1st terrible review

[Graeme136]

Hi.

I listed my living room on Airbnb as I live alone in a massive apartment since my wife left taking our 2 children with her.

I offered her the apartment but she preferred to go and live with her elderly mother and so, as I wasn't really using the room I thought I would rent it out.

I listed it in May if this year and consistently underpriced it, primarily to get some reviews and a fast source of income.

I invested a lot in getting new furniture etc and took the plunge.

My first 31 reviews consisted of 30 x 5* reviews and the other one gave a 4 because it was further away from the heart of Paris than she expected.

Then, I heavily discounted the room and a guy called Hugo booked it for 2 nights at 25€ per night.

It was so cheap because I had initially planned to take a vacation and the plan fell apart at the last moment so I hurriedly unblocked the dates and gave a custom discount.

I really thought that everything went well with Hugo until he posted an extremely bizarre review.

He said that essentially I was a great host who bends over backwards to make the guests comfortable, which I feel is the truth.  But his rating was 2* overall however, none of the subcategories scored less than 3.

What particularly angered me is that in the category "accuracy" he gave 3* with a comment "smaller than expected"!!

Reminder that this was a living room for a family of 4.  All of my previous reviews had given 5* for accuracy.

The room looks exactly like the photographs as does the rest of the apartment that he had free reign to access.

I protested the review with both Airbnb and the guest but to no avail.

In my reply to the review I stressed the fact that all previous reviews have been excellent and urged potential bookers to take this into account before relying on this one outlier review.

The thing is, by giving 3 out of 5* for "accuracy" it stands to reason that he is accusing me of falsification of either the photos or the property description.

He is calling my ethics, integrity and honesty into question.

I am a qualified lawyer and may wish to return to the profession one day and so ethics, honestly and integrity are vital to work in the profession.

I feel that if anyone undertook a deep background check on me, they would see this and it could very well prejudice any chance I have of returning to the profession.

I have asked him to justify with specificity how and exactly what is inaccurate about either the photos of the property or the listing itself and, so strongly do I feel that I have been defamed and subjected to a malicious falsehood that I have given him until 09:00 tomorrow morning to respond fully with details to support the deduction of 2 stars under the category of "accuracy".

I have explicitly stated that I am not pressuring him to remove the review as this would be contrary to policy but if he fails to justify this slight on my character and honesty, I will sue him for defamation but more likely malicious falsehood.

Incidentally, he is also listed as a host but he doesn't seem to have had any reviews for a couple of years now and amongst his later reviews were two absolutely atrocious ones where the guests were particularly savage in the criticism of the condition of his property (mould everywhere etc).

I am wondering if Airbnb shut him down and he has a grudge against successful hosts....

Words cannot sufficiently describe how furious I am to have my character called into question in this way and for me, this is a question of principle.

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The guest who followed him gave me 5* ( by the way, I never ask for reviews, I leave it to the guest). If they choose to review that's all well and good.  Also, I can take justified criticism and constructive criticism and learn from it but this guy flat out lied about me.

For what it's worth, after I read the review following his, I shared with that guest what had been said.  Her response to me via WhatsApp was "that is by far the biggest Airbnb room I have ever rented" and other reviewers have commented on the size of the room.  Even Hugo, when he first saw the room commented verbally "wow, nice room".

I am utterly sickened that people are so malevolent as to do what this guy did!

I have 2 listings and the one in question is https://www.airbnb.fr/h/graeme2

Unbelievable!

[Joanne967]

I know that it is difficult to get a poor review. However, anyone deciding on whether to book will take into consideration that you have had 31 5 star reviews and understand that some people (Hugo) are unfair and could never be pleased. Do not over think or over share. Keep your personal life out of the public domain. You are doing well. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Sounds like your business venture is already successful. 

[Rebecca]

Hi @Graeme136 👋

I'm so sorry to hear about the guest review. @Joanne967 has left a comment for you below, saying how you're doing a fantastic job - have you seen it? 😊

@Robin4 usually has such wonderful advice in these situations to support hosts - I hope you don't mind me tagging you in here. 😊 

[Robin4]

@Graeme136 

Graeme, sooner or later we are all going to have to deal with an unreasonable review. I go out of my way to make every guests stay the best experience possible. Almost all my guests accept and appreciate what I do.

But Graeme, guests are not all wired the same way. In my 9 years of hosting and almost 1,000 reviews (770 of them on Airbnb) I have only ever received 6 x 3 star reviews! All the rest have been 4's or 5's!

It used to worry me, particularly when one like this appeared on my profile.....

But Graeme, these reviews come along about one in 100, which is about the same as what you are experiencing! In your 98 reviews you have had only one less than a 3 star overall review.

You have the runs on the board Graeme, you are a great host.....and it shows. That 2 star review says far more about Hugo than it says about you.

Who do you think we are going to believe........Hugo or those other 97 that thought you were worth more than a 2 star rating.

These days I regard the odd poor rating as a badge of honour and I am quite happy to let it sit there amongst all my 5's. Sure prospective guests will read it but, when they compare it to my other reviews they will realise what a turkey that guest actually was. Here are a couple of recent ones

Graeme, take it on the chin, you are better than that, focus on all the good that you do, not the negative. Be like me, be a 'glass half full' host, not a 'glass half empty' one!

All the best.

Cheers........Rob.

[Zheng49]

Might be a little bit too late now, but never underprice it to such a degree. The type of guest(s) that you will attract with underpricing are usually significantly below average. They cannot be pleased, despite the deal that they got.

With regards to the admittedly terrible review you got, I wish you luck in getting it removed somhow, however it is also worth it to take heed to the "advice" that you got. 

There must be a reason he gave you a 2* overall. It might be good to calm down a bit and communicate with the guest on the reasoning behind the low score, so that you can improve for the future.