I appreciate what all of these hosts have said about bad tenants and lack of response and support from AirBnB.
I have let villas and apartments that I either own or manage on the Côte d'Azur in France for over 25 years, I think I know the pitfalls and how a slight wording in a description can be interpreted as" misrepresentation" by a guest. I am an ex JP and have my own rental company. I do know the law and how it can react in the UK but not abroad I grant you all with any international law.
There will always be the "complainers" for whatever reason as I have learnt. This kind of client in general should be in some way be obstructed from making a review that is damning when every other review for the property and host is 5 star throughout. Last year I had a 2 star review on a beautiful villa which has always had 5 star ratings from nightmare clients from Paris that I actually asked to leave on arrival. There were 12 people and the language of the two elderly ladies from Paris was disgusting on arrival. I speak fluent French and I asked them to leave after 30 minutes and that I was closing the villa. They came back with " But what are our children and this plummeted not just the rating for this lovely villa but for me in general as a host. It should be seen what a host's ratings are and exclude malicious ratings by such guests whose sole purpose is wrongfully aimed.
Maybe such reviews should be possible to be erased under such circumstances rather than force me as the host to counter by writing the truth about the guests' behaviour which is non-productive at all. Who wants to read moans ? There should be from AirBnb an arbitration as to whether a review is posted if it is not consistent with the history of previous reviews for long-term hosts. After all it is we the hosts that create the business for AirBnB, not just the one-time obnoxious guest. Without us as hosts, AirBnB would not exist and it appears we all strive to become perfectionists and please our guests, so it is worth supporting the hosts who remain loyal in preference to the one-time disruptive guest.
