Airbnb behavior addressing review violation.

[Matt434]

Dear Airbnb community

I have the issue of slander, defamation of character, inaccuracy, and unclarity in a multi violation of terms review and need your help. "What affects one directly, affects all indirectly".

1. Host husband-wife team initiated; made direct contact to single guest to request to have contractors come reserved whole space for work and upgrades during stay.  This is not comfortable, surprising and it violates health, safety protocol and my guidelines for health. I requested the host delay this for check out. This created hostility.

1. Space is in undisclosed shared space with Hosts dog, shared yard, reserved bungalow to the whole house fenced yard. The Host dog repeatedly violated the unit, dog in yard all day, any opening of door, dog is inside unit. Guest requested the dog not come in.

1. Mattress cover at check in was original from previous guests, original dog hair, dirt.  The guest requested this be changed because it violates health guidelines.

Requests are normal human exchanges of communication. There were over 25 text sms exchanges over a month and face to face, husband host sms cell phone to guest, wife host sms phone to guest. Normal every day, nothing unusual. No reason for Airbnb involvement. I handle requests, daily host interaction on my own, and even Airbnb suggests this. I have 12 years of Airbnb host guest stay experience.

Host posted a retaliatory review, saying I made odd requests, unusual from other guests, ambiguously comparing me to seemingly other short-term guests.  Worse, the host leaves accusations and “odd requests” unclear, what accusations and criticisms are based on, and left open to imagination, stigmatising guest reputation.   This is construed as slander, and defamation of character. Host pre bookings have even brought this to my attention.

Additional verbiage goes on to say the host doesn’t want to have to clean extra for a monthly guest, (I was hosts first monthly guest). The host is complaining as to his own original and produced uncleanliness, being a do it yourself cleaning host and is possibly criticizing guests for anti-covid health standards and beliefs.  This second part of review is inaccurate and false. The first part of review is slander and defamation of character, with intent to hurt.

I told Airbnb, and I had some backing imagery, and Airbnb agreed, and removed the review, and made publicly the message of removal. Issue done.

After review removal, and having had a month of direct exchange communication with this multi-team host, and a degree of relationship was built.  I was quite hurt by feeling betrayed, untruths, and felt bullied using social media. I sent a short, sincere, polite, respectful personal letter of my own snail mail to the family. No request. no solicitation. Just a letter. Host gets upset, asks Airbnb to intervene, Airbnb slaps me, says they are noting my account, reprimands me, and puts back up the review to punish.

Please advise me on the next step. This issue affects us all, and needs resolving. I am requesting the review removed, and Im currently in what feels ghosted limbo. Airbnb in this case on its face is violating its own terms, breaking public trust, and feels a bit extreme and overreaching in policing social interaction.

[Sarah977]

@Matt434  "Additional verbiage goes on to say the host doesn’t want to have to clean extra for a monthly guest.."

That isn't what the host said in his review at all. He said the state you left the place in required a level of cleaning they have never experienced with other guests.

There should be no difference in the amount of cleaning required whether a guest stays for 3 days or a month if the guest is a clean and tidy person. I have not had more cleaning to do after a 3 day booking than a 2 week booking.

Responsible, respectful people clean up after themselves. If the place is left dirtier after you have stayed for a month than if you stayed for a week, that just means you didn't keep the place clean. 

And as monthly stays usually are discounted, a guest who stays for that long should be even more attentive to leaving the place clean in appreciation for getting a good deal.  

Your obsession with having this review removed, your inaccurate portrayal of it as being slanderous, and your 25 message exchange harrassment of the host, points to not being able to accept not being considered the perfect guest by every host.

I believe the appropriate phrase is "Get over yourself".

[Matt434]

    Making open ended, assumable accusations targeted at a specific someone on social media with unclear ambiguity, to hurt that person from getting approved for the license to lease space on a buyer/seller leasing exchange site (ie, Airbnb), is a violation of terms.  This intentionally and by default sways decision-making to rent out one’s home to that individual, promotes prejudice thinking, and the evil desire for ‘just-assume-like-me-don’t-rent-to-them’ gossip and slander. This violates that site's terms.

   Accusing one of ‘something, anything and everything’, in social media where accusations are left open ended, unclear, ambiguous, on that buyer/seller public exchange made for decision making, violates terms, is not within community guidelines, and is aimed to spread gossip and hate.   Accusing a buyer of odd requests with intent as a criticism to sway future decision making is unfair, creates disadvantage, and violates guidelines, and ethics.

