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.

[Kate2097]

Had a guest who was bringing drunk friends day and night, smoking and leaving cigarette butts everywhere - all against house rules. When I told her to stop she became aggressive -  yelling and slamming the doors, all in front of my children. I even had to call police in. 

I reported the guest to AirBnb, gave all CCTV recordings and photos. Then I wrote a factual review and interesting things started to happen. Guest left me a 1 star review, pretty insulting too. My rating dropped from 4.9+ to 4.6. Guest only had 2 reviews before mine, but even after my review was posted her rating remained 5 stars. Clearly AirBnb wants guests to be able to use instant booking. 

It gets even more interesting - for the past 2 days I called support 6 times and tried online chat with them few times - all support members ask for the full story, they put me on hold, then say that their shift is about to end and that a manager will call me back. I get a feeling that my profile is marked "ignore and do not help" in the system after I posted this review for a guest.  So be aware - AirBnb is protecting guests, not hosts. Platform is not on our side.

[Simon3074]

I feel your pain - just been through the same experience.  All hosts are marked "ignore and do not help".  We are just money making machines for the "Top Brass".  As long as there are willing hosts and willing guests the carousel keeps turning.

[Gillian166]

I must have got lucky, I managed to have an unfair 1* review removed.  Similar story to yours: booked for a couple, turn up with a baby, then ask if family can come and have a small bday celebration for their boy, then 7 more people show up, they dominate the shared pool facility and make a mess, and smoke, and other stuff that was just rude and selfish. 

anyway, i left them an honest review saying they were super nice but broke every rule, and the hubby didn't even speak english so not sure why he was account holder. But this worked in my favour because he didn't leave me a review, he simply put a "." in as his review and then gave me 1*. I was furious, after we bent over backwards to tolerate them, and i even gave my other guest group an apology gift for all the noise they were making. 

Turns out that not writing anything isn't helpful to other guests, and so for that reason they removed his review and i got my 5* rating back. They didn't remove it cause he was a selfish b-word and violated my rules. So it was a victory but felt like a fluke, esp as I read a lot of stories here that have unfair outcomes. 

[Sarah977]

@Gillian166  A review that just reads "." would be classified as  "irrelevant", which is one of the reasons you can ask for a review to be removed.

I don't understand your comment about the husband not speaking English so why he would be the account holder? Guests speak a myriad of languages and certainly don't all speak English and can write reviews in whatever language they choose.

[Gillian166]

He's an Australian citizen, not an int'l traveller, you might have a different opinion from me but I believe if you're going to relocate to a new country to live, learning the language should be a priority (he's been here 6 years). He didn't once respond to a single message in the app, and his wife did all the communicating once they arrived. None of the men would speak to us actually except for the 13yo boy, but the wife, her sisters and her mum were lovely and chatty.  Remember the booking originally was just for 2 people, ha, and I met her whole family. 

[Sarah977]

@Gillian166  Well, there are tons  of Americans who have lived in Mexico for 15-20 years and can still barely speak a word of Spanish. They hire "facilitators" to do everything for them that requires at least some basic Spanish.

Often it's just laziness, and an "Oh, I can get by" attitude, but some people also have a hard time learning a new language. If they have a spouse who is fluent, they often just rely on the spouse to translate.

And even when some people can understand most of what is said to them, they are shy to try to speak a language they aren't fluent in, or be able to write well in it. 

[Helen3]

You tell that to all the English speaking immigrants living in Spain, France, Turkey , Greece and the Middle East @Gillian166 

[Sarah977]

@Kate2097  "I get a feeling that my profile is marked "ignore and do not help" in the system after I posted this review for a guest. "

Nah. You're not special- everyone is treated to the "ignore and do not help"  and the "My shift is about to end" or "I'll be away from my desk for the next few days" treatment. 

And judging by some of the posts here from guests with legitimate-sounding issues, it's not even limited to hosts- guests get ignored as well.

Customer service has just become a nasty joke.

[Simon3074]

"Customer service has just become a nasty joke".

They aren't there for customer service.  They are all "Ambassadors"???!!!! 

...sorry totally agree,  I've just been a victim of their "help".

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[Susan737]

I just had a horrible experience with the guest, in fact I contacted AirBnB to shorten their stay. I was grateful for the kindness of customer service to help me get them out right away. I knew if I wrote a review most likely their retaliation review would show up. If I don’t review them they can’t review me. 
This person had no reviews prior to accepting. This was a business decision I made. This was a learning experience.

Some people are toxic, I tried to remove them from my consciousness. Why would I want to be reminded of them on a thread. 
I was happy to see that a review came through on them from another Airbnb host that showed up after he arrived here. Their review will be enough warning to future host.

I also changed my settings, I did have a auto setting discount for 28 day. I have removed that. I think it was a attracting bottom feeders looking for cheap places to stay. Business decision not worth it.

[Colleen253]

@Susan737 “I knew if I wrote a review most likely their retaliation review would show up. If I don’t review them they can’t review me.”

Your uderstanding of how reviews work is wrong.

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/13/reviews-for-stays

[Susan737]

I just followed that link that you sent and here’s what it stated. “

1. Reviews are only posted after a) both parties have completed theirs, or b) the 14-day period has ended—whichever comes first. Am I reading this wrong?

[Sarah977]

@Susan737  "If I don’t review them they can’t review me."

This is 100% incorrect. All reviews are published after 14 days regardless of whether both parties have left a review. You can't avoid a bad review by not leaving a review yourself. 

Also, reviews are blind. A guest can't see the review you left for them until the review is published and once they are published, a review cannot be submitted, so they can't retaliate to what you wrote in their review.

Now, some bad guests who are well aware they were bad guests may not leave a review unless they get a notice that you have left a review. Although they can't see the review you left, they assume it will be bad, so they leave a bad review. What many hosts do in these situations is to wait until 10 minutes before the 14 day review deadline is over, then submit their pre-written review. By the time the guest sees the notice that you have left a review, it will be too late for them to submit a review. 

However, if you get a notice that the guest has left a review before the review period is over, there is no point to waiting to submit a review yourself. Not submitting a review will not prevent the guest's review from being published.

Not leaving honest reviews for your guests is a huge disservice to other hosts. I'm sure you would have appreciated being warned about this guest, so that you could have declined their booking in the first place. Not leaving reviews for bad guests makes having a review system totally pointless. 

You are definitely not understanding the review policy you quoted. It means that reviews are published after both parties have submited theirs, or after 14 days. So if you and the guest both submit reviews 2 days after they check out, the reviews will be published then. Otherwise, any reviews submitted are published after 14 days.

[Susan737]

@Sarah977 wow I did not know this and this makes me nervous. So the 14 days start from checkout day. Maybe I should put that on my calendar. Yes I was feeling guilty about not doing a review. 
I have to say this person doesn’t seem the type to write a review. As I said there is a review on this person so future host will see that review. Yikes 

[Sarah977]

@Susan737  The 14 days start exactly from when you get the  first notification email to write a review. So if you get it at 3 pm on the 1st, the 14 days will be over at 3pm on the 15th. 

There is apparently a countdown timer next to your message stream witth the guest, that tells you how many days you have left, and on the last day, tells you how many minutes are left. I have never had a guest I had to leave a bad review for, so I haven't ever had to look for it, but other hosts here have said that is where to find it.