So defeated . Yet I want answers!

[David6]

Another nightmare weekend. Saturday I fell asleep at 12 midnight, as horrendous personal situation  (is this wrong!? Do I need to be 24/7 *woke*)

woke up at 5am to see dozens of calls - around 1am / 2am time - from guest who had ‘left keys in uber’ .

i can’t understsnd why the guest didn’t recall her driver - his number would be listed in app - and get keys back. 

Anyway, at 5am I wake up - message and tell guest how to get emergency set of keys. Bingo! She acknowledges she’s back in flat! 

She messages next day, to say ‘sorry, don’t worry, chatted to driver, I’ll get keys back, before I check out.’ 

So today Monday. Guest checks out. Sends message. ‘Not able to get keys back, I had to rush to catch my train’

I phoned Airbnb to log issue and commenced resolution claim. I just charged  the ‘labour’ to Change barrel on 3 locks. Not whole new locks. No charge for all extra keys I had to cut for me, cleaner, my new guests, arriving this same day at 3pm! I tried to be reasonable. 

Weekend guest accepts the charge, but of course leaves retaliatory review. 

Nearly 6 years of hosting Airbnb? How do I feel? Defeated, unsupported, guests can ruin hosts, no fairness, a platform hosts built and  pay for with fees , yet treated with utter contempt! Superhosts lost because of guests like this! 

And *supposed* voice of hosts (the biggest joke of this century)  @laurachambers 

you ignored me last time when a guest literally sh*t all over my apartment! But when  are you going to step up to your role - supporting hosts? -  stop guests who are charged via resolution centre, from leaving reataliority  reviews????  I appreciate this is rude, but apart from staying with superhosts all around the world - utterly  pountless as so biased- and documenting how amazing it all is. What is your response to hosts like me, who are totally hacked off with Airbnb? A totally disillusioned host worn down by Airbnb policies? 

[Mark116]

@Yan37   Wow, and it looks like that guy is a host himself, what a nasty piece of work he must be to give a one star review after he ignored all the rules that, as a host, he already knows all about.  I'm not surprised airbnb was no help, they don't care about retaliatory reviews that ruin people's business. At all.  

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Yan37 super professional response to that review.

[Lilly28]

@David6 @Helen350 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  and all of you Branka and Silvia...

There was a long discussion here what airbnb should do with unfair bad reviews. And all of you were writing that hosts should be allowed ONE, yes - only ONE review to be removed in a year. All agreed that this was a path in the right direction. It was only me who then wanted that we had the right to remove 2 reviews. Now I want to know - have we the right to remove even one review - and especially when it is a retaliatery one?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Lilly28 

I wasn't amongst those Lilly. If anything, I'd want to push for as many removals of retaliatory reviews as was neccesary since those hosts who list single nights are far more likely to have a higher percentage of retaliatory reviews than those who only host seasonally or weekly.

Reviews are not the heartache, its the retaliatory star ratings which should be removed.

Retaliatory reviews generally result from - Guest makes mistake or breaks House Rules, host points out mistake and administers House Rules as agreed, guest blames host for mistake and generally lies giving a false review and star rating.

[David6]

@Lilly28 

I believe if a guest causes damage, and it’s determined by Airbnb via the resolution centre, they should not be permitted to leave a review at all. It’s totally ludicrous for  hosts to be penalised for a reckless guest causing damage. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@David6 I would agree that in your case of a guest causing damage that no review should be allowed, but I also think that many hosts have specific House Rules which need to be adhered to and breaking these should also result in the guest losing the ability to penalise hosts by way of downgrading star ratings.

So many guests breach House rules and when called out turn into petulant children. This needs to stop, them grow up and their retaliation prevented.

[Mark116]

@David6  I feel its okay for them leave a written review, because they still have a right to tell their side of the story, but they shouldn't be able to have their review stars count toward the hosts percentages.  This seems fair to me.  The guest can still have a venue for stating their perception but the retaliatory edge is removed because it won't count in the totals, so the super host with 95% 5 star doesn't get tanked by a 1 star review from a jerk who broke the rules or the law or both.

