Dear Airbnb friends,
We are working with Airbnb for a year and a half and are really enjoying the whole experience. We meet great people, we do our best to make our guests heppy and to satisfy all their needs, sometimer we even feel like we travel ourselves when hosting. Still, there are issues like the last one we decided to share with you.
It's a negative review. We know how the reviewing system functions, it's all clear. We know we can answer - we did it before. Still, the last situation was completely unrighteous and frustrating! We got two stars because the guests didn't know how to use the heater! We always explan our guestss everything about the home, and this group was not an exception. When we came to make the registration on the first day of their stay we explained every single thing. We always tell them to contact us if they have even the smallest issue - because something may "not work" just because the guest doesn't know how to use it. We are always here for our guests, we were here for all their issues, but they didn't call us at all.
Besides, when we registered them - the heaters worked perfectly. There are regulating termometers in both rooms. It was 20 degrees celsius. This is a normal temperature for any season. Still, if someone wants more - there is the regulator, so they could just adjust it.
Furthermore, they left the appartment in a terrible mess and broke things (an expensive vase in the bedroom). Still, we did not complain and didn't write a negative review - we generally don't do it beacuse we know how the reviews are important within the Airbnb community. If the experience is not positive - we usually decide not to leave any review. But this time it is simply unrighteous... They got a day extra for free - because they checked in during the night before their reservation. We left them to have a sleep, than we came to do the registration. And we got two stars fot that...
We are really dedicated to what we are doing. We prepare a third listing and we enjoy being part of Airbnb. It's more than a platfotm for making business - it is a community where people share common ideals. As much as we are enthusiatic to go further, so much we get disappointed and desperate when we face situations like this.
We shared the issue with the Airbnb help service and asked them to make an exception and remove the comment. They answered that it is not possible. This was our reply to it:
"Our dear A., thanks for the answer. The general policy is familiar to us. What we asked for was an exception from the rule. And Airbnb sometimes makes exceptions in such cases. It's not a question of policies, legal documents and law - it's a question of ethics. Airbnb connects human beings. Therefore is important so view each case personally and ethically, not only legally. The review is simply not *righteous* (I hope you grasp the importance of this word). I am sure Airbnb can make an exception in this case - it's just a matter of good will and understanding.
I don't understand people who are ready to make a chaos on someones home and than leave a two star review. We had terrible guests - but I just only once wrote a negative review and that was more than one year ago.
Finally, we are Airbnb hosts for a year and a half. We have never broken a single Airbnb rule - especially the ethical rules not to host guests outside the Airbnb network. We were and will stay fair to the community - because that's the way we primarily understand Airbnb, namely as a community. We also expect that the Airbnb management team will be righteous with those who are fair and loyal. It's very simple and obvious point. "
We got the same negative answer from Airbnb. We also contacted our guest (from the profile it is obvious that this is a person who used Airbnb only once in life, without a profile picture, other reviews or any idea how the Airbnb community functions) to clear the problem with them - they didn't respond at all. At the end we suggested the following to the Airbnb contact centre:
"Have you considered the option to review your policy and let the active and dedicated hosts to choose to delete a comment in a period of time? For example, to delete one comment in six months. I believe that could improove the performance of the whole platform and strenghten the community"
What do you think about this suggestion? Do you have any idea what can we do further beside answering to the review?
Thank you in advance for your answers!
Milan & Ana
