How to respond to hateful and untrue reviews from guests?

[Hl0]

Hi all! We had recently fallen victim to a hateful and slandrous review that contains a lot of untrue incidents, and would hope to seek all of your help on our situation. 

We had the unfortunate event of hosting an extremely disrespectful, demanding and difficult guest who had a series of selfish and inconsiderate actions during her stay ( multiple times of forgetting to lock the front door, dangerously using the grill that almost causes some serious burning, despite us repeatedly telling her to consult our help before using kitchen equipment, and CONTINUSOUSLY running the washing machine nonstop during her stay, as she only washes a few pieces of clothing at a time. No one else in the house were able to do any washing at all during her stay.) Out of safety for everyone in the house we had to politely ask her to follow the house rules a few times, where she does not respond well to our polite request and mistook our words, and requested to cancel.

She left 2 personal items at our place when she left, where she threatened to 'call the police' when we didnt respond immediately to her message ( it was 3p.m when we are at work, where she immediately accused us of 'ignoring her messages' when we didnt respond within a 20 minute timeframe. Besides, it was her who left it at our place in the first place.) When we followed up with her to arrange the delivery of her items back out to her, she had then dissappeared from the face of the earth and we are still waiting for her to get back to us on how to arrange her belongings.

And of course, out of retaliation, she wrote us a highly hateful comment full of untrue incidents - on going through her review she had twisted every single incident, and had made up a series of untrue events that had never happened. ( going through the review seems like describing someone completely different to what all our other guests had described!)

Here is her review: 

She made tsk and dissatisfaction sounds when I used any public equipment. She warned me and accused me when I use the washing machine for two consecutive days (I know that this behavior is not considerate, but her expression really makes me feel myself is an unwelcome person), she said I am the most selfish person she ever met and stated that this is her house many times. Her boyfriend yelled that f*** ridiculously etc. insulting words. I was afraid and overwhelmed. I asked to move out of the house. She agreed but they asked me to leave at 7 am the next morning. I had no way to move with 2 big luggage and I had a meeting at 9 am, so I asked to allow me to store my luggage till the next evening. They refused. I moved out in desperation and panic at 1 am in the morning. What a horrible experience! I left my property in her house because of the rush to move out in the middle of the night. I sent messages to her and tried to make an appointment to pick up the items but she kept ignoring my messages until I told her I will ask the police to ask my property back. I am still waiting for Airbnb's processing results.

None of the above is true, except that we did politely ask her to follow the house rules, and had to remind her continuously to remember to lock the front door and to consult us before using kitchen equipment as her actions poses huge risks to everyone in the house. What she has described above is all fictional, especially the part about her 'being afraid and overwhelmed' - she was actually the one who requested to cancel with an extremely demeaning attitude after we had almost begged her to remember to lock the doors and consult us before using the kitchen equipment .

And of course, she did file a 'claim' against us on airbnb but the case was thankfully dropped. 

Wondering what can we do to defend the name of our house against the slanderous, and highly fictional comment?

[Brian686]

@Hl0You should be able to write a response to this guests review. I would keep it professional and short as you want to counter the guests false points professionally as this will be read by other guests. I doubt you will be successful in getting the review removed as the CS will simply say it is the guests perception and as such they won’t remove this review. Basically there approach seems to be the guest is always right regardless of the fact that it is a blatantly false review, hosts however don’t seem to be allowed to have a perception of the guest. 

[Sandra856]

Hello @Hl0 

I just read the review on your listing and she mention "I am still waiting for Airbnb's processing results" 

I would definitely call airbnb ASAP. I have seen several stories in here where reviews were deleted by airbnb because either the guest or the host mention an ongoing case with airbnb in the review. 

It is worth a shot. 

Best, Sandra 

[Paul154]

As @Sandra856 says, you can try to remove this review because it does violate Airbnb's policy.

I would not worry too much about this review. The rambling shows her to be loony and her threat to call the police discredits her. 

[Sarah977]

@Hl0 If Airbnb won't remove the review, based on the mention of an Airbnb "process", I do agree that her review just makes her sound loony. If you feel you must respond, maybe "XXX had to be repeatedly asked to follow house rules and be respectful of the space, which was done politely. None of the rest of this happened."

[Aigul5]

I just replied to this post and it did not post in thread hmmm. Will try again. 
Just hosted a guest who arrived here on urgency of having problems with a prior host. I only with that host posted a review. There was none, but there two older glorifying reviews from the same person, which I am inclined to think were probably « not factual ». Anyway this guest I think scams hosts by staying and claiming dissatisfaction and getting out of paying the hosts. This guests arrived with additional guests, they struggled with food and requested food and we shared, requested unreasonable amount of supplies daily: we accommodated. I caught her and her guests smoking several times right in front of my private entrance , while they had a courtyard designated for that. I smelled smoke when delivering another batch of food and politely reminded of no smoking, to which she assured me emphatically that it must be just the whiff of smoke entering the apartment from her smoking outside nearby. When they checked out I found cigarettes butts in the trash and recycling and under her bed. And I wrote an honest review and stated I would not host a guest like that , and I received an onslaught of accusations and offensive messages. I did not respond to them because I do not want to engage in verbal battle like this and look to Airbnb support to mitigate. Airbnb instead paused my listing? And payments are still pending for 11 nights ! Airbnb just refunded her form her prior stay claims, one would wonder what are the chances of this person filing continuous claims against hosts?  I am a guest and a host and I maintain my property and property of visits , impeccably. I ask that we write honest reviews. Our aim should not be a superhost at any costs, but it should be to provide a safe and pleasant community for all. Thank you. 

