After getting in touch with Airbnb they said they need to revise and raise the case with account manager. Due to all the inconveniences and insecurity with Airbnb (not to mention lack of commintment towards the hosts-unless of course you are a host that can make Airbnb earn some money) I will definitely remove my profile from Airbnb. 

[Emily140]

@Carl-and-Elodie0

Hi Elodie,

This message caught my eye because I just wrote my first negative review.  My concern before was if my glowing reviews were detailed enough.  Does "wonderful guest" really tell the next host enough?

I wish I could change my first negative review, as I believe you wish you could change yours above so it would not have been deleted by AirBnb.  We each erred, in my opinion, in opposite ways.  I was too detailed, you were not detailed enough.  I was worried she would report me or fight the review so I wanted to present EVIDENCE.  I described exactly what happened (she left her dog in a hot cabin for 9-10 hours without telling me, she left a huge meaty, juicy bone on the bedroom carpet for the dog - ick!  I love dogs so I had to deal with it all.  I was stressed out by having to coax the dog out to pee, the sweet dog was stressed and barking at me... etc.  All this could have been resolved by a respectful guest making --and sharing with the host--a solid plan for the dog while she went to a rock concert.)  My actual review was a lot longer than that, and I was writing on an iPad with no paragraph breaks, so everyone may dismiss my review as the ravings of a lunatic. 

But my point is, I said more than "She was disrespectful." (not enough information, right?)

In your case, I believe you were trying to be helpful and many hosts would have heeded your warning, but your review might have been more effective if in addition to your CONCLUSIONS you were more specific about the events leading to those conclusions; then the specifics would allow other hosts to reach the same conclusion.  In the moment, we think OMG I have to warn people about this $%$&#, but online with no context you have just an opinion/conclusion, and without the details, AirBnb reads your opinion as hostile and defamatory without basis... 

Sorry if I seem motherly; I'm a CPA, we are trained to back up all "conclusions" so another professional (or court proceeding) can understand our judgement!

Here's my version of your review:

I do not recommend to host this guest.  My interactions with her were very uncomfortable.  Here are examples:  I agreed to do (x) for her before she told me she was planning to do (y) [manipulative]; she called another guest/me (whatever names) [abusive] and she told me (a) but I learned that what really happened was (b) [liar].

Make yourself a template, so that when you're really pissed off and feeling abused, manipulated and lied to, you can follow it and achieve a better outcome.  It's too bad AirBnb has become so big, seems they could have COACHED you and asked you to provide an explanation of your conclusions instead of simply deleting your review.

Please don't take it personally; imagine the weird stuff they get... Maybe some host is romantically interested in a guest and then gets angry the guest is not interested in return, and writes something angry and negative just to be mean and spiteful... when it was just misunderstanding of a host or guest being professional and polite.

BOTTOM LINE:  Evidence to support conclusions.  And unlike me, keep it short so people will actually read it 🙂

Cheers,

Emily