Diffamation and lies are just expressions of free speech

Helga0
Level 10
Quimper, France

Diffamation and lies are just expressions of free speech

I accept a lot of new members and one nighters. Most guests IB, but new members can’t. 

Came in a booking for one night, weeks in advance, empty profile, a full body picture, which can be hardly distinguishec on the phone app. We exchange a few messages, I ask to learn more about the guest and her planning, with just a token success, but what the heck, she looks fit enough to climb my stairs, there are some dots bedside the shape, which could be art works, it’s one night, we will survive that and I’m on a train with hardly any access to the net in railway stations. I accept. 

I don’t get basic travel infos over the next week, so I send her the standard instructions. 

She arrives earlier then announced and when I say so, surprised on my knees removing some crumbs, she is annoyed .

she refuses a glass of water or tea, but asks me for directions to her destination. That’s tricky, not indicated on any map. I find the tiny street onlines, it seems to be an alley within an hospital area. I print an itinerary for her and search it on the normal maps too. Not there, but the hospital is. All the time, she asks me intrusive questions about my finances, my health, the bird, the place. I show her some pictures of my summer project to insulate the ceiling, to answer the question, if it’s not cold in winter. Then she declares a need to sleep and goes to bed. I have a shared room listing, the bed is onthe loft over the kitchen and it’s not common, that locals sleep at dinner time. People arriving from a 12 hour flight, maybe, but from a town 1 hour away?  I let her sleep, hungry, and work a bit longer next door. She sleeps. I write a story about it. 90 minutes later, her alarm goes off. I sneeze and get more questions on my health through the door. 

I take my bird and enter the kitchen to get something into my rumbling stomach. I had only a fruit at noon. Cooking dinner is out of the question, I prepare a fast salad whilst getting more questions on that and the parrot. Why indeed would a parrot bite her? 

One never knows, but he stays in the cage.

i flee with bird and bowl and leave her to her preparations. I just raise the question, when she will return, as the garden lights switch off at midnight. I could extend that. No need, she will use the phone light to see the lock. I will be in bed by thenand she will have to make ger own breakfast. After 11 pm, the place is an entire unit.

i get up early, but prepare coffee in my room, chatting in a forum about the experience. I hear her stirring and then open the door. It’s not 9 yet, but she is outside, so I open my door and say good bye. I get key and maps back. 

I leave a short review, 3 stars for communication and a private remark not to ask such intrusive questions.  I don’t check recommend. 

Days later, I get a review. 2 stars. French, the gist is: I was very deceived, it’s not an artist’s atelier, it’s a garden hut, there is no privacy. I felt so uncomfortable, I had to find another solution to sleep. 

In the private feedback, it was worse, spiteful. “Whatyou call an artist’s atelier, I call a refurbished garden hut...” forgot the rest. She had given 2 stars on quality and something low on cleanliness too, therefore the explanation request came up and she clicked all kind of options. Seems my sheets and towels are not clean and it stinks. 

I tried to get the review removed, as it’s an obvious lie: the guest did sleep here. But to say it’s so bad she could not stay, is worse than to say that she found the place horrible. 

I think the airbnb terms ask that reviews be truthfull, but no, to say you left, when you stayed is only an opinion, it does not clash with the Term

14 Replies 14

Horrible... very sad to read. And you are right. Guests can basically lie all they want, Airbnb is not going to take their review down.
The sad part is most hosts will be polite in their review even if its negative while some guests just don’t give a **bleep**. Not fair.

Lisa658
Level 10
Hervey Bay, Australia

@Helga0

 

The guests lie may be the one thing that can get the review taken down.  "to say you left, when you stayed is only an opinion, it does not clash with the Term".  This does clash with the Terms because when a guest does not stay they are not allowed to leave feedback about your listing.

 

Contact airbnb again and ask them how a guest who has "felt so uncomfortable, I had to find another solution to sleep" can leave feedback when she says in the review that she did not stay.  Ask them outright if a guest clearly states that they did not stay are they allowed to leave a review?

 

The answer should be no.  Try again and see what they say.  Good luck to you, Lisa

Oh I think I get it. That’s a really good point. If a guest never stayed, they shouldn’t be able to leave a review. But she clearly checked in and saw the room... 😕

 

I wanna know how Airbnb will respond. Prob some Bulls. 

