I will no longer post a bad review about a guest

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Megan160
Level 9
Tucson, AZ

I will no longer post a bad review about a guest

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.

1 Best Answer
John915
Level 3
New York, United States

@Megan160

 

Unfortunately there is probably nothing you can do about it. Things like this happen to all of us (guests, especially newer ones have wildly different expectations) and I hate the fact that one bad review plants a seed in future guests' minds (for example, I had one who stayed for nearly a month and I left town for nearly a week - I live in the part of the home - I came back and she had left an old pizza box, empty bottles,etc....her review dinged me for cleanliness?!)

 

Some guests are just horrible and/or petty (and I'm sure a handful of hosts are not so great either) but the best thing to do is learn from it.

 

I never leave a review for a guest unless I've personally interacted with him/her. I do this because if you are the first to leave a review, your guest sees that you left one and if they felt their stay was unpleasant, they have nothing to lose by leaving you a nasty review. A host may rely on sharing their home to cover a significant portion of housing costs, extra income, etc. but a guest may book an Airbnb once or twice a year. And even if guests get not so great reviews, in many cities there are plenty of hosts who would just be happy for the income.

 

I've been fortunate to have not yet had many "nightmare" guests but I would learn from this experience - do not be the first to review a guest! If they feel strongly about your space (negative or positive) they will usually leave a review. If I've had a weird situation/neutral, I don't bother. If my interaction was positive, I ask them to send me private feedback as to what I can do better. If someone leaves a review, you can comment on it but if you think someone had a less than stellar experience, you as a host leaving a review only prompts a guest to leave one as well (which may be unfair, misleading, etc.)

 

Saw your listing and I really don't think your guest's review was that bad. If anything it was probably prompted by your interaction with her following her stay. You have 5 stars and it was overall a positive review! I have no plans to go to Tucson but I'd stay in your place! In the future, I'd just let small inconveniences like that go. Don't be a pushover but understand accidents happen and sometimes minor things occur with otherwise well-meaning guests:

 

-No smoking but someone opens a window thinking they can get away with it

-Someone breaks a glass

-Uses toilet and "forgets" to flush (nasty but happens)

 

My advice:

1.) Do not post a review first - Regardless of what you do, you get sometimes get less than 5-stars! If you've had a less than fantastic dialogue with a guest, posting a review prompts them to do the same - in your case, she knew you were upset about the sheets & was probably defensive about being asked to pay $50 for an accident - If she thought you were upset with her as a host, I am not suprised that she didn't give you a fantastic, glowing review in response to the notification that you had left her a review.  

2.) Don't sweat the small stuff

3.) Just buy a $10 set of sheets from Wal-Mart and consider it a "cost of doing business" if they are ruined at some point

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232 Replies 232
Karol22
Level 10
SF, CA

Best antidote to bad reviews is more great reviews. Offer a deal to upcoming guests. Surprise and delight them. Build those good reviews back and you're good to go. I'm really sorry to hear your situation. Bad reviews happen and it's never fun when they come. 

Amber700
Level 1
Longmont, CO

I am a new Host and had a guest leave a terrible, inaccurate review because she saw “homeless people” near my property.


She contacted me and Airbnb in a panic - I cheerfully and generously refunded the entire amount and allowed her to cancel immediately (Even though I didn’t have to ; under Airbnb’s long-term stay cancellation policy I was entitled to keep the entire one-month rental amount).  

 

She never stayed at the property; she was on the property for less than one hour. She did not pay a dime for that reservation.  I formally objected to the review with Airbnb; they absolutely would not budge.

 

Airbnb allowed her review to go forward, because she came to the property and unlocked the door she had “checked in” under their rules, and so she was allowed to leave me a review.

 

Brought my rating down from a perfect five-star to a 3.67.

Haotian2
Level 1
Ghent, Belgium

But your review is not visible to her unless published. So she based her review not on your review but only on your internal conversations? Now it's 5 years later I don't know whether the review rules changed

Matthew1661
Level 2
Nacogdoches, TX

I had a similar incident with similar issues with Airbnb. Customer support. The guest attempted to extort me by saying if I did not give her a full refund even though I had already given her half that she would have to say negative things about me on line. At that point, I felt I was being extorted and I would not negotiate with Terrace is basically the way I look at it. I immediately contacted Airbnb explain the situation, and this was before she even put a review out .

