Did you know that as a host you are not allowed to write a review on a guest that "does not represent the author’s personal experience or that of their travel companions?" I never write reviews on my guests that stay in my two condos because I personally have not met them or witnessed myself the conditions of the condos upon their departure because I live 3500+ miles from "my homes away from home"....the condos are located on an island. Hence, I have cleaning staff communicate with me the condition of each condo shortly after the guest vacates the premises to determine whether or not to file a legitimate claim against the guest's security deposit.
Unfortunately, I recently had a guest who had lost items that I make available to all my guests while on their vacation and therefore, I filed a claim through the Airbnb Dispute Resolution Center within the 14-day period upon guest checkout.
What I found interesting was that through the Dispute Resolution Center, the guest I am sure was notified of my claim and the dollar amount that I had filed against the security deposit, but sadly I did not receive a prompt response as to whether or not this guest would accept the claim "as is" or submit a reply with a renegotiated amount. However, the guest did write an online review once I had submitted my claim through the Dispute Resolution Center. Do you see where I am going with this?
So I contacted Airbnb Support and informed them that I did not really care to provide a negative review for a guest that I had not met or personally seen the conditions of my condo upon the guest check out. I also mentioned to Airbnb Support that I did not appreciate how this guest ignored my claim and did not promptly reply to it. Airbnb says that the guest has 72-hours to respond to all claims. I thought it was interesting that this guest had no problem taking the time to write me a review of which Airbnb Support could see but not share with me unless I had written my own review or waited until after the 14-day review period had expired. I was notified by Airbnb via Email that the guest had written a review. This review was 4-days after her departure of which I could not see for 14-days unless I likewise had written a review about the guest. Coincidently, her review was written within 24-hours after I filed a claim against the guest. Do you think this was a coincidence or should I have given her the benefit of the doubt? The majority of my guests write their reviews usually within 24- to 48-hours of check out while the experience is fresh in their memories and because of the friendly reminder that Airbnb sends to the guests.
I requested that Airbnb put some pressure on this particular guest to reply to my claim immediately otherwise, I would go public and let other hosts know how this guest really is. Unfortunately, because I am not physically present to see the conditions of my condo and that because I have to rely on third-party information (i.e., my cleaning staff of 35+ years experience), I was informed by Airbnb Support that I was not allowed to write a review based on the information from my cleaning staff because it is against the Airbnb content policy "that it does not represent the author’s personal experience." This was confirmed by Airbnb management who assisted me in getting my claim pushed through before the 72-hour response deadline for the guest of which I greatly appreciated.
The moral of this story is there is no way for a host like me to write a claim on anyone who stays in my two condos because of the present Airbnb review content policy; however, Airbnb continues to send me Email notifications to review all my guests. I don't like to write negative reviews on guests, but Airbnb makes is difficult to write a negative review when the dispute resolution timeline is in the hands of the guest and leaves me vulnerable knowing that I couldn't write a negative review within a 14-day time period if I wanted to. The power is in the hands of the guests and they can take their sweet time or ignore your messages altogether up and through the 14th day. Meanwhile, I have no recourse. Does this sound reasonable to you?
Do you think this policy needs to be amended for hosts that are in my particular situation? How am I to provide information to other hosts if I cannot provide honest feedback from a third-party source that cleans and/or manages my condos? Sounds to me like Airbnb is looking out for the guest and not the Super Host. Would love to hear feedback from the online community about this specific topic.
Happy Hosting.
