Air BnB Hurting Hosts by taking no action on FAKE Reviews from Bad Guests that Violate Review Policy

[David9694]

I own several Air BnB rentals and have had 2 guests that caused major issues. I have over 100 ALL 4-5 star  reviews per listing and am a Superhost. We have hosted over 1000 guests. Latest guest brought a loaded gun without permission and when they request towels staff saw it out on the table. They also smoked drugs and damaged linens and towels getting blood all over. We saw them daily and they never had a single complaint about anything. When they got home after staying for 7 days they wanted a refund saying our 5 star was not clean, etc. When we refused they send dozens of harrassing message to the point we contacted Air bnb about how to block them. They then left a 2 star review full of lies as retaliation for not refunding a 7 day stay when they tried to blackmail us. We tried for days to have this fake and clearly in retaliation for not giving them a free vacation review removed. Even the messages from the guest admitted smoking drugs, gun, blood on linens. But air bnb management refused to remove saying it violated no policy. HUH ? BTW this guest had ZERO reviews and was new. So now not only is Air Bnb's refusal to not enforce clear violations hurting MY business, they are allowing this guest to come to YOU property. And this is the second instance with us where air bnb has refused to remove a review that CLEARLY violated their own stated policy. Air BnB--HOW ABOUT GETTING REPRESENTATIVE WHO ACTUALLY HELP HOSTS INSTEAD OF HURTING US AND HOW ABOUT ENFORCING YOUR POLICIES WHEN SOMEONE THIS TERRIBLE IS HARMING YOUR HOSTS ?

[Joan2709]

@David9694 

A very experienced Host posted here about his recommendation when a guest is obviously trying to scam a free stay with false claims. I thought it was excellent advice and kept a copy of his suggestion. He writes:

"I will be happy to entertain what refund would be appropriate once our duty to the review system has been fulfilled and our reviews of each other have been published."

Then go ahead and write your factual, non-emotional review and ensure you don't say anything in your review that could get it removed by Airbnb. Personally, once I had responded as above to the guest's attempt to get scam a refund, I would wait until the guest writes their review first, or at least wait until the last moment to write your review. I would also wait until just before the 14-day window for submitting an Aircover claim for damages expires and submit a claim for the damages along with your proof of claim.

[David9694]

Thank-you Joan, That's great advice ! I did wait until the last minute to leave a review when I saw the scammer had left one. But a gun, drugs, blood on my linens, scam me for a free 7 day stay, relentless harassing messages to try and get a refund, a new guest with zero reviews and i have many 5 stars over 2 years and air bnb does NOTHING ! They take the guest's side and say her false review that violates policy can remain ? All their customer service does is blow off the host with form emails so they can hive a high response rate. Air Bnb Corporate needs to straighten out whatever company is hosting their host customer service arm as they are clearly incompetent, don't understand stand the policies and are simply geared to sweet talk hosts while taking no meaningful action. Keeping dangerous guests like this in the system is very harmful not only to my ratings but to every host that wants to avoid trouble from bad guests.

[Joan2709]

 If you have proof the guest had a weapon, that would be the time to contact Airbnb and have them cancel the booking and have the guest removed from the property. It is against Airbnb policies for a guest to have weapons in the property without Host prior permission:

Rules Concerning Weapons

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1529

• "Guests must disclose and obtain the Host’s consent in advance of check-in, unless the Host’s listing description states that firearms are allowed.
• Hosts and guests are also required to disclose the presence of non-functional firearms and replicas because these can easily be mistaken for functional weapons.
• If prior notice is not provided and the Host or guest prefers to cancel the reservation, Airbnb will allow cancellation without penalty..."

  Unfortunately, the guest was careful not to mention anything in her review that would cause Airbnb to remove it. Lately, unless the guest specifically threatens to leave a bad review if they don't get a refund (and you have proof of that), Airbnb usually will not remove the review. In these cases, posting your honest review will likely deter other Hosts from allowing her to book in a Request to Book scenario and the one-star review will prevent her from Instant Booking another property (supposedly). 

  I'm surprised her profile has not been removed due to the weapon. Alas, guests have ways around it if they are suspended from Airbnb. They simply create another profile, or use someone else's.

  @David9694

[David9694]

The weapon was not discovered by staff until they requested towels on their last day. The messages she sent me are visible to air bnb staff and in them she admitted the weapon saying her friend had a permit (with no proof), she admitted smoking drugs saying they did so outside not inside, she admitted getting blood on sheets and towels saying i should understand because she was having woman issues. I alerted air bnb to the message she sent admitting all this and they still did nothing. This is the second time a guest has blackmailed me trying to get a free stay requesting money or bad review and it's apparently a common tactic now as I see from the message boards. It's also apparently common practice for air bnb reps to blow off legitimate concerns and guest violations when it comes to hosts as there are MANY complaints in this area. When a host has 2 years of all 4-5 star reviews and a guest has no reviews it's pretty easy to see the the ploy and no excuse for the review to be allowed to stand or the guest to be allowed to remain on the platform.  It's VERY bad business practice to not stand by good and established hosts but to allow guests who are scammers and dangerous to remain and harm a reputable owner by leaving fake reviews as retribution. It's also a violation of air bnb review rules but two times now they have not enforced their own policy. 

[David9694]

I'll also add that she sent no fewer than 12 seperate messages in a single day harrassing me to get a refund even after i told her to stop messaging me. I alerted air bnb who told me how to block her and i did. A few days later when i saw she had written a review that i knew was going to be bad and asked for it to be removed they told me to write a review for her to expedite her review posting and t

hen they would remove it. So I did and guess what, they refused to remove it so they lied directly. They need to change how they treat and service established, good hosts immediately.