Review of guest on my own page

[Michelle161]

Hi, hope you can help. Last year we had some guests who wanted to bring their cats as they were relocating to the area and wanted our place as a base to look around.  We have a small enclosed patio so I said ok, so long as they were kept there.  Of course, it turned out that the cats were in the apartment all the time and did some damage clawing and scratching the furniture, along with cat hair everywhere so we had to deep clean as well, in case any future guests had an allergy. The problem is that when the guests checked out, we were away and left a neighbour in charge (a one off due to an emergency). The neighbour told us everything was fine in the flat because they didn't want to worry us so I wrote a review based on that but when we returned, we saw the damage.  I was so cross, that when I saw that our guests had written a lovely little review about the apartment, leaving out that they'd broken our agreement, I responded by stating the truth.  Trouble is, I think that this is now adversely affecting our bookings and I'd like my comments taken off. They are on my page, not the guests, because of us being away.  Can I ask Airbnb to do that?  BTW, we've certainly learnt our lesson and will never be so stupid as to write a review 'unseen'(!) or let others take responsibility if we have an emergency.  TIA.

[Linda108]

@Michelle161  I have to sympathize with you and can understand how disappointed you were to find your property damaged.  I guess there are a lot of lessons for all of us in your story.  I doubt you will be able to get the response deleted unless it violates the Content Policy.  I am curious as to how you know this response has adversely affected bookings.  Most travelers don't read all the reviews if the recent reviews are positive.

[Michelle161]

Hi Linda, no, we don't know for sure if it's affecting our bookings but were worried that a negative review by us regarding a guest impacted possible enquiries...which are far fewer this year but could be a host of other reasons. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[Allison2]

I don't think you'll have much luck with getting it removed; they won't think it's a big enough issue to escalate.

While it could have been more concise, what I saw was a well-spoken, factual, and professional response to a problem guest among a number of other glowing reviews of your place. It's probably only a deterrent to the kinds of guests you wouldn't want anyway.

So many things affect your search results, views, and bookings - I'd think it more likely the push for instant-book, more competition, or other element in the search algorithm is to blame than your response to this review.

[Michelle161]

Thanks for replying Alison, it was a bit of a rant but relieved that you didn't think it too bad. We'll have to live with it and put it down to experience.