 

Keep in mind she didn’t even ask for the refund or demand it or say anything at all that there was a problem till she had been away from the property for three days. I gave her half the refund upfront because she didn’t use up all of the days that she was going to stay, but she already reserved those days in advance and paid but I went ahead and gave her half of it back   Which she acknowledged and excepted but then three days later, that’s whenever she started telling me there was issues of this, and this all over the place not one time was it told me brought to my attention to make a long story short she did a review that was just scathing And Airbnb, even though extortion is against their policy, they didn’t call that extortion even though it’s blatant to me. I even gave them the proof. And immediately after that review, my bookings went to zero I was getting steady bookings even though this was a new property, I was getting at least three a week , it went to zero. I guess I should’ve just given her the full refund, but I thought Airbnb would have my back. It doesn’t matter. If you have proof, it doesn’t matter at all with them they will not help you at all. In fact, the customer service guy said he wished he could  and he all but admitted that there was a policy that said they would do nothing they would try to make both parties agreeable, but they would do nothing to remove any reviews. I’m not happy, but it is what it is. 

Laura2714
Level 9
Cottonwood, AZ

How to leave a bad review for a guest.

 

Wait, 13 days and 23 hours.

 

You have 14 days to review a guest and the have 14 days to review you. After the 14 days you can not review them and they can not review you. 

Wait until the last hour of the last day to review them- and then the review function will time-out before they can give you a review.

 

This works for me cause it gives me a cool-off time to reflect on whether that person deserves a bad review or not. 

Usually by the time the 13th day rolls around I’ve totally forgotten about it and choose to let it go. 

But, yeah, wait two weeks to give the bad review 😀

 

I have been hosting for a long time and my last guest were every host nightmare.

The husband was nice and communicate with but his wife was very unpleasant. She said everything was wrong from not knowing how to switch the lights on to.. Everything. 

I offered them an extra day on me as I thought this would change her attitude but it only made it worse. When they left the place was the worst any guest had ever left it. There was the smell of rotten meat and fish, there was crisps all over the floor, bed, table etc.. There was water on the floor, table, and kitchen counters. Stains on the bedding and my large pedestal fan was broken. I had to get extra cleaners and after cleaning the whole day we could still not get rid of the rotten fish and meat smell in the whole flat and fridge. 

I have to right a review to warn other hosts out there but not sure how to go about it as am very still upset.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks. 

So sad

Scott1497
Level 2
Town and Country, MO

At present, we find ourselves in a similar situation. To our disappointment, we've found that Airbnb's policies allow guests to make false claims against hosts without proper vetting. As a result, hosts may be temporarily de-platformed until an investigation takes place. In our case, it's become evident that the guest who filed a complaint took photos of the guestbook and guests names and even admitted doing so via the Airbnb app and SHOWED A PICTURE of the guestbook open. Despite this, the guest remains on the platform while we as the host are still waiting for the "investigation" to come to a close so we can be listed again.

It's incredibly disheartening as we've never received a review that wasn't a perfect 5 stars. As hosts, we strive to make our guests' stays truly memorable, but situations like these can make our efforts feel futile. It's especially frustrating in this case since it seems the guest's only motive was to receive a refund on the day of check-out.

 

I agree with the comments below, as hosts, let's be honest with our reviews and weed the bad folks out.

 
Sajid26
Level 1
Lorton, VA

Megan160 - no worries use their own words against them. I, as a Host left a review of a Horrible Person who had booked our home. They not only damaged the Tonal equipment they never signed the waiver for, damaged the dishwasher - whereas it had to be replaced, they also left the front door wide open after they left and drove off. My review was removed because the complaint was it included personal information. Just say the same thing - Poof! Review is gone. Apparently - if you complain about privacy they freak out. Good Luck! We have since moved off the AirBnB platform to more Host friendly platforms.

Ryan3505
Level 2
Rhinelander, WI

Air b and b has been terrible to hosts in my experience.  I also have been screwed by air b an b with extremely poor customer service and support.  They docked me $1200 on a 4 night rental due to an issue being “unresolved” pertaining to guest use of a washer and dryer.  I offered a solution on the first day as well as following air b and b’s suggestion to remedy the situation by allowing the guest to find another accommodation with a full refund.  I even offered to give the guest an appropriate discount per night.  The guest CHOSE TO STAY, then waited until after they checked out to inform me they were unhappy and disagreed with my offer.  Air b and b then decided to refund the guest after their entire stay $1200 of my money…

Customer service will not answer in a timely matter nor will anyone actually help or support you as a host. They simply use you for your home, and side with the guest at your expense regardless of the situation.

I’m finding this out the hard way unfortunately.  There needs to be a company out there that will actually value and support its hosts.  Air b and b is not it.

Darcy108
Level 2
Atlanta, GA

I leave an honest review but I learned never ask them to pay for anything until they've written their review or the 14 day review period has passed then I file a claim. I was able to get a guest review removed for retaliation for this reason. 

his company makes it impossible to withdraw your money. I already terminated my business with them after An asset recovery team Againstcon.com tracked and recovered my money

Marzena4
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

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.

 

// "The only person you can trust is yourself"
Louise0
Level 10
New South Wales, Australia

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.

Leaving honest review is important and helps out other hosts if guest is troublesome