Asked guest to leave the property. Left me with a Negative Review

Asked guest to leave the property. Left me with a Negative Review

I need some advice here as Airbnb is taking this guest's side saying his review was not in any violation.

My guest booked for 3 nights in my guestroom, the same house I live in. He had zero reviews.  During his stay, the whole place smelled of weed. And at midnight, my video doorbell notification, popped with a Person Notification at the door. I immediately came out of my door but my guest was very quick to let this woman into my guestroom. I asked this guest to leave as he had broken two rules. I had Airbnb case manager on speaker phone. This guest caused a lot of issues. By the time he left at around 2a.m., I brought up my concern with my Airbnb case manager that what happens when he leaves me a negative review. She advised it will be taken down. Now this guest's has left me a bad 3* review. I rung up Airbnb, that's another story. They do not think his review is in any violation at all.

25 Replies 25
Christine1081
Level 4
Humboldt, TN

Your rules have to be specific. If there is no smoking (of any kind) it needs to be stated. I had this happen over vaps and a female guest who let a male guest in. My booking info says that two people can stay in the room. Therefore since she invited him in and my booking info allowed two in the room that was acceptable according to airbnb. After I calmed down a bit I agree. Then adjusted my booking to state smoking can occur on the property outside of the room. That took the vapes outside instead of inside. You might consider tweeking your info which is not uncommon to do as a new host and as your experiences continue to develop. I've had over 700 guests on my property in 3 years now...it takes time.

BTW I lost with airbnb on my deal as well. Learn from it.

Christine Warrington

@Christine1081  Actually, vaping isn't smoking- it produces water vapor (hence the term vaping) , not smoke. So technically, you would have to specifically state no vaping or a guest could challenge that.

Well technically I work in healthcare-drug development. It stinks like a cigarette whether it's liquid or not and will eventually see similar restrictions to cigarettes which have been declining in usage while vaps exploded in sales. It's all the same. For me ALL forms of smoking outside on one of 8 acres I have but not inside. 

Christine Warrington

@Christine1081  You missed my point entirely. As far as I'm concerned, a host has the right to set any house rules they want and their guests need to follow them. My point was that vaping isn't a "form of smoking". Smoking involves smoke. Vaping doesn't, so a guest wouldn't be breaking any rules by vaping in a non-smoking unit. They would be breaking rules if you state no smoking and no vaping.

And no, all vaping doesn't smell like a cigarette, nor marijuana. When I was quitting smoking, I got an electronic cigarette which consisted of nothing more than water, glucose, and some light flavoring. It had no smell at all, as confirmed by my ultra-smoke-sensitive oldest daughter.

You could boil an open pot of water on your stove and it wouldn't put out any smell. You could put tobacco in the water and it would stink like tobacco. You could put a drop of vanilla in the boilng water and your house would smell like vanilla. It isn't the act of vaping that smells, it's what they are vaping.

In my rules, It is stated smoking of any kind eg cigarettes, and weed is not allowed. No unregistered guests allowed. 

Review from guest "

Overall rating


Public review
Reply

If you plan to stay, just remind the host that you will have company so they won’t freak out. Also the lay lives in the house. An she doesn’t like colored people. 😂😂 This is America.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

OMG @Hazel26  I would definitely challenge Airbnb on this as he has accused you on being a racist. This is completely unacceptable. 

When a guest has broken house rules and you ask them to leave. DO you expect a glowing review from them? Human nature tells me they will retaliate by doing so in their review. Airbnb is supposed to protect their host

@Hazel26    Airbnb view everything as "useful to future guests" so it is nigh on impossible to get a review removed however dishonest, retaliatory, petty it is,  even when you can prove it Airbnb say it won't remove the review  because it is a guest's 'perception' —I have been there.  Your other reviews are great,  if you can't have it removed ignore it or write a brief response. However, most guests see a retaliatory review for what it is so maybe not even worth a response unless it reiterates rules for future guests who may not read the description/rules but do read reviews.

 

 

Thanks Ange.

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

Hi @Hazel26   I am confused.  I did not see a listing on your profile.  Did you deactivate it?  I also did not see any negative reviews in the last year.

I had to remove my listing after his review. He is inciting and retaliated by what he has said in his review after being asked to leave.

 

Public review
Reply

"If you plan to stay, just remind the host that you will have company so they won’t freak out. Also the lay lives in the house. An she doesn’t like colored people. 😂😂 This is America."

@Hazel26 I believe you might have been able to get this review taken down based on "An she doesn’t like colored people. 😂😂 This is America." which seems to fall squarely under the "relevance" criteria:

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673/airbnbs-review-policy

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/548/airbnbs-dispute-moderation-for-reviews

 

 

I thought so too. But none of the case managers agree. They have escalated it to their specialist team and their decision is this

 

Michael, Jan 28, 09:51 PST:

Hi Hazel,

My name is Michael, and I work here at Airbnb on a specialized team.

I have reviewed the content of this guest's review and as confirmed in our previous correspondence, we’re unable to remove, edit, or censor Prince’s review as it doesn’t violate our policies. We can only remove reviews if they go against our guidelines and we cannot make any exceptions.

You can read more about this in our Help Center:

www.airbnb.com/help/article/546

Michael
www.airbnb.com/help

Sean433
Level 10
Toronto, Canada

@Hazel26 

 

Keep trying to message airbnb about removing it. I once had to ask on 3 separate occasions and finally the third Rep removed it. It is very much discretionary. I don't even bother calling. I just send a message. Saves time. If the first rep declines, I wait and ask again and it goes to another rep. Again, it is discretionary so one rep may think its a violation while another may not.

 

Your strategy for the second request may be, "Guest wrote a confusing review. He wrote the lay lives in the house. I am not sure what that means. This reference to Lay is unclear and will confuse guests. Therefore, can this be removed on the grounds of irrelevancy?" --- If this doesn't work, on your third attempt you can write.. "Guest is suggesting I am racist without providing explanation in his review for why he thinks that. This is vague and defamatory. I request that this remove be removed on the grounds of defamation".

 

Try my suggestions, there is good chance one of the attempts will work. Should only take 10 minutes of your time vs removing your listing, losing all your good reviews and making a new listing and starting from scratch.