Dishonest Review

[Mohammed8]

Hi friends,

I've been left a scathing and utterly dishonest review by my last guest whom I hosted for about a month. We've been renting out rooms for the best part of 15 years (privately before Airbnb came around), and of course every now and again there are a few hiccups, but I've never had a guest as difficult and dishonest as him. Despite him being incredibly difficult, careless, messy and disrespectful during his stay, I relented, on the basis that his time was soon up. 

Now I see that he's left me an awful review: if I had been a bad host, then sure, I might not like the review but that's karma. However, the problem is that he's pretty much lied about absolutely everything he's written in the review. It's made up, and totally twisting/deviating from the truth... which is really disappointing. I've left a public reply on his review, and I guess Airbnb won't remove his as they'd probably say it's just a disagreement. 

Is there anything you guys can recommend or suggest, please? All the other reviews I've received are glowing and highly positive, as we really do work hard to make our guests feel welcome. It just feels like that hard work is being thrown back in our face now, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, especially as I don't want future guests put off! 

Thanks! 

[David-and-Fiona0]

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do. But may I suggest in the future you keep your response to a factual minimum as your future guests will just see you being reactive. I recommend to all my clients (I am a tourism consultant) that they should wait at least three days to respond to a bad review, if at all. This lets the blood and dust settle. In time the review will sink to the bottom. Good luck.

[Mohammed8]

Thanks very much! I agree, it's always better to let things settle. I think I was so upset I just wanted to **bleep** it in the bud. Hopefully there won't be more instances of this! 

[Aoi0]

Some guests are good in making dishonest review because they are either dishonest or stupid.

As a superhost, I have some bad reviews, what I did is I replied all the review to let people know how stupid those people are.

Most of people know how to judge it, for those who followed the stupid or dishonest comments, they are not your right guests.

So keep calm and stand for yourself to say something back.

[Louise47]

Hi, I just read the review and trust me it only makes him look like an idiot.. He was from the royal family, his lawyer told him.....really you can tell it is all made up so don't worry.. No one will care.

[Mohammed8]

Thanks @Louise47, totally agree! 🙂 

[AiR1]

Hi @Mohammed8!

I just read the reviews you guys gave each other and the responses. **bleep**, those were really long reads!

Anyways, here's my 2 cents: First, anyone who's interested in staying at your place will of course read (or start reading) his review and will probaly then read the review you left for him and his response to it. Secondly, anyone who is in their right mind will definitely notice that his stories (his review and his response to your review) don't really add up. For example, he's talking about law suits, his attorney and royalty, how you cost him his business, etc. Yet, on the other side - those were friends, not business partners. Oops!

ok, next. Well, why on earth would someone from a royal family ever hold a business meeting in another person's private home?? o.0

Next, he's bragging about being such a wonderful guests everywhere he went, yet only 1 review apart from yours. Seriously man, just doesn't add up! 😉

Really tho, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Seems like you have glowing reviews from other people who've stayed there so don't give yourself a headache cos of this guy. He's obviously..well..how to put this mildly? erm..not right in the head I guess 😉

- bojana

[Mohammed8]

Thx @AiR1, to be honest that's what I felt when he was staying, but didn't know what to say/do. Lesson learnt - and karma does exist! 😉 

[Mohammed8]

Hi guys, just wanted to let you know by way of update: I flagged his review as inappropriate and Airbnb reviewed it. While they maintain that they don't remove reviews normally, they looked at his review (and his comment on my review of him) and confirmed that they were highly defamatory and so violate the Airbnb guidelines.  In light of this violation, they have removed his review. 

Just goes to show that honesty always wins 🙂 

[AiR1]

Wow! I did not see this coming! I'm glad to see airbnb reacted to it logically and responsibly 🙂

Thanks for the update @Mohammed8!

Happy hosting!

- bojana