Airbnb Failure to Remove Retaliatory Review

[We-Host2]

We had a guest stay who wanted to cancel because their plans changed. We denied A full refund because it was mid stay, they were upset. We never heard anything from them until they left us a negative review (1 star) and mentioned that they reached out to us about their issues and we didn’t help (lie).

We thought that this would be an easy one to remove because the Airbnb chat had no mention of any of their issues and they clearly lied in their review. 

We reached out to Airbnb, cited their policy and they still upheld the review. 

I’m frustrated as this is super damaging and has happened a number of times,  where guests are angry they can’t get their money back for cancelling the day before their reservation or during. We are upholding our mutually agreed to firm cancelation policy. 

Have any pointers here or can get me in touch with someone? I do think that the rep made an error on this one because it clearly goes against the review policy. 

Only communication from guest:

2nd night into reservation. 

“Hi there, I was wondering if there was any way I could check out
tomorrow?“

we denied.

“No chance for a refund? Even though I’m leaving 3 days early? This would make sense if I had made this reservation a while ago and preventing it from being booked up and was causing lost income, but I only made this booking yesterday.”

we stated the policy

“I think that is a predatory and unfair for this situation, as I made the reservation 24 hours ago and the location does not meet my needs. But if that’s your policy, I suppose I have no other option.“

he leaves a 1 Star review:

“Overall I would not recommend this AirBNB. It was at ground level on a noisy street and it was very loud especially at night and sometimes felt unsafe. As soon as you walk in to the apartment, the bed is essentially in the porch at the front door, which was a very awkward setup. It also could have been more clean. The ceilings in the hallway to the bathroom were dangerously low, and even an average height person would have to duck to make it to the bathroom. It did not look or feel as nice as the pictures suggested. I reached out to the host and although their response time was fast, it was an Al generated response that addressed none of my issues and helped me in no way. I would not stay here again.“

[We-Host2]

1. we kept all communication on Airbnb 

2. Will reach out or Airbnb again 

3. Will do this of course if the review remains 

4. we can add our policy again to this

5. the only policy that would have been better for this guest would be flexible and we’re not doing that one and it isn’t the most popular setting in our market

6. we have had this already for years

[Marie8425]

@We-Host2 

Try approach like this

Say nothing to Airbnb about the cancellation,  I agree  with you the guests reason but he doesn't mention that you mentioning it is not good.

Specifically "I reached out to the host"  No Guest didn't

"Al generated response that addressed none of my issue"  I do not have the ability on the ABB Platform to generate AI responses"

Two simple untrue statements.  Nothing else.

[We-Host2]

Not only that but the “entrance” he is talking about is the back b patio door, there is a front entrance door that is primary entrance. So that’s completely false as well. 

[Marie8425]

@Paula  Spammer  Not a host selling templates

[Paula]

Thank you so much for your help, @Marie8425. We have taken the necessary actions.

[Zheng49]

In the future you can offer to refund for any nights you can rebook. Maybe that could have averted the negative review. 

Although it seems like some good points were raised in the review. I do agree that such a well written and detailed negative review is the most damaging type of review. 

I think any listings have a few negatives to them that's not apparent from the listing details alone. If a guest wanted, he/she just needs to list out all the negatives in a detailed way, coupled with a 1* review, and then it's all over (for the host). 

[We-Host2]

Thanks for your reply, we have done that for sure in the past and will do it again going forward to try and avoid this.

Seems no one likes to taking responsibility for agreed to, policies, I personally have booked properties with no refund and had to cancel but took complete responsibility as that is what is right.

I definitely agree that this one was well written and definitely written that way to do the most damage as possible.  

[Zheng49]

"Seems no one likes to taking responsibility for agreed to, policies, I personally have booked properties with no refund and had to cancel but took complete responsibility as that is what is right."

This is true, but keep in mind we're in the hospitality business. Unfortunately, customers expect us to bend backwards for them. 

When I book hotels/inn/etc., I also (try to) do the exact same thing. The written terms is just that, any kind of terms can be bended slightly. 

With regards to refunds, I am very lenient (nowadays) in giving out partial/full refunds, because I have seen first hand how much damage can be done, if you don't give out a refund promptly and the guest is determined enough. 

[We-Host2]

That's a very good point

[Yenisel0]

Airbnb must take care about hosts a litle more, every one must respect the policies.