How to report guest "money back" extortion request to AirBnB?

How to report guest "money back" extortion request to AirBnB?

Hi guys, 

 

I have a group of challenging guests who, 12 days after checking out (with no complaints or problems during the stay or after), requested to contact me outside of airbnb, via email to make some unwarranted claims about their experience and are asking for some money back "before leaving a review. " They didn't explicitly say they would leave a bad review if I didn't give them money back, but it's clear in the email this is their intention. Does this warrant falling under the "Extortion" policy with AirBnB? How can I contact airbnb to report this BEFORE they leave an extortion review? We have near perfect reviews after 5 years of airbnb and I hate to see all our hard work and good service get messed up by this unscrupulous guest. Help appreciated.

31 Replies 31
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

I would copy and paste their email into the ABB message system and respond to them that you were glad that they had no issues when they were staying with you and threatening a bad review to obtain a refund is against ABB policy.

David
Zacharias0
Level 10
Las Vegas, NV

I feel like this is a major issue going around with guests. I had the same situation happen to me. FIrst time actually. I posted the message the guest sent to me in Host Circle. Im not sure if AirBnB is aware of this pattern of people who claim an issue AFTER staying with the host. Perhaps, AirBnB should revamp their whole review system and shorten the time period guests can leave a review.

 

AirBnB doesn't make it easy to even email them with a guests issue but you can always call them.

 

 

Gerry-And-Rashid0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Kristin-and-Brendan0

 

Never ever make contact outside of AirBnB. This group clearly know what they are up to by doing so. Message them on the platform and say that you are not happy with them contacting you off AirBnB and implying they will leave a bad review if you don't give them a refund. Also, make sure you state that they stayed for the entire period without any comments or complaints whatsoever. Then flag their profile and let AirBnB know what they are trying to do.

 

Finally, I would review the guest and say that all seemed well with the group who seemed to enjoy their stay, but after leaving requested correspondence off the site relating to a refund and a review.

Dear Airbnb community, we recently had a really difficult guest who didn't follow instructions on how to get to and from the island where we have our eco-hotel and then sent a partial refund request because they didn't want to pay for a boat ride off the island, even though its clearly stated in all our materials that transportation costs are paid separately. In her refund request, she stated, "We will inform the tourist police about this situation and inform the Embassy how we can get of the island." Is this considered extortion? We declined the refund request out of principle, but now I'm concerned she is going to tarnish our reputation because she didn't get what she wanted. Is there anything I can do? Or do you have any suggestions? Thank you!

David869
Level 1
Kasbach-Ohlenberg, Germany

 

Yes I got something similar too. Here is what I received....

 

"We have now received two requests from airbnb for a review of our stay... As we said before we have no wish to cause your business any harm or indeed to affect your 100% 5-star rating so once we have received our refund from you we will leave only the following review ' due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to stay in David's apartment. However, David kindly refunded our money' David, please ensure the refund reaches Marjorie's PayPal account by the end of this week as in any event we will be responding to airbnb this weekend. KRGDS, Steve"

 

 

In this case I would contact AirBnB now. As a practical point there is no way AirBnB would process a refund that quickly. Not that for a moment I am suggesting you should.

 

PS love the sign off.

David
Maria1252
Level 1
Cincinnati, OH

The same thing happened us except there were some issues(the AC went out on the last night of their stay) and we agreed to compensate for their inconvenience but ONLY through AirBnb. They demanded cash for that entire day. When we said no to giving cash, they proceeded to make all kinds of accusations about our home that were just completely false. So now they've requested a refund for their entire stay through Airbnb and wrote an extremely nasty review. Is there any way at all to save the good name of our home? 

Lilian20
Level 10
Argelès-sur-Mer, France

All you can do is get more 5 stars reviews in the future, there s nothing that will be done to past reviews. 

I'm sorry to hear this. Sometimes, one bad apple does truly ruin the bunch. 

 

Hope you are able to get the review taken down! 

Jodi37
Level 3
New York, NY

Did any postive solutions backing the host come from Airbnb? I'm going through something similiar myself and hoping the very obvious suggesitons to recieve a full refund "We want to resolve this without posting unfavorable reviews." will be considered extortion on the guests part. 

@Jodi37 having the guest say "We want to resolve this without posting unfavorable reviews." is so perfectly extortionate that if you looked up "Extortion" in the AirBnB dictionary, those words would probably be in the definition.

 

You can get ahead of this by contacting AirBnB support *now* while this is still happening.

Have customer support review the situation and read the threatening messages from the guest (I assume you are only communicating via AirBnB messaging?). Get some support and advice from customer service now, before things really get out of hand.

 

Thank you Matthew!  Yes, I thought the same, but was trying to get a feel of how others are reading that statement. I never replied to the guest and sent directly to airbnb who are looking into further. 

Yes, we are only communicating through airbnb messaging. Thank you.

@Jodi37 I heard their statement and imagined it being said by a big guy in a trench coat, who says it the same way he would say "Gee, it would be an awful shame if your store somehow burned to the ground."