Third party booking and 1st review - negative

[Monif0]

Good morning everyone!  We are new hosts on airbnb but have used airbnb for our own travels all over.  I love the platform and would like some advice.  We recently started listing a private room in our house and got our first booking about a week ago.  The person booked the day before and was only staying for one day because they wanted to be close to the airport.  When they arrived, it turned out the booking was not for the person who booked but for her cousin and his girlfriend.  I didn't know what to do and they didn't seem like they came with any bad energy and the booking was for one night.  They explained that the booking was a last minute situation and that they just needed to stay close to the airport before an early flight.  The cousin and girlfriend apparently don't have airbnb and asked the actual person who booked to book something for them. When they arrived they remarked on how clean and nice our house is and thanked us again for allowing them to stay. Fast forward, the booking was fine, no issues, quiet couple and no issues at all.  The day of checkout they thanked me for my hospitality and said they enjoyed the stay and were comfortable.  

So now its review time..at first I didn't know what to do because I'm not reviewing the person who booked but rather the couple who stayed so I wrote a review to that affect.  The person who booked on the other hand gave us a 2 star review and simply wrote "Thank You."

I have other businesses and am not easily upset about negative feedback or reviews but when I saw this I was like "the nerve...." Last minute booking, begs for them to be able to stay and then 2 star review for a house they all said was immaculate and comfortable.  Now it appears as though the negative review has caused us to appear much lower in the search results because in the last few days our views significantly decreased.  I believe we've gotten 3 views in the last 6 days and prior to that we were up to about 200 views and we haven't beeen on the platform more than a month.  

I've already contacted a case manager about this and I'm getting the run around.  I'm not sure if there's anything else I can do now other than know that future bookings will even it all out but would appreciate any advice.  At this point, I'm not even sure if my listing is getting visibility and when the next booking will come.

Thanks for your help.  

[Ana1136]

@Monif0 that is a bad idea, the reviews will stay and Airbnb might flag the new listing because it will have the same address and the can tell it is the same so you will remain with no listing at all. 

[Monif0]

@Ana1136 understood. Thanks Ana!

[Sandra856]

@Ana1136 but lots and lots of hosts got several rooms listed within the same house/same address. There even is a "dublicate listing" button.

I would definitely open a new listing and if airbnb had a problem with that under these circumstances then it must be their problem. I don't see how @Monif0 can ever recover from a 2 star rating as a new host?

[Ana1136]

@Sandra856 yes but different rooms. Duplicate listing is for when you have two or more of the same rooms in order not to waste time setting everything up from the start. Also many hosts have been banned for deleting and reposting the same property. As i said, they might flag her, she can decide if it is worth the risk. And also the review will remain to her profile and the whole point is for the review to be deleted. 

[Sandra856]

@Ana1136 Yes, I know 🙂

It is a problem if hosts can just open up a new listing if they get bad reviews. So it definitely is a grey'ish zone. 

But under these circumstances I personally wouldn't continue with a listing that is already dead. 

[Sandra856]

Hi @Monif0 🙂

I'm so sorry to hear about your very first host experience. If it were me I think I would close down this listing and start a new one from your husband/partners profile as this review will also follow your profile not only the listing.

All the best, Sandra 

[Monif0]

@Sandra856 great suggestion!  Thank you so much.  I actually don't feel helpless in the situation anymore.  Much appreciation.

[Jennifer311]

Monif,

Sorry this happened to you. I had a bad experience with a third-party booking review too. I didn’t know it was a third-party booking until they were dropped off abruptly. But perhaps you could ask to have it removed, the review, because it violates the terms and conditions to have the person review you who did not stay there.

And to get more exposure for your listing, I have heard that it helps to add new photographs and tweak the listing on a regular basis. You could add a couple of extra amenities and show some activity on the calendar/tweak the description etc. Maybe others can weigh in here on this.

please keep us posted 

 If you go to my profile you’ll see a bad review that is unfair because when they were dropped off their friend who made the booking even said “wow I would like to stay in this room -this is really nice!” and didn’t even tell me his friends’ names. It was very awkward.

I didn’t want to cancel on the spot because I was kind of frozen and the friends live in our town for the summer working on a boat. I am asking Airbnb for help to get this unfair one-off but bad-looking bad review removed. It has inaccuracies to, saying that there wasn’t a lock on the bathroom door when there was. They just didn’t recognize it on the door knob.Fortunately it’s in another language, but it is very easy on the website to do instant translation.