guests reviews

guests reviews

I want to contact Airbnb head office to find out if it is possible to get a guest's review removed. I have spent hours looking on the site for a way to contact them directly and it appears that there isn't a way to do this!

The review is entirely untrue and very damaging to my profile. Of the over 80 guests I've had I have not had ONE bad review. Everything she complained about was of her own doing and I had nothing to do with it. She didn't even arrive so never even met me. I would like to state my case so that the review can be removed ASAP.

Pls advise. Thanks. Helen.

21 Replies 21
Martina91
Level 2
Copenhagen, Denmark

I just had a similar negative experience and I resonate with your request. If you find out where we can address an official complaint, please let me know. The Airbnb officer that responded to the untrue request from the guest has been unresponsive. I'm quite shocked and disappointed that AIRBNB seems to protect first time user guests, and doesn't take into account the long and positive review history in all my transactions so far. The protection should go both ways, towards hosts and guests. Thank you in advance

Scott80
Level 10
Honolulu, HI

Your response was way over the top for the two line review. All you have done is call attention to the tepid review left by the guest.

Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

@Scott80 Hi, are you able to link to the listing again via the profile!? For most of us that option has been removed for about a week or so making it extremely difficult to give proper case-related advice (and I'm not going to start scouring for the listing in question on the ABB site!)  

I wonder what is going on over at ABB HQ about this...

 

@Andrea9 actually it was @David who discovered this but in Chrome right-clicking on the poster's photo and "search Google for image" will sometimes take you to the poster's AirBnB profile. I hate to do this to @Anonymous, because the Streisand effect is in full effect, but here is the review and response that I was criticizing: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/9412414

Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

@Scott80 Ah, Bingo!  I had seen @David's tip at some point, but it didn't work (Chrome/Mac) because I tried it on the profile pop-up.... duuhhh. But I got it. Finally.

Thanks! And yes another unfortunate reply that does not reflect well on the host. A guest who never arrived to stay and whose review could have so easily been removed because of that.

 

@Anonymous indeed, sorry that we are talking on the side like this, but in future remember that a host reply is like a business card to potential guests.

Reacting to negative reviews

Hi Scott

 

Thanks for your message.

 

It looks like I've really put my foot in it! I have pasted below what I was sent from Airbnb. I thought that this was posted publicly in the reviews in my listing.

As you can see it is pretty lengthy and damning. Most of it is in Dutch/Flemish so I'm not sure if you can understand it but it is pretty cruel and unfair, as well as being untrue. Way over the top in my opinion! Especially as she never stayed with me or met me. This is why I wanted to find out if there was a way to get it removed.

I now see, after reading yr reply and saying that my response was over the top for a 2 sentence comment, that all that stuff was only for my eyes! I definitely would have left a shorter comment if I'd known that only 2 sentences were public. 

So I've really made things a helluva lot worse (and am feeling pretty **bleep** embarrased too).

Now I'm even more desparate  to see if I can edit my response. 

Is there a way that I can go about doing this?

 

Thanks again. Helen

 

What Anja loved about your listing:
We hebben er niet overnacht dus kunnen wij daar niet over oordelen ! De verhuurder zei ''ik ben hier de hele tijd voor jullie alleen aanwezig geweest dus moet ik toch betaald worden'' Volgens onze informatie hoort een verhuurder er voor al zijn huurders aanwezig te zijn, dus kan deze bewering niet gelden ! Naar onze mening bent u Mevr. Helen onterecht vergoed voor drie overnachtingen voor een bedrag van 90 euro, daar wij niet in uw b&b overnacht hebben. u was ook zéér moeilijk te bereiken en niet bijzonder vriedelijk ! !

What Anja thought you could improve about the experience:
de verhuurder zou beter bereikbaar moeten zijn en het zou goed zijn om haar communicatie bij te schaven en te verfijnen. En de vriendelijkheid is ook zeker een werkpunt ! ! !

Accuracy feedback:
Your guest mentioned some issues that weren’t accurately reflected in your listing description: noise. Additional comments: “Door verkeerde en misgelopen communicatie hebben wij bijna een hele dag van onze vakantie verloren om deze B&B te zoeken, er was namelijk geen huisnummer opgegeven !”.

