Guest Had Airbnb Delete Negative Review

Stephanie636
Level 10
McKinleyville, CA

Guest Had Airbnb Delete Negative Review

I had a difficult guest who broke the house rules, showed up with more guests than she paid for, and left a mess. I left a review accordingly, specifically stating that I did NOT recommend her to future hosts. She called Airbnb claiming my honest, objective review was “unwanted contact” so they removed it citing harassment (?!). I’m utterly stunned. So much for integrity, Airbnb! If hosts can’t forewarn other hosts about bad guests, what’s the point of reviews?! Feeling abused and unspportd as a host, I’m compelled to delete my listing altogether. This is shameful.

207 Replies 207

@Sherry141  ANYTIME you have a guest that makes you feel unsafe in your own home you call AirBnB and have them relocated ASAP. AirBnB's platform was built on Trust and Safety. Document it in the AirBnB messaging system something like: Your behavior-actions-etc. is making me uncomfortable and feeling threaten and unsafe in my own home. I am going to call AirBnB right now to have you moved to a place better suited to you. As soon as you hit send call AirBnB. 

 

 

AirBnB number:

United States and Canada

+1-415-800-5959
+1-855-424-7262 (toll-free)

 

Mary996
Level 10
Swansea, United Kingdom

Great info Letti. Thank you!!

This needs to be provided by abb in a very clear location.

Its an emergency and a dedicated line needs to be supplied by Airbnb. Its really the prime matter for an adequate response.

If I was feeling threatened and unsafe in my own home, I would not rely on airbnb to help me, I would dial 911. 

Mary996
Level 10
Swansea, United Kingdom

@Sherry0 in Los Angeles

Oh dear, sorry to hear.

How did it go in the end?

Mary

 

WOOW!!! I just was reading August reviews this guy got and also gave to hosts... What a Nightmare!

I have a super explicit list of house-rules. And a ZERO tolerance policy.

And yes, I always try to find the reviews a guest was leaving to other hosts, its very telling!

As a somewhat newbie to Airbnb hosting, I'd love to hear what your "similar traits" or warning signs are of these kind of guests. I've had 2 so far that sound similar and would love to be more aware in the future. 

 

And how do you avoid them if you set the property to instant booking? There's people I'd never allow stay here again but would have to cancel them if they instant booked.

 

Thanks!

@Cristina728  When you review a guest with a thumbs down and 3* or less they can no longer instant book. You can also use the flag to report a guest and hope the blocking option is working at the moment. 

Instant booking cannot be trusted, and should not be used.  Anyone can create an account with a fake name and use stolen ID and get away with it, so that leaves me to believe they are not reallyn being verified and ID's matched by airbnb.  

 

Guests must be screened by asking questions and communicating.  The scammers quickly stop responding and cancel their inquiry.  Or they quickly get caught up in lies, changing stories, etc. and you will not confirm their request to stay.  Go with your instincts.   Trust yourself before you trust airbnb.

That really angers me!!! They need to be on the side of the host, especially if you had issue before and the decesion was in your favor as you said. We need to send more communication to them stating that we need to be comfortable with these people we allow in our home, and which they make a nice piece of change on allowing us to do that. !!! We need, should expect and demand 100% support from Airbnb. If things get worse and we don't get that support, the thing that comes to mind for me is a 1 day boycott. Sorry you had to go through that.....I STAND WITH YOU IN SUPPORT!!

Love the boycott idea!

Airbnb gives priority to guests, which is a terrible philosophy.  Airbnb is a service and does not have a product, the hosts have the product, without hosts there is no Airbnb.

 

I am a super host, and I had an insane guest leave a bad review that was a lie and inconsistent with my hundreds of positive reviews. I contacted Airbnb about removing the review, and they said absolutely not.  They said they never remove reviews as it would defeat the Democratic process (whatever that means), and that I shouldn't worry about it, because potential new guests will see all my good reviews and ignore the one outlying bad review. 

 

I am stunned they deleted your review, especially after they told me they never delete reviews.

