Airbnb's refusal to remove a bad review that containged dihonest content

Cathy239
Level 1
Toronto, Canada

Airbnb's refusal to remove a bad review that containged dihonest content

I am extreamly frusterated right now....

I am a super host with Airbnb who manages and lists many properties.

We always go above and beyond for our guests.  Guest satisfaction is of the utmost importance.

We live in Muskoka, Canada in a region called cottage country.  It is beautiful full of lakes,  woodland and nature.

Recently we had guests check in to our cottage that found two ladybugs on a windowsill.  They  could not stay in a large cottage in the wilderness with even two small bugs in it so I being the Super Host that I am offered them a full refund. After they had already stayed for hours cooked a meal and messed up my once clean cottage.

 

They then left a 1 star review saying the cottage was full of bugs.

 

That was a blatent lie.  I brought my concern to Airbnb and this was their response.....

 

 
 
Is it just me or is it not clear that the review was a lie.  The house was full of bugs cannot mean two bugs.....
 
 
I am very disappointed that Airbnb does not seem to value their hosts.  I have always spoked so highly of the company and recommended them to everyone rover competitors.  I really hoped that a company that I have sent so much business to would have listened to me read all of my other reviews and not punish me for the ridiculous nature of this guest...
 
 
I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter...
6 Replies 6
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

My thought are- 2 LADYBUGS? Ladybugs are adorable- I've never met anyone who didn't find them delightful and magical. The guest is bizarre if not crazy, and certainly shouldn't have booked a place in the wilderness if they're freaked out by 2 tiny bugs.

Had the guest not given a 1 star review, I'd have just responded to the review in such a way as to make it obvious how off this is.

But the 1 star review that will tank your Superhost status? Airbnb should have been willing to remove that. If you had just addressed that with support, instead of all the back and forth about "full", you might have gotten a more favorable outcome. It's never good to deal with things when we're mad and frustrated- better to calm down, collect ourselves, give it a couple of days, and then try to say things in a way that will hopefully result in getting what we're after.

The "full could also be interpreted differently depending on how one would view it in this case" is one of the most absurd things I've read in a long time.

 

Gillian19
Level 10
St Leonards, Australia

@Cathy239 I guess I wouldn't mind that they said it was full of bugs - a simple response of 'I apologise for the s ladybugs' would get over that. I would be objecting to the rating - especially after you gave them a refund. The rating hurts you much more than a silly comment as people can see the over-exaggeration in the comment. The rating helps pull you down in the rankings and probably in the search criteria. From a review and ratings perspective I think Airbnb is one of the worst platforms I have used. It treats us like kindergarten children.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Cathy239

I am so sorry someone with your experience has come across this situation.

There are a few observations here.

The guest was just plain unreasonable....but some of them are like that Cathy! I don't know your situation but it could be that the cottage had not been occupied for a couple of days, and I don't care how good someone is at cleaning, insects are never going remain at bay for long. I have had the odd cockroach, ants invaded once when a sticky dessert was left on the kitchen bench. One couple even got woken up in the middle of the night by a possum nibbling away at the fruit in a bowl on the bench, God only knows how it got in there, I felt like bloody Basil Fawlty in that British comedy series!

But Cathy these things are going to happen and as you have found out in the past most guests are reasonable and will laugh it off. People are strange creatures though and when these individuals found a couple of insects, they probably went on a 'witch hunt' searching for bugs and could have come across something else, who knows! You live in a rural area and it is possible they found something else to have a grizzle about and just lumped the lot in together and said the cottage was....'full of bugs'!