Arrival feedback:
Your guest had some issues with the check-in process: directions. Additional comments: “Het zou nuttig zijn om in het vervolg een huisnummer door te geven aan uw huurders, als men nooit te voren in Kaapstad was kan je deze b&b niet vinden op basis v. een straatnaam en de nr. van de cottage 1 alleen ! !”.

Communication feedback:
Your guest had some difficulty communicating with you at this part of their trip: verhuurder niet te bereiken. Additional comments: “U reageerde pas een dag later na onze en andere mensen hun hopeloze pogingen om u te bellen !”.

Location feedback:
De buurt is zeer lawaaierig, het constant verkeer geeft je een onveilig gevoel.

Value feedback:
Gelieve meer en beter te communiceren. Wij zijn er niet geweest omdat u als verhuurder ons geen huisnummer doorgegeven heeft, en u was ook zéér moeilijk te bereiken ! ! !

Lilian20
Level 10
Argelès-sur-Mer, France

@Scott80 is right. best is to not pay much attention to the occasional bad seed

@Anonymous

 

There doesn't seem to be a local number for you but you can scroll down the page on this link and see how to get it from your account.

 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165/highlight/false#M728

 

"She didn't even arrive...".  This would suggest the guest did not stay?  If this is the case, you cannot get a review from someone who did not stay at your property.  Try the link above and phone them.  Good luck, Lisa

Hi Lisa

 

Thanks for your message.

 

Correct, we didn't meet and she did not stay. I'm guessing therefore that it's still possible then for a guest to write a public review regardless of whether they stayed or not.

 

Cheers, Helen

@Anonymous, the reason that the guest was still able to leave a review was because the booking still went ahead, neither party cancelled and so as far as the Airbnb system goes, this was a guest stay. In this particular case, the guest has stated their experience and their reaction to this experience. As a host I would be extremely distressed on behalf of my guest if communications did not go through successfully and my guest was unable to locate me and the accommodation they had been looking forward to and seeking. Occasionally online communications and phone communications don't get through. Promblems can snowball. Imagine how upsetting this must have been for them, they were unaware of your attempts to contact them at the time they were seeking you, and apparently at they time of writing the review. What a pity that your response did not express any concern for 

Hi Christine

 

Thanks for your message.

 

I agree with you re being concerned for my guest. I was actually extremely concerned. I wasn't sure if she was in some kind of trouble or was just a 'no-show'. I have had, and will continue to have, empathy and concern for any difficulties that any of my guests encounter. I have always gone out of my way to assist them as much as possible.

The problem here though was out of my control. My efforts to contact her went unanswered. She had my number yet never called me. She had my address yet said she couldn't find me. I would have happily helped her, even gone to fetch her, if I'd known any of this. But there was no way I could have known.

And then she left what I thought was a very long and damning review about me. And this after not having even pitched up or met me (please refer to the message that I sent to Sott which explains the mistake that I made re the review system). .

I have now learnt that the full review that one gets sent by Airbnb is not the review that is made public.

 

Regards.

 

Helen

 

 

 

Hi Lisa

 

Thanks for your message.

 

Correct, we didn't meet and she did not stay. I'm guessing therefore that it's still possible then for a guest to write a public review regardless of whether they stayed or not.

 

Cheers, Helen

Hi @Anonymous

 

This was on a help page about reviews:

 

Can a guest who never showed leave a review?

Yes and No!  If a guest never shows up and does not cancel their reservation, there is no way of Airbnb knowing if the guest checked in or not.  You canstill leave a review for the guest which could be something like, “Name was unable to stay during his scheduled reservation.  Throughout our transaction, he/she had great communication and I look forward to hosting this guest on any future trips”.

 

If a guest leaves you a negative review but never set foot in your listing, you should contact Airbnb to see if you can have the review deleted or modified to only show the guests experience such as communication since theycannot really accurately comment on the other categories.   

Hi Lisa

 

Thanks for your message and advice.

 

I searched high and low for a way to get in touch with Airbnb to request that the review be deleted (at the time I mistakenly thought it was the very long damning review) before I replied. But I couldn't find any kind of link to direct me to them.

Can anyone please advise me on where to find this link. The 'contact Airbnb' link seems to only take one to the Community Support pg.

 

Regards

 

Helen