 

I had another experience where Airbnb favored the guest over the host.  My cancellation policy is moderate, where if you cancel the reservation within about a week of the reservation, you're on the hook to pay.  I had a guest cancel the night before (12 hours)  their reservation and Airbnb refunded all of their money.  This was in complete contradiction to the policy . This was also during peak summer season and I directly lost business and money preparing for the guest.  Airbnb said they can override your cancellation policy if there are extenuating circumstances. My guest claimed her daughter was injured by a horse, so Airbnb believed her and cancelled the reservation and gave a full refund. 

 

The policy is discriminatory, because it is allowing some Airbnb customer representative to decide which story they want to believe and whether it's considered extenuating. For example, an honest guest with poor communication skills may have legitimate extenuating circumstances and Airbnb will deny their cancellation request.  However, a lying scam artist guest with slick communication skills with illegitimate extenuating circumstances can cancel reservation and get full refund 

 

The cancellation policies we have are chosen by the host, but they are written by Airbnb.  It is ridiculous that we choose an Airbnb cancellation policy, but then Airbnb can override it.  The point of the cancellation policy is so we don't have to decide what excuses are legitimate or not, it is supposed to take the discrimination out of the equation. The policy is supposed to be straightforward, for example if you cancel before certain date you get your money back if you can cancel after a certain date you don't get your money back.

 

There have been several instances where Airbnb favors the guests.  Airbnb needs to treat hosts and guests equally, because Airbnb needs both hosts and guests, because there is no Airbnb without both.  

 

 

I am having the same problem now and I called many times but they never call me back and said they will not remove the review. It was a lie and a clear violation of their policy.

Something needs to be done. 

We need to do something. I am a super host too and having the same problem.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Tatyana62 

I have had it happen a few times where I knew a caning would be coming from a guest, but, as soon as I sense there may be a problem I get onto support, screenshot any relevant contact or things that CX would need to know and each time, the problem disappears in my favour.

Airbnb are over a barrel, they don't want to upset a guest but equally they don't want to upset a Superhost, so if they can see that you are serious about the issue and your complaint is legitimate they will side with you Tatyana.

 

I have an issue at the moment......

I received a one night reservation from a new user for a stay the following night. To be specific it was an IB and simply said 'Looking forward to my stay' ...that was it, nothing else, but not enough to raise a red flag for me!

Next morning I sent a message through the message stream asking for an approximate arrival time......nothing!

I sent another message late morning.......nothing! 

At 1.00pm I sent a message to her mobile phone and I will include the conversation here....

**

 

So at this point (around 7.30pm she wanted to move the reservation to the next week. Now keep in mind Tatyana, the reservation had already started, but I thought I would have a try for her!

**

 

Well the next Thursday I went through the same exercise to get an arrival time. She said 'After 6 most likely'.........

She never turned up, or has had any further contact with me.  Twice I had the cottage serviced for her and stocked it and twice she stood me up. Now I got paid for the original night of her booking because as far as Airbnb were concerned the stay took place as scheduled. 

When a stay can't take place I will always refund the guest, I don't want to be paid for something I have not done but I could see what was potentially going to happen here. She was going to get onto Airbnb and give some sob story about not being able to stay and she would like her money back.

In this instance she has put me to a lot of mucking around, I stayed up until 11.00pm, ran the cottage heating all that time, and she was a no-show so I did not want Airbnb refunding her and taking out of my future reservation so, I put together the history and these screenshots of the conversation, got onto CX and asked them to put this information on her file!

So if she does apply for a refund I know that Airbnb will side with me.

 

Tatyana, Airbnb are guest centric and we do have to protect ourselves in any way we can. When you see an issue developing get straight onto Airbnb, ask nicely and they will help you!

 

Cheers......Rob

 

**Private conversation removed

@Robin4  What the beejeezus is wrong with people? You asked her no less than 3 times for the first booking for an approximate time of arrival. The first message she didn't answer at all, the second got the response "Should be leaving soon", the 3rd "You have time".  Does she not understand what a clock is and what asking for an approximate ETA means? How does she know if you "have time"? How does she know if you have 30 minutes of shopping to do or 2 hours worth? And when she is leaving has little to do with when she is arriving.

At times I come to the conclusion when someone acts like this that they are just plain stupid. I wouldn't have agreed to move her booking to the following week at all. Too stupid for me.