Hi @Lisa658, I thought so too and sent the person in charge of this  extracts of the terms and the rules on the website. I got back practically the same bla bla mail I had gotten the first time, with the request I read the rules and a link to the same page I had copied the citation from. 

That felt like a slap to the face on top of the rest.  The host should read the same page again, but the staffer is not willing to read it and add a phrase how this can be interpreted as being within those rules and terms by reflecting an experience and being truthfull. 

Lisa658
Level 10
Hervey Bay, Australia

@Helga0

 

They can sometimes be more friendly on the phone and more accountable!  Especially if you repeat that the guest did not stay in your house so how can they leave a review of their experience?  Is this not against their own review guidelines?  How is this fair and accurate to other travellers?  Do they want it made public that their reviews are also based on travellers who did not even stay at the property?  There is not a single other booking site that would allow this so I am pretty sure that if you speak to the right person, they will take it down.  Try to give them a ring and see if it makes a difference.  +33-184884000

 

I understand your position about the review.  It is not even really what is said, it is that it will be on the page forever with their profile photo there also.  A timeless irritating reminder of a stay best forgotten.

 

Lisa

@Lisa658, thank you, but my first contact was by phone. I got a call back, nice lady. She told me, she would call the guest to educate her about the review system, but after discussion with the team, they could not remove the review. She confirmed that by mail. I wrote a protest, citing  french law on diffamation and their own terms. I then got the first mail again, practically. 

 

The problem is the opposite case to the usual one:

Guest came, asked extra services, got them, asked a hundred questions, got answers to half of them, then slept in the bed. 

Guest leaves a review, that the place was so bad, she had to find another solution to sleep. 

 

She could beliving in another world, believing she slept elsewhere. But the delivberate insults and 2 stars don’t suggest that.

i spose, that she was angry, that I did not disclose my finances or health status. Or she did not believe those answers. 

We spent 10 minutes with pictures on my ipad, discussing the insulation work I did and I gave her information on the materials to use in her attic.

Sorry for phone spelling

 

@Lisa658, sorry, I see that idea only now, scrolling too fast this morning, saw it on the mail. That is a good argument and I will try it again. I had a guest referring to the review already. She booked nevertheless, but I was so angry, that for the moment, I paused the listing. I think about rewriting everything, but on the other side, the existing text (or as it grew over time) was good to get over 200 guests, so maybe I should keep it. 

I had dinner tonight with a repeat guest, who books on airbnb regularly, for holidays and for work stays like with me. Old guests get some privileges 😉 He summed it up, that an astonishing number of people are not wholly sane - followed by anectodes of their bar customers. They have some, I would rather serve a drink in public than morning coffee at home 😉

I may try it via Facebook again. 

>> This does clash with the Terms because when a guest does not stay they are not allowed to leave feedback about your listing.

 

NO. Airbnb said that a guest can still leave a review even if they don't check in.

 

It is unfair. The review system is wrong.

Please refer to my posts:

"He who comes into equity must come with clean hands. Call for Improving Review System"

"Can Thieves Review the Police? Airbnb Review System is Wrong"

 

 

 

 

J-Renato0
Level 10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I have red the review and I also see that you gave her a properly response.

The way she wrote the review it was very agressive. It will give her a bad image instead of harming your listing.

Moreover It will not compromise your listing because you have lots of great review.

 

I have notice that, the bad review in question, it does not appears in the first position. 

I believe that Airbnb does not show a bad and malicious review in the first place when the host has lots of good reviews.

Thank you, @J-Renato0. I had a few guests since, as I accept one night bookings and my price is a deal for single nights in Paris. These reviews appear on top. I believe it’s chronological within a language. 

My problem is not the fear, that it could affect my bookings, as it won’t, but to my - maybe rigid - sense of honour, it’s unpalatable that someone can say publicly, that the service I rendered was unusable (although paid for), whilst in reality the person did use the service. And airbnb thinks it’s ok to let it stay. 

 

Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

Meth is a terrible, terrible drug.

Lisa658
Level 10
Hervey Bay, Australia

Hi @Lisa658, thank you for the link, I had read the article before.

I don't think it applies to the case. My problem is, that the guest says she left early, whilst in fact she checked out in the morning at the time she had intended to leave. 

The stay was never cancelled.