Airbnb Refuses to Remove Retaliatory Review

[Katie1699]

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.

[Lisa9832]

@Jutta52 , Were you able to successfully get the retaliatory review removed? 

[Jutta52]

No @Lisa9832 , as you can see

[Lisa9832]

It's good to hear you were able to get this resolved! I'm also having a similar issue getting a retaliatory review removed after guests broke rules. Do you have any suggestions @Katie1699? 

[Alex]

Hi @Lisa9832, 

Since the topic is from a few months ago, I just tagged @Katie1699 in your comment so she’ll get a notification and hopefully come back to the thread. I did this by using "@" followed by her username. I hope this helps bring her back with more suggestions!

Best,

Alex

[Lisa9832]

Thank you, Alex! I'm new to this!! 😁

[Alex]

Of course! happy to help and hopefully you can keep the conversation with @Katie1699! 🤗

[Katie1699]

Hey @Lisa9832 , so sorry you are struggling with a similar issue. Airbnb definitely needs to change their process for getting reviews removed, because right now it's very unfair to hosts who do the right things. Negative reviews have a huge impact on hosts and their listing, but Airbnb doesn't seem to care. All I can say is to be persistent. I challenged each rejected attempt to get the review removed, spoke to several support personnel and asked to be escalated to the next superior whenever they would say "there's nothing they could do". I also wrote poor reviews whenever I would get the email to "rate my experience" with the support I received. Eventually my case fell into the right hands. Good luck.

[Rachel2399]

Yes. And I just posted about it in the community cafe.  This has now happened to me twice.  As a superhost, (I also have a cohost) we are going to sell the house because of this.  We feel like if we make a damage claim to the guest or enforce our house rules we are in fear of getting a negative review from the guest.  I am not sure what is going on with Airbnb in regards to this, but I can't put our property in jeopardy to not have bookings and lose revenue when a guest violates policy.  Its just not worth the stress.   Good luck to you. I hope it gets resolved.    Here is the post I wrote yesterday.

I am a superhost.  This summer has been rough. I have gotten guests that have stayed at our property and go over occupancy and having large gatherings/parties.  I feel helpless because I know if I say something to the guest about violating house rules, they will give me a bad review.  So here it goes.  I had a guest check in to the property. His reservation was for 3 guests.  Our ring camera went off (plus I have a neighbor across the street that counted cars) and the guest had more than doubled his occupancy! I reached out to the guest and asked him how many to stay there. He stumbled over his words but said the place was so nice his mom and sister and two kids wanted to stay there too. Occupancy now (at 8pm at night) is now 7.  I really had no choice but to allow the added guests since they were already inside the property.  I did remind the guest he could not go over 7 folks there during his stay. He agreed.  Two days later, our camera showed multiple cars out front with lots of small children (under the age of 5) running around in the front yard near the street and then running to the back.  The property sits on a body of water.  The camera picked up also a dog being brought to the property and about 10 more adults.  The guest had invited unapproved guests to the house to have an after wedding party.  Instead of attacking him in a message thread, we requested to do some maintenance work.  He was fine with it. The maintenance guy did need to do some work there in the backyard and he confirmed what was going on.  The next morning the guest checked out.  My cohost inspected the property and found the arm of the recliner had been either jumped on or sat on as it was broken off of the frame.  I later came in and found that damage plus ruined towels, a soiled futon, etc.  Trying to stick with Airbnb guidelines, I informed the guest right away of the damaged property.  I even sent pictures.  I also informed him we would be making a claim for damages and the extra guests that came to the house for the afterparty.  I explained the disappointment etc as he violated our house rules.  That night I informed him of missing towels and we learned of a dog coming to the house.  The guest did not respond to my messages.  Instead, I was alerted the next day he wrote his review.  I had to later compile our receipts to make the damage claim.  I didn't want to do my review until after I made my request to the guest. He refused to pay (of course) and then went as far as made a report to the safety team. ugh. I did finally got my recliner paid for by host damage policy (pictures and receipts speak a thousand words.)  Today I posted my review. I was very honest and detailed and did not speak of anything except what damages were done and house rules violated.  After my review posted his review came through.  He went on about the neighbors watching him and his guests, the co host was in disguise as a worker just a bunch of garbage.  The property is a 5 star property so I requested a removal of the retaliatory review.  I was denied twice.  I had documentation showing the message thread I sent him on Aug 4 with pictures.  I said to support "How is it not retaliation when he posted his review a day after I sent him a note of our claim for damages, violating house rules, having unauthorized guests?"  As a superhost I am beyond words.  We put the house up for sale.  We just feel like we can't seek damage claims or enforce house rules without the fear of getting a negative review.  It is just not worth it.  I am a superhost with 4 listings and I strongly believe that airbnb has gone down hill and care more about the guests than their hosts.  I have 112 reviews in 3 years (most are 5 star) and this guest had about 6 reviews in 7 years.

[Linda640]

I'm selling my house as well. It's just not worth the stress and the expenses are just too high now.