AirBNB did not remove a review that was retaliatory, need advise as a new host

[Matthew2451]

Hello, I am a new host and have been hosting for about 2 months with all good reviews so far. I recently had a guest who showed up to the home for check in, decided she didn’t like the neighborhood, and messaged me to cancel. I tried to be kind and understanding, I lived in this home for many years I know the neighborhood well. It became clear she didn’t experience any particular incident, but the area is urban and she did not want to stay there. Anyway she demanded a full refund for her stay or she would leave a bad review so we wouldn’t get more bookings and even threatened leveraging her retired police husband as well! I felt it was fair to offer her refund for the remaining nights and cleaning fee if she canceled, and only charged her for the night she arrived as I couldn’t realistically rebook that night at 5pm, even though this was more generous that my moderate refund policy. She clearly didn’t research the city or the area, and it wasn’t what she expected. She again said something to the effect give me a full refund of I will leave a bad review. I stuck to my offer of only 1 night charge, and then of course she immediately left a negative review giving 1 star in every category (inaccurate, she can’t rate me on things like cleanliness, she didn’t stay there!) She said in the review that I misled her with the location (impossible, Airbnb certifies the location!) and that it is not safe. That’s really her perception, nothing bad happened to her, she just didn’t like the urban neighborhood! 

Anyway, I feel that this is clearly retaliatory (she threatened bad review if I didn’t refund her fully, and she did that) and also inaccurate (rating 1 star in categories that do not apply to her experience). Airbnb denied by request to remove the review. As a new host with only a few reviews (all 5 star) this one star review plummets my ratings and I just don’t know what to do! Should I respond to it publicly? What do I even say? Can I appeal this decision? Has any one had a similar experience where the review was eventually removed? Should I have refunded her the full amount when she demanded it to avoid this situation all together?! Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

[Zon0]

Airbnb have changed the system to AI. The Ai is failing. That is not actually the problem, The problem is the humas CS agents see the failure and refuse to do anything about it., Airbnb is allowing Ai to violate their own terms and conditions and humans CS agents refuse to fix the issue. 

[Graeme144]

Unfortunately, this is the standard AIrbnb host experience when you try to get a review removed:

1. If you request removal online, Airbnb's auto-reject-bot rejects the request no matter what the facts are.
2. If you then attempt to escalate to what's left of Airbnb's human support, they auto-reject the request no matter what the facts are.
3. If you persist, they close the case, no matter how obviously they're breaking their own rules.

I've not seen a single host post here stating they've managed to get an obviously retaliatory review removed.

The Airbnb review system is not fit for purpose, and all that's left of Airbnb's support is a malfunctioning bot and a bunch of underpaid, over-pressured 'gig-economy' people working from their bedrooms. 

Sadly, the reality is Airbnb has no real competition and so they don't need to try harder.

[Helen3]

What did Airbnb say when you called them and pointed out the guest threatened a poor review if you didn't refund.

Presumably you clearly describe your location so there would be no reason to refund the guest outside of your cancellation policy.

hope you left her an honest review.