[Anne1055]

The problem I have with reviews is all about trust and community, which is what Airbnb is supposed to be about --

Guest leaves bad review or low score or both.
Meanwhile I give a great review of guest, not knowing they had issues.
Many times their issue is that they did not read the house book and therefore can't find towels/soap/linens, or have no idea how to close a lock box.
One guest who is also a host commented that my house book seemed slightly "passive agressive" and gave a 3 star rating for communication because of it.
One other guest felt the house book was too strict so they couldn't relax and enjoy the place?

Obviously neither of these people have ever had their spaces covered in a chocolate cake mess thrown around the room, or opened the door to find 8 areas of period sex and dried blood on the sheets, as well as what would appear to be a crime scene (this happened to me twice last year).

Also, it appears that many new guests don't read enough about Airbnb and its trust, community, and purpose. They think it's a cheap hotel and they can do whatever they want. I think Airbnb needs a clear MISSION STATEMENT on the front page of every Guest agreement, just so newbies know exactly what is expected of them.

As a host, I do not have time, nor do I intend to get paid less than $30/hr for cleaning other peoples' messes. But do newbies realize this? Does Airbnb not have an obligation to teach newbies that there is a trust factor, and what that means?

I now have this in my house book -- for newbies and others too --

You imagine that I am your best friend's mother, and I will imagine that you are my daughter's best friend. You will leave my space as you found it, and if you don't understand something, you will ask me to clarify before giving a bad review, and  untoward comment, or a score lower than 5 stars.

I in turn will trust that you are just needing a gentle reminder if you don't follow house rules, or miss something in the cleanup, since as my daughter's best friend you deserve respect enough for me to not give you a bad review or lowered star ratings.

Now wouldn't that just be easier than having people misunderstand what is expected??

[Yan37]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all your comments and support!

I am totally for lobbying Airbnb to allow hosts at least ONE removal of inaccurate and retaliatory review per year. 

How should we go about this?

[Ange2]

@Yan37     I once suggested something along the lines that for every 5x5star reviews the host should get a boost with an additional 5 stars added,  which would mitigate outlier reviews.  It could easily be done with coding so would not incur additional labor costs for oversight to sort through unfair, petty revenge reviews.  And sometimes it is worth being able to see the outlier ranting reviews because it gives the host a sense of the guest. Forewarned is forearmed.

[Roger369]

I got rid of keys altogether except the ones that enter their rooms. The front door has a code entry so no keys required. The bedroom door keys, I have made plenty of spares should they lose them.

[Daniela241]

I have guests complaining because I don't give them keys and a doorman has to open the building entrance (the guy is sitting at a front desk 24/7)!

I just can't win!! 

[Valerie27]

Our code entry recently had a glitch and we had to race back from a dinner party to let our guests back in... they had entered without a problem the first time. We now leave a key in another locked area that can be communicated when we are not there. It wasn't a battery problem... we still don't know what it is. Plan B seems always a good idea with guests.

[Donna651]

I replaced the keyed lock with a key pad. It isn’t that expensive.  I used to have constant issues and now happily no longer dealing with late night disasters. Also I wrote in my policy notes that I am not available between 10pm and before 5am. 

[Barbara-And-Frederick0]

I am a brand new host and noticed that I was given a 75% response rating since I did not respond in 24 hours.  I was still trying to figure out with help of the people who answer calls how everythihg works and I did not even have many pictures posted.  I expressed my concerns and they told me a computer takes care of the ratings and they cannot change them even for my situation or any unusual circumstance.    I asked them to give me a break since I still in process of getting my listing up and running correctly.  I ended up with three listings and two had to be deactivated....they could not be deleted, even though they would never be used due to many errors in the listing.  So I hope that someone from AirBnb reads the community discussions so they can have their web designer or whomever can override the computer  and make compassionate decisions as many other businesses can do to keep their customers happy.  I also am aware that many people try to take advantage, but there needs to be some way to override the computers...people are not machines and need to be treated as humans.