Guest leaving inaccurate review

[Asury-and-Adam0]

I recently had a guest leave me a 1 star for listing accuracy because the TV didn't have cable and logging into Netflix account was a hassle because she couldn't remember her password! I was furious because my listing specifies that there is no cable and that TV was a Smart TV. She even called me shortly after checking in to ask how to work the TV. I gave her instructions and she sounded disappointed. I reminded her that this information was on the listing and sent her the screenshot of where she could find this info. She clearly didn't read prior to checking in or booking so now I get a bad rating because guest failed to read? I reached out AirBnB to see if review could be removed, but because it did not violate any policies it couldn't be. They recommended that I just respond. I did. I just hate that guests don't read before booking!!

[Jonathan526]

Sadly, I think the cosquence of being a host is to accept anything the guests say.  AIrBnb will not support or help their hosts in any way as concerns guest reviews.  I have guests who I think come to stay in what is one of the gerat archetctural jewels of the region to actually look for things that are wrong so they can compalin and leave bad ratings.  In some cases these reveiws have been completely inaccuarate and made up either because the guest did not read the listing or has claimed they are "just trying to be helpful."  Because the rating system is mathamatical one can never make up up for these ratings nor can you ever make up for a problem that actually happened because of a mistake (which is normal).  I think as Super Hosts we should be able to remove the bottom 5 reviews and ratings once we have reached a milestone.  At each milestone we can then remove more.  The rating system doesn't allow for growth or improvement.

[Christianna1]

I think the main reason these bad guests persist is because:

1) Hosts are reluctant to decline guests due to the fact that declining bookings hurts our ratings. If we have instant booking on, it’s even worse, since we’d have to cancel their reservation ...which has grave consequences to a superhost.

2.) Hosts are also reluctant to post bad reviews because these bad guests now know where we live (as they’ve just stayed at our houses) and they also know exactly how to get into our houses! May seem paranoid, but when you get a couple of dirtbags, it’s hard to justify putting personal security further at risk after they’ve left your house by telling the truth about them ... a truth that they will definitely read, especially when other hosts likely won’t read those reviews or will feel pressured from Air BnB to accept the booking anyway.

We just heave a sigh, leave a review that doesn’t reflect the truth of these people, and then thank God they’re gone and they didn’t steal our things or kill us in our sleep.

It would be GREAT if we could come up with a code word system amongst hosts so we can leave an honest review without being scared of the guest coming after us. Would also be great if Air BnB didn’t penalize us for declining or cancelling bad guests.

[Kompit0]

It is too bad that such reviews cannot be reported. I recently had a guest who gave me low rating because he made a mistake in his own booking. 

He only made a booking for one person. But actually it was a group of three. So naturally, I only provided bedding for one guest. Once I read his feedback, I looked back in the conversation to see if I missed him mentioning about three guests, and there were none. So I even took a screenshot of his own booking for one person and sent it back to him, but he never even responded to apologize for his own misunderstanding, which I found even more frustrating than leaving a low rating.  

[Robyn303]

A recent guest gave me a 1 star review because she expected a house and mine is an apartment.  I clearly have it listed, named, selected, etc as an apartment.  Is their anything I can do to not suffer from the review of a guest who is a total idiot?

[Alexandra316]

@Robyn303 Sadly there isn't. Just when they make something idiot proof, the universe goes and builds a better idiot. Your place is clearly listed as an apartment: it even says condo in the title. I'm not sure how anyone could possibly make it any clearer.

If you still have the option to do so, I would write a response to this guest. Stay polite and professional, but do respond. In future, I would also make sure that you're reviewing your guests so other hosts may be able to avoid them.