Has anyone else faced issues with Airbnb refusing to remove a obvious retaliatory review left by a guest? I have documentation and proof of messages exchanged between me and the guest, as well as messages between me and Airbnb support before the review was left, and both of my requests to remove the review were denied and reaching out to support was unhelpful. Every support person I speak with reiterates the same automated sounding message. I feel like I'm losing my mind.
I had a guest stay last week who brought a small dog with her to my no pets apartment. She did a good job of hiding it and I didn't notice it until the last day of her stay where it was unleased outside on my security cameras. Before even confronting the guest, I reached out to Airbnb support for advice on how to handle this rule break, since this was the first time someone had brought a pet without permission. They said I could confront her about the pet and charge a fee for the extra cleaning. So I did this. I said "Hi ____, checking my security cameras this morning, I saw you have a dog with you, despite my listing being no pets. I just wanted to let you know that there will be an additional charge for extra cleaning to run an ozone machine to get rid of the pet dander. My home is listed as no pets to keep it safe and comfortable for people who have pet allergies, as well as for myself, and I'm allergic to dogs." And I requested a small $50 fee. She responded after checkout and said "I won't be paying anything love I appreciate you ,you can speak with airb n b. He service animal". And then right after, left a 2 star review with the only comment saying "Kinda of rude".
Even though she claimed it was a service animal, I am skeptical because it was a chihuahua, which I guess could be a service animal, but I would think it's less likely? Also, the dog was unleashed outside, and checking my security cameras, she left the apartment multiple times without it, so she left her supposed service animal there by itself. It goes against Airbnb policy to have a service animal unleashed outside and to be left in the Airbnb alone. But regardless of whether it truly is a service animal or not, I reached out to Airbnb before even confronting her because I wanted to make sure I had their support and OK to confront her. I figured with all my proof, if she left a retaliatory review, it would be removed easy.. But now I'm sitting here with a two star review Airbnb refuses to remove because they say it doesn't go against their policy? What? Also, to top it off, they reimbursed me $50 for the extra cleaning, so they recognized the rule break and clearly agreed it was a rule break.
I don't know what to do.. As a superhost who works so hard to provide top tier stays, it's very discouraging that a retaliatory review can taint my listing and there's nothing I can do about it. I wish I didn't even confront the guest. It's sad that hosts can't enforce their rules out of fear of guests leaving retaliatory reviews and knowing that Airbnb support will likely not even remove it.