[Aigul5]

My payments are still pending. My requests to Airbnb are supposedly escalated but no one is responding. The thread of Airbnb messages between guest and I have been recorded and there for Airbnb to see. This guest sent me several accusatory messages in a row and the last one is outrageous. She has accused me of being non supportive to a fellow woman, and to one of a racial minority. Quoting

**[Private conversation removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

This is ludicrous. I have sent her but one message stating cigarette butts were found in the app and one key was missing. She responded with 9 offensive messages. I have decided not to respond, although I wanted to state all the ways I have been helpful and supportive: when she claimed she had to pawn her phone and no way to call, i gave her 20 dollars, when her sons will text me asking for food because they did not have any, i shared what I made for my family. When she shared she was going through divorce, I sympathized that I went through that myself 17 years ago, but overcame the hardships and persevered. I have her 12 rolls of toilet paper for 11 days and paper towels in addition to dozens of bath and kitchen towels ( I am staying this here because she accused me of not providing toilet paper and paper towels). She also accused me of barging in uninvited, when I was delivering food or items she will request from me. I never entered the apartment but delivered items at her private entrance. She said she was an only guest and arrived with two adults sons, not paid for their stay.  There were too many different stories every day, I was getting slightly suspicious but hoped for best.  I said none of this to her in return to her offensive 9 messages. Yet she blames me that I am still messaging her and slandering her. It’s as if she is writing and responding to her own messages ? Why does not Airbnb mitigate this? I need this money to pay my bills. To pay cleaning crew. After 12 days of recent guests stays, i have been left without pay and my rating dropped. Airbnb accepted the dishonest review of this guest without any investigation. Moreover, she just pulled the same stint right before she got to my place, where Airbnb helped her to transfer from her prior « troublesome » stay to mine and refunded her prior stay expenses. Now she did it again?? Once again, if her reviews from prior host were honest, I would not have put myself in this spot, but I read the reviews, it struck me as strange that they were from the same person but rating of 5 is impressive so believing that her prior stay was indeed a real situation, I opened my doors to her. And now this. It’s frustrating not to be paid for your job, and this is my job, but it really affected me that she lied so much and takes advantage of the sensitive social and political issues to use against innocent people and gain from them. I look to Airbnb support to help and reimburse me for the services and amenities I have provided per my contract with Airbnb. Please help. Thank you 

[Huma0]

@Aigul5 

It sounds like you are a very kind hearted person and I am sorry this happened to you. However, there were so many red flags with this guest. I can't believe you allowed her to stay for 11 days. I would have called Airbnb shortly into this stay and ask for the guest to be relocated for the many reasons you have stated above. I know it's not easy when someone is asking for help but, like you said, this is a job for you. It's not a charity! Sure, it's also not easy to end a stay when you need the money, but this seems like a guest willing to do whatever they could to avoid paying. 

In every day life, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and be understanding of their situation. However, Airbnb is a business to me and so I have to treat it as such. I am always looking for those red flags!

I really hope you get this sorted with Airbnb and get paid. Do not give up!

[Aigul5]

thank you @Huma0 , this is the first year of hosting for me with Airbnb, so I am definitely learning. I have more extensive experience traveling with Airbnb, and through that traveling experience, I have decided to host as well. 

I did not realize that when you see pending transactions, that they may not materialize, so I did not want to make the guest's life more harder than it already was with all she was going through, and I decided to let her finish her stay seeing as the payments were coming in. So maybe, we should alert the hosting community, that, if the Upcoming Payments have been in the status as upcoming for more that 48-72 hours, that this should be treated as red flag? Just a suggestion, I don't know how valid it is? Have any other hosts experienced this? Upcoming payments not materializing? And, to date, they still are in "Upcoming" mode.

[Mark116]

@Aigul5  I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but I wonder why you ever agreed to host someone who had 'problems' with their previous stay and basically had to leave?  Wouldn't you have seen this as a huge red flag of high potential for problems?  I can say unequivocally that I would never host anyone who was forced to leave their stay due to problems w/the host.

Her review of you is fine, which is probably all anyone will ever see.  You can contact airbnb and tell them she is harassing you and find out the status of your payment.  Good luck.

[Aigul5]

Thank you @Mark116, I learned a big lesson, it’s in my nature to give people benefit of a doubt, and it’s cost me huge financial burden. The problem is how are as hosts protested when guests complete their stay, they give you good review and then try to cancel their credit card payments ? I am suspecting that is what’s happening now. It’s same as robbing people. Does Airbnb have any stand in this. I request and demand to be reimbursed for my services. Please advise what is the next step. I called and messaged Airbnb through resolution center so may times it’s excruciating. All they say is someone will get back to you. It’s escalated and no one has gotten back to me to date. What now?

[Aigul5]

sorry for misspelling. I meant « ..how are we as hosts protected in these instances by Airbnb.. » ? 

[Aigul5]

**

**[Private message removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

 

[Aigul5]

**

**[Private message removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

 

[Yadira22]

@Katie @Nick @Quincy @Lizzie please can you assist @Aigul5- thanks