   (Are you publicly accusing the tenant of requesting to not have seller’s contractors come into the unit during stay because they will not wear masks, muddy and contaminate the place, and spread covid? Do you consider the guest’s health beliefs as odd?  Or are you accusing the guest of requesting the host's dog not come into the unit as odd? Do you consider the guest’s request not dog friendly? Or are you accusing guest of requesting to dance half naked on your roof at midnight? Or are you accusing guest of requesting to sleep with the dog on the lawn at night under the stars? What are your accusations and criticisms? What does the public and marketplace interpret as truth? Where does the marketplace imagination and decision-making go? This purposely sets up the applicant to fail and promotes prejudice in how future decisions will be made to lease and sell space in the marketplace to that individual. This is unfair to the buyer/ leasing applicant, ie, the guest. It is more than untruth telling, it is intentionally trying to hurt someone, and is antisocial behavior.)

 the request to have verbiage or have the host/lessor remove verbiage is warranted.

Reasons stated above: Personal motivations default to untruth telling, false accusation and slander that create unfair decision making and judgment in the marketplace.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Matt434 this just gets more bizarre - Were these examples of the requests you made - If so then I think the review is very accurate. Dancing on the roof is both dangerous and potentially damaging although the nakedness is probably the weirdest thing.

[Huma0]

@Matt434 

I'm astonished by your post and your description of how Airbnb have handled the host's review. I'm astonished because I cannot believe that they removed it in the first place. That was clearly an inexperienced CS rep who does not understand Airbnb policy.

It's only right that the review was reinstated, especially after you harassed the host a month later. Quite possibly, the rep who was assigned it the next time read your correspondence with the host and it lead him/her to agree that your requests could indeed be construed as odd. I don't know, but it's a distinct possibility.

In any case, his review does not violate policy. He has not slandered you. He has not said you are an odd person. He has said that you made odd requests that he has not had from other guests and that you left the unit in a less than clean state. You might not think your requests were odd, but he did. You might not think you left the unit untidy but, to his mind, you did. That is his experience of the stay and he is entitled to write that, just as you are entitled to write about your experience. That is what the reviews are for.

No, he doesn't need to specify what the odd requests were and it's quite likely he left that out so as to spare you a harsher view. If a guest reviews a host and says the listing was dirty, they are not required to go into minute detail about the ways in which they found it dirty (and cleanliness is very subjective) and their review would certainly not be removed as slanderous because they failed to do so. It might be different if they said the host themselves was dirty and stank.

In any case, there are other reviews on your profile that would make me much more wary of you than his (e.g. that a host felt she needed to move out of her own home to keep you happy) and there are others that have red flags in them, worded in a far more vague way than the host you are complaining about, but that would still set off alarm bells in my mind. 

You have many more glowing reviews, so I can see why some hosts might ignore the not perfect ones and accept your booking. It's actually your profile that I find the most troubling. I would not accept a booking from you under any circumstances even if I felt confident I could meet all your exacting standards and every one of your reviews was glowing. It is possibly the oddest guest profile I have ever read.

Your comments on this thread only confirm that feeling. They are extremely odd. And why on earth would you think it was okay to harass the host after you already got what you wanted. What did you hope to achieve other than to make him feel bad? It's hardly gracious considering you had already 'won'.

I agree with the other hosts who have suggested you move on. The review is really not that bad and I don't think your rants here are going to garner much support.

If you still feel so irked about it, you have the option to leave a public response to the host's review telling your side of the story. Personally, I wouldn't recommend you do that. As I said, the review is not that bad. Judging by the amount of Airbnbs you stay in, it will soon be pushed down the list, and as you don't seem to usually reply to the reviews, that would only draw more attention to this one.

[Matt434]

The problem is Airbnb behavior.

During my month-long exchange, the host (husband or wife) communicated to me any number of times directly face to face, sms, note, with requests. If my counter requests don’t align with the hosts beliefs of health or safety, reason, right, government or religion, then I am odd in the eyes of the host. And the host will sneak in attack verbiage and that personal belief of me, to the public eye to get even.  It is an attack on character, “he made odd requests.” “My other guests didn’t make these requests like he did.”

The parent company Airbnb agreed it was a violation, unfair, irrelevant and slander. Issue done; problem solved. I communicated with the host some feelings, who I had some degree of relationship with and certainly an infinite number of direct exchanges with.  The host can communicate to guests directly, but If I communicate to the host, and the host calls his parents to cry, I’m guilty, no questions asked and I’m in trouble. I’m assumed to be doing something bad, and I’m guilty by default.  Now I’m on Airbnb’s (mom and dads) most watched list.  And as punishment the slander gets put back up for the public. Airbnb makes biased decisions. Airbnb’s behavior is in question.

The buyer/guest is, was and will be presumed guilty where there was any hint of drama in an Airbnb exchange.  And worse the parent company exchange (Airbnb) will protect the seller and make biased decisions in favor of the seller.  Airbnb represents the seller, and its sellers are at very different levels of maturity, and experience in hosting its paying siblings.

We all know If a sibling communicates feelings of anger, protest, or violation directly toward the parent’s favored child, the parent will intervene by default, and come-a-running to protect that child. It’s a fear-based response. And selfish. Airbnb is this parent. It's human. I love them. But I’m insistent they remove the slander and punishment and continue to grow up.