Airbnb has denied my request to remove a biased and retaliatory review left by a host. This comes after we unfolded the bath towels in the Airbnb only to find that they were stained and streaked with reddish-brown stains that looked like blood, which we immediately reported to the host along with pictures. The host was not able to provide replacement towels on the same day and said that they would only send over a new set the following day. No updates were provided after either.
Following the stay, I called in to Airbnb to ask if I would be able to get a refund for the unclean linen and was told by the customer service officer that I could request for a 30% refund on the first night of the stay. I highlighted my concern that the host would leave a retaliatory review following my refund request, to which the officer assured me that if that happened, I could write in to have the retaliatory review removed for being in violation of the Airbnb reviews policy. I therefore submitted the refund request for 30% of the first night's fee, which the host accepted without contest.
As expected, the host subsequently did leave a retaliatory review accusing us of: (1) not communicating the actual number of people, (2) damaging their linen and asking for replacements, (3) leaving the apartment very dirty and with traces of smoke despite smoking being prohibited, and (4) checking out 1.5 hours late. As per the Airbnb officer's advice, I submitted the request to have the review removed on grounds that it was retaliatory. In the request, I explained that:
1. We indicated in the booking that there would be 2 guests, and that was the exact number of people that stayed. We stayed at another Airbnb immediately preceding this booking, and the review left by that host on my profile clearly shows that there were only 2 of us.
2. We were the ones who found that the bath towels were unclean upon unfolding them, and this was immediately reported to the hosts. We provided picture proof to the hosts as well as to Airbnb. Our refund request due to the unclean linen was accepted by the host without contest. If they claimed that the linen was damaged by us, why was this not reported to us or Airbnb sooner?
3. We provided Airbnb with timestamped pictures that we took of the apartment just before we checked out, showing that we left the apartment in practically the same condition that we found it in. We took these pictures just before we left as we suspected that the hosts would attempt to accuse us of leaving the apartment in poor condition following our refund request. Neither of us smoke. The host has never at any point provided any evidence of the "very dirty" apartment and "traces of smoke".
4. The wildest accusation was that we checked out 1.5 hours late. We checked out early (before 7am) in order to make it to the airport in time as there were train strikes on that day. We indicated in the Airbnb app that we had checked out, and also uploaded timestamped photos showing that we had (a) returned the keys to the lockbox (as per the host's instructions) by 6:58am, and (b) already reached the airport by 9:46am. The listing's checkout time was at 11am so it is not possible for us to have checked out 1.5 hours late. The host had also not messaged us about any late checkout or asked for additional fees, which goes to show that this was a lie that they cooked up for the purposes of retaliation.
Despite providing the above details and photo evidence, our removal request has been denied by Airbnb's reviews team twice without any explanation or further queries. I have called in multiple times only to be stonewalled by their customer services officers who just repeat the same message - that they are unable to do anything and that their specialised review team is "completely isolated" and cannot be reached by anyone else.
As someone who has always respected the Airbnbs that I stayed in (confirmed by all my previous hosts), it has been extremely frustrating receiving a clearly retaliatory review and being unable to do anything about it. It is sad that guests provided with unclean linen cannot even submit a reasonable refund request (as encouraged to do so by Airbnb staff) without receiving biased and retaliatory reviews from the host which will not be removed by Airbnb.
Having gone through this experience, I would be very wary of staying in Airbnbs in the future due to the lack of support from Airbnb customer services and their indifference towards dishonest hosts and listings that do not meet basic hygiene standards. Their reviews process is clearly a charade where the team does not properly review the evidence provided and just indiscriminately denies requests - there have been multiple other reports of others experiencing the same issue. I urge other guests to be similarly cautious. At hotels, you do not run the same risk.
