Review process is being corrupted

[#1]

Dear Hosts 

Please read the following email  sent to one of our fellow hosts from an Airbnb customer service representative regarding a GUEST having their upbeat review removed, apparently because the guest did not realise the review was public.

"Mercy E, Apr 23, 08:28 PDT:

Hi Bo,

Thank you for your response. I completely understand your concerns. I know that having more positive reviews helps you as a host.

Please know that if the review author contacted us and requested to remove the review, we need to remove it as per request.

Please note that this does not apply if the customer contacts Airbnb to request only the removal of a review left by other party. In this case, we need to follow our content policy here: airbnb.com/help/article/546.

I hope this helps, let me know if you need further assistance.

Kind Regards,

Mercy"

In the words of Lord Denning

"This is such an appalling vista that every sensible person in the land would say that it cannot be right that these actions should go any further"

[Susan17]

@Robin4 

"I am totally convinced, for some reason which escapes me, they are making hosting as hard as they possibly can for us"

Given the recent swamping of searches with hundreds of thousands of new listings from "professional" operators and commercial entities, I'd have thought the reasons are blatantly obvious, Rob. 

[Emilia42]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0, @Cormac0, @Robin4,  @Bo

It would be really interesting to see if CX would have done the same if the roles were reversed. The idiot’s public review started with "Bo and XXX are really good hosts." What if Bo did not want his partner (in this case XXX) to be named publically on Airbnb. Do you think they would they have removed the review at Bo's request?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Susan17 

Personally, I don't think the girlfriend is the problem. She's unidentified, 'some other woman'. The problem is with the guy, he is clearly implicated and using a third party as an excuse to remove the review. He doesn't want 'somebody else' knowing. Possibly trying to reduce as much information as possible?  Copenhagen, lights, wine, chilling in the garden... Not the sort of thing to be said if supposedly working in Wigan.

@Emilia42 

Bo probably still could. I was thinking previously that if every Host was to start reviews "Me and my  'Significant Unidentified Other' thought 'Guest' was great...." (or similar), Hosts would have an 'out' on every review they wrote. Excuse: Significant Unidentified Other wishes to keep their "personal rights  unviolated". How can they be? Significant Unidentified Other and 'girlfriend' are already unidentified and unviolated 🙂

AirBnB Brain Fart !

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  Good one. I think I'll start out my reviews from now on with "My dog and I....." 🙂  Then if I want to remove the review, I'll tell Airbnb that my dog was just diagnosed with terminal cancer and that it's too emotionally disturbing for me to see mention of her.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 

You need to make your dog a co-host. Full photo - email address (not hard) - Govt ID(?) - Everything! Then get her to write your reviews mentioning you! You would have a legitimate claim to privacy - for whatever reason - and your dog could reek havoc by making AirBnb bookings because her photo wouldn't be with the booking enquiry! 🙂

I wonder if AirBnB are working out how farcical this all is yet?

[Shelley220]

We have just had  our listing of 13 years cancelled.  We have been removed from the Airbnb community for failing to meet their safety standards!!! We however have not been told what the complaint was or what the safety standard was that we breached.  We had two young girls staying at our property.  Their booking was for 2 people and they brought friends along and an extra mattress.  They moved furniture on the property and left lights, fans and heaters on all day and night while they were not there.  WE live in a sub tropical location so there was no need for heaters.  When we asked them about the extra guests and asked if we could inspect the property just to make sure and subsequently asked them to remove the extra guests they complained. While we were doing the inspection we noticed that they had broken a blind. We raised this with them and we are now de listed.  13 years of excellent ratings seem to mean nothing to Airbnb.  They refuse to speak to us and have just cut us off.  Disgraceful way to behave.  Every business must have a fair dispute resolution process. Airbnb does not.  They say that they reviewed all the relevant documentation.  This is a complete nonsense, there was no documentation.  Just two young very badly behaved young ladies that have been allowed to manipulate the system.  Airbnb are bullies.