Tracking repeat bad behaviour

[Tammy0]

I just sent this feedback to Airbnb. 

I am a super host and I have a guest who stayed at my normally 5 star rated listing - with all raving reviews, My concierge alerted my on arrival that something was fishy...she thought he had way more than the listed amount of guests, she said he seemed to look for things he was unhappy with from the moment he arrived. When he left he proceeded to find a whole laundry list of issues that were false and then he made difficult for us to resolve and requested half of the fee refunded in the resolution center. Although I knew he had extra guests there and that all of his claims were false (with proof) with the exception of the 2nd shower which happened to break during his stay I negotiated and refunded him half of what he asked for to try and preserve my status as a good host. What I would have liked to know before I went into this is if he had done this previously. Do you track guests who continuously use the resolution center to get money refunded?The girl who looks after the villa felt like he was looking for problems from the moment he arrived. I ask because, now I am scared to give him an honest and truthful review as I feel it will just invite a nasty and dishonest review back. So, future hosts do not know what really happened. Do you track... "repeat refund requesters" in an algorithm? I honestly feel a bit like was a shakedown. I am even now doubting that the shower breaking was an accident... yikes - what has this person done to me? Would have been good to have been able to just ask someone at Airbnb about this, but of course, impossible to contact anyone there. 

[Scott-and-Eva0]

We have a guest whose online profile lists himself as a physician.  I could not verify this online via the medical board in our state or the state he "interned" in.  It could be I have flawed research, or it could be he is being dishonest.  I contacted airbnb and I was not satisfied with the customer support, or shall I say lack of customer support regarding this issue.

[Ricardo71]

Hello from Miami!

I don't think they track people who are constantly on the resolution center for compensation but it is maybe a good idea they have a number in their profile showing the times a person has been to it.  It would give hosts a warning sign.  Airbnb will always retain their fees so I do not hold my breath they will do anything to discourage anyone from being a crook and a liar.   I personally make it a point to check with them after check in if htey found everything OK in writing, contact them during their stay in writing and before check out... you got it: In writing.  I do keep all communication in writing, no phone calls, all messages that when/if  needed I could copy/paste and use them in a rebutal in case of a made up bad review.  It is very effective damage control!

[Amaris0]

Great idea @Ricardo I tend to communicate 95% of the time in writing also for reasons as such; so long as the communication is done on the Airbnb platform they will accept it as evidence if you need to make reference to it.

[Amaris0]

@Tammy your suggestion re tracking repeat or serial 'refund requests' by the same guests is a great one; Airbnb already have all the information to hand so it would be actually really easy to extract this type of data and also very useful. It's great that you sent the feedback to Airbnb and I hope you highlighted that you were also making a suggestion in addition to the feedback.

Re the feedback, you must always leave a genuine feedback in order to warn other hosts; also guest’s will eventually have to get their act together if their feedback continuously reflect issues as they will find it hard to book future accommodations.

If this guest is a serial refund requester and a previous host had left this message then you would probably have declined their request saving you all this trouble.

It defeats the purpose of leaving feedbacks making it a pointless exercise if it does not reflect the true experience the host or guest had; feedback must also never be left in retaliation of a negative feedback. In fact not leaving a feedback that expresses your concerns is as good as Airbnb know serial refund requesters and not sharing the information, in both cases, the guest continues to get away with poor behaviour after all there is no deterrent and only what seems like an incentive to continue in this manner especially of they get the accommodation for cheaper.

I must say you made a big mistake which could have had repercussions for you by allowing additional guests who were not on the booking confirmation to stay in the property. If there were any problems which you had to report to Airbnb, you would not have had their protection because you had more people than stated on the booking confirmation in you your property; therefore you exposed yourself to additional risk and those additional  people were not covered by Airbnb protection. This was also an opportunity to cancel this guest’s reservation straight away without any penalties if you were not sure/  happy with him.

Re contact, the best way to make non emergencies contact is via twitter and to be honest it is quicker than phone calls sometimes - click on the link for contact options - Contact Airbnb

Wish you all the best, Ama

[Gladys8]

Ama, I don't leave reviews for my worst guests as I don't want to be seen as a complainer. I use the part where no one sees the comments except AirBnB when the guest has been excessively dirty and when I would not recommend them, but I rarely say it publically and I know that many other hosts do the same.

