I will no longer post a bad review about a guest

[Megan160]

I had an awful guest experience and tried to settle it with the guest personally. She stayed at a reduced rate and then needed to extend her stay. We gave her an even bigger rate discount. When she left, she left the place a mess. Dirty, greasy dishes, pots and pans. All the furniture was in dissaray, both sets of blankets/quilts had spots and stains on them, there were crumbs in all the beds on the mattress pads (which had to be hand picked off), and she ruined a set of sheets.

I took 3 days to cool off before I texted her because we really went out of our way to help this guest and she took advantage of us. I told her I was unhappy about the state of the place and asked her to pay $50 to replace the sheets. Prior to this text, she had nothing but glowing reviews and thanks for me in all her texts. She did not understand why she should have to pay for her sheets because I was a woman and the damaged sheets were a result of a "woman thing" and thus I should understand. I said I shouldn't have to pay for her "woman thing".

After much internal debate, I decided to warn other hosts and gave her an appropriate but still not brutal review, even leaving out the refusal to pay for damages and passing on her lame excuse for the mess. She then gave me a bad review, lying about my place and me. Prior to this review, I had 5 star reviews. Now people think my place is noisy and I am rude. My bookings have almost stoped dead in their tracks after her review. Plus, my 3 month pre-book for Jan-March canceled right after the review. I have contacted Airbnb twice about this to no avail. I had responded to her bad review, but not in much detail because I assumed that if I could prove it was a retaliatory review, it would be removed. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Not only will they not remove it, they won't even let me expound on my explanation to her bad review.

So frustrated! I am knee deep in the process of spending a lot of money to make my other 2 rentals Airbnb rentals and now I can't even get bookings in prime season. Airbnb penalizes us for trying to warn other hosts about bad guests.

[Marzena4]

Interesting, @Megan160. Do you think it was only because of that last review that they cancelled? Have you checked your results in the search?

I was wondering what Airbnb might come up with having offered star-ratings visible to those of us who are on Instant Booking. What I fear is that a bad review for a guest might result in dropping in the search results - it is pretty easy to add a line of code to cause it, and with all that non-discrimination bragging of theirs it is possible.

[Louise0]

Yes, I've often wondered if leaving a negative review for a guest pushes you down the search rankings.  Based on my extremely small sample size and entirely anecdotal evidence, I strongly suspect it does.  If so, the next question is whether this form of operant conditioning could be deemed discriminatory.

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

but if you have to do it - I think the star rating may seem harsh - I didnt know that a 3 star would mean it automatically bars a guest but that is actually appropriate but I think that my passive aggressive non checkin was designed expecting that I would not write a negative review - in effect, he would get away with giving me a hard time because I would be lenient.   But i felt it was so mean spirited that I a review had to be put down on the record because he and his friends would bother me again in the future otherwise even if they are going to bother me now.    That review was my only opportunity to respond.  Which is why I find it very strange that a concurrent guest's review is now denied me from viewing and responding to and perhaps it has damaging inaccuracies that will be a part of the permanent record on my profile.  I hope airbnb is not discriminatory as you suggest but we shall see.   It has already been  a week and I am still denied seeing his review and therefore cannot respond to it. 

[Isabel203]

Hmmm... I have left bad reviews for guests before and have not seen it influence my listing or bookings at all.

[Annette308]

i think you are wrong there.I was treated like rubbish,by airbnb,had a guest rude messed my furniture,dirty,and i did not agree with his review,so put my reply.was banned from airbnb for 7 days.  and downed to 2 stars from 5.so not fair, so have now went elsewhere,and getting more bookings.

[Kierra7]

What platform did you switch to?

[Michael4416]

Isabel is there any way that our guests can know if we are leaving a bad review? 

[Emilia42]

@Michael4416 None. Unless you tell them.

[Michael4416]

@Emilia42 I can't let this go. They booked for two people and showed up with two more. I then contacted airbnb and they assigned a case manager. The same day they checked in I submitted a payment request for the two additional people. On the 3rd day I myself contacted the guest and said that he needed to pay me for the two extra people or else airbnb would file a case against him. He finally paid so that was taken care of. We have self check-in and he calls me 3am saying I never send him code to door when I had sent it 4 days before and he agreed I did and apologized. I made no bones about it they probably had a long flight and weren't thinking properly. When they left my fridge settings were changed and all the ice melted and flowed out of the fridge into the hardwood floor. The studio was a mess, after checking my cameras they smoked on the property and we are strict about no smoking on property and only outside on the street. They also threw out their cigarette butts inside the studio garbage so the place was stinking like cigarettes. They went into the dressers and closets and used brand new pillows when I already had 4 pillows out. The new pillows had to be thrown out because they didnt have covers and they smelled really bad from cigarettes and they were all stained. I'm I being too strict if I am please let me know. I'm new to this. 

[Emilia42]

@Michael4416 I would definitely write them a bad review. Keep it short and factual. Something like "XX came with 2 more guests than originally booked. Unfortunately, the studio was left in a very untidy state and extra cleaning, surpassing the $50 cleaning fee, was required. House rules were not followed and therefore, I cannot recommend XX to other hosts." Stick to the facts and do not mention any involvement from Airbnb (or they can pull your review down.) Give the guest low stars in all categories and click no you would not host them again. I would leave your review on the 14th day of the review period as close to the final hour of when you received the notification to review as you possibly can. This way it will not trigger them to write a review for you and hopefully the window will run out.

[Denyse8]

but it is different a guest and a house, we always read the review before renting a house, researched, looked at all the photos of the house and read the reviews of the house, now when we rent to a person we do not always read, (alias we don't have much time to read)

[Marit-Anne0]

@Megan160

Retaliatory in what way ? The only thing that could have triggered this bad review would be you asking for compensation for the "woman thing" damaged sheets.  Reviews are "blind", the guest does not see your review until both are posted, so to stop giving negative reviews when deserved will not help anybody at all.  

Your story only underlines what has been stated on the forum time and time again; those asking for discounts are bad news and claiming against the security deposit or asking for compensation will often trigger bad reviews.  

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

I have a lot of people who offer to deal outside of the portal - that is so strange.     One of them is bad news. 

[Jiw0]

I never do that, going outside the system.

Never never ever. 

Also because people who want to cheat AirBnB out of a couple dollars tend to be the kind of people who are difficult about everything.  (And I only know this from a co-host who has relented in some cases).   But personally I never go there. 

(And frankly I wish AirBnB would cut me a little slack for it: after 4 years of being a superhost and countless successful stays I would hope they realize that I play by the rules and not 'SENSITIVE COMMENT REMOVE' any helpful information I might link that would help a guest who put in an inquiry. )