 

On another level Cathy, and please don't think I am criticising you, I am trying to establish why Noah was relatively inflexible here in a situation that was clearly out of character.....and some of that could have been in your approach. It may have been better to, instead of thumping him with the thesaurus about bug numbers said......"Noah I am disturbed what this is going to do to me. You can see I have 200+ great Airbnb reviews, never a mention of insects before across any of my listings, so this probably says more about the guest than it says about me or my hosting. This is just from one of those reviews 'The guys were thrilled to be in a spotless and cozy house'! Can you understand what a 1 will do to me Noah...I could be suspended for a 1, I could loose certain priviledges, and Airbnb could loose a great host.... As there are some wild inacuracies here, is there some way you can keep my great record intact and consider removing this review on this occasion" 

Cathy it can be done. There is currently one Airbnb Superhost who has a perfect review record, but this particular host is the subject of the most vitriolic comments on another large web site with a considerable number of disgruntled guests saying their reviews of this host have been removed. The only reviews that remain are this hosts positive ones. I have worked in support and I can say it should not happen but Cathy, maybe it does!

I think the way you approach a problem has a big baring on it's outcome. It may be too late with this particular CS agent because I would doubt he would escalate your case to a supervisor....nobody likes to look incompetent.

Your best course of action may be to approach CS through another avenue, such as Twitter.

Airbnb seems to have dedicated staff who monitor their Twitter feeds and users will usually hear back from them within 5-10 minutes of posting an isssue. I have no personal knowledge of that Cathy but many users suggest this is the case

 

 Step 1: Log into Twitter

Step 2: Search for @Airbnbhelp and choose "Follow" them.

Step 3: Send a Direct Message (DM) explaining your issue and wait for their response.  They may ask for information such as your listing but always provide it over DM so it is not public and it may mean a bit of repetition but you may have a stronger chance of success if you approach this, asking what can be done rather than saying what 'should' be done.

 

All the best with it Cathy I hope you can get somewhere.

 

Cheers.....Rob

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Cathy239 I will put this in philosophical terms. Some countries (NA having two) have a 'little problem': they try to be so 'kind' and have grown so hysterical about the 'absolute rights' of every individual, they always feel 'forced' to accomodate even the most stupid, fearful and even unfair among thems.

 

Of course this is an absurdity. that defies logic and is outside the realm of common sense, or fair play. A visiting Martial would clearly see that; but in all probability, not CS Airbnb personnel who wouldn't have a blessed clue of what I am talking about. 🙂

 

I've recently had an absurd review upheld by Airbnb as well. My neighbors were having a party next door and ran out of booze one night. They texted me (I was out of town on business) and asked if they could grab some from our beer fridge in the garage. I said yes. Apparently, instead of collecting the beer and leaving, they turned on the stereo and started playing ping pong. Unbeknownst to them, we had an Airbnb guest in the apartment above the garage. The guest was awoken, messaged us to quiet down, so my wife shooed our neighbors out of the garage, apologized to the guest, refunded that night to the guest, and offered a full refund if they wanted to find other accommodations. They elected to stay, but wrote in their review that we had a huge party and were sooo drunk we couldn't even walk or talk.

 

My wife was asleep and I was 250 miles away when this disturbance occurred and we told the guest that, but they still slandered us in the review. How can we leave a public review like that? What if somebody we worked with read that review about us being super drunk? Or one of our neighbors? I petitioned Airbnb for removal and they said no. So, we've sent a request to Airbnb to delete our listings and accounts all together. It seems that's the only way to remove a bad review... just delete everything associated with your account. So we're throwing away 205 reviews, 204 of which were positive.

 

Airbnb is not smart for doing this. We gross over $24k/year for them and our listing has a 4.9 star rating. And they just take the word of a guest with 1 review who's never met us in person, but can identify us as drunkards in a group of 5-6 people? Not smart. However, we cannot afford to have slander like this publicly available; our careers and standing in our community are too important to jeopardize.

@Anonymous  While I agree that untrue reviews should be removed, I don't understand why you'd want to delist when you have 204 out of 205 good reviews and a 4.9 average? Just write a response to the review which makes it clear that it wasn't you that was having the party, but the neighbors, who decided to party in your garage without your knowledge. One outlier review isn't going to destroy your business, I assure you, especilly if you leave a brief, professional response.

Personally, I never would have told the neighbors it was okay to go into your garage for beer if I had a guest upstairs. And it sounds like the guest was owed an apology, a bottle of wine, or a partial refund for the disturbance- it wasn't their fault the neighbors were allowed to disturb them.