[Sandra126]

@Gladys8, you can review your worst guests in a veiled way, hosts will understand. Like the line about ''more suited to a hotel environment'' or things like that. Unless you say Great guests, welcome back! we will know there is something up.

[Jude7]

Just curious - when leaving a review for a guest there's that little box asking if you have any comments about a guest that only Airbnb will see.  What sort of comments might one leave, and what does Airbnb do with these comments, once received? 

Jude

[David-and-Fiona0]

@Gladys Unfortunately what you are doing is completely defeating the purpose of reviews. I would hope you would reconsider this

[Sandra126]

It is indeed a good idea and I am sure they are already doing it. If you go for a refund at a particular hardware chain here for instance you show ID, sign a slip and get your refund. They are keeping tabs for unusual behaviour as to how many times you refund. Surely Air does the same as standard business practise. Would be amazing if there was a ''number of refunds'' for hosts to see.

Air say that they listen to hosts: Well here is a great suggestion!

[Kelly58]

There is no way for either of you to leave retaliatory feedback unless you book them as a guest again.  The way the reviews work are that you each have two weeks to review the other and only after you have both reviewed each other are they made visible.  The only exception is if one does not review at all within the 14 day period.  in that case the review that was done gets posted and the other person looses the opportunity to leave a review.  I have only been a host for about a month and have two listings, so I am surprised a super host was unaware of the Review Policy.  But in any case, I recommend always leaving honest reviews, both ways.  I even had one guest say they wanted to give me a great review but had one thing they would indicate that wasn't super (although I had included it in the listing) and asked if he should refrain from the review altogether.  I told him to PLEASE DO leave the HONEST review.  I haven't left his yet so I havent seen how good or bad it was but i'm not worried about it.  I prefer honesty regardless of whether it is great or not.  Good luck to you!

[Amaris0]

Technically that is true re leaving retaliatory feedback but in reality, guest and host alike sometimes have a feeling when the other is not going to leave  a great review and they leave their review based on this feeling/ knowledge. There are even posts on here were the host has said I gave a good review but had I known they would leave a less than favourable review for me, I would have been upfront about the issues that really occurred and that's just one example; there are other times when a host leaves a good review, the guest leaves a bad one and then the host responds via the public response with the information that would have been best provided when leaving the initial review. 

Hosts tend to be more worried understandably due to the ratings and impact of a negative review and sometime this overshows the real reason feedbacks are left.

Ama

[Ricardo71]

@Kelly0 I have been hosting since 2011 and as of this month I'll get my Superhost back.  I lost it while trying Instant Booking for the first time and before I blinked someone booked a stay in the middle of my vacation to Cambodia!!  Anyways,  my pooint is I am aware of how reviews work.  

I dont  believe in retaliatory reviewing and never did even back when it was possible and I am strogly opposed to very into detail reviews that seem to have been written by the school Principal.  They backfire. 

I feel the tone of the reviews,  the language one  uses and the issues one touches ultimately reflect on the very  person who wrote the review.   They reflect on you as much as on the guest.

I personally don't ever want to come accross as petty and unwelcoming, I am not in charge of disciplining people.

I am in the busines of having people, even very difficult people feel welcomed and I win when I manage to carry this ogres through the time of check out wrapping  up an uneventful stay.   Reviews are very tricky and our perception of people is often just that, our perception.

Just my two cents!

[Raffaele-and-Astrid0]

hi @Tammy0

This is the number of Airbnb Switzerland +41 43 50 84 900

you are superhost,  so you will jump the queue. 😉

good luck

Cheers Raf

[Linda108]

As a host, I count on honest, professional host reviews and hope that hosts are not intimidated by the fear of negative guest reviews.  As hosts, we can respond to the review and our response is published.  It is a great opportunity for the host to demonstrate how professional and caring the host is and also to be able to refute inappropriate/inaccurate feedback.

As a guest, I also have had the opportunity to provide Air BNB with information about a listing that had a security/safety problem in my opinion.

It would seem to me that any repeat bad behavior would be noted by other hosts so I wouldn't expect Air BNB to track and publish anything about an indvidual guest unless the behavior triggers the guest's profile to be deleted.