Am I in the wrong or is Airbnb Review team?

[Mauricio925]

I have been a SuperHost for several years, and I have no idea how Airbnb allows a clear retaliatory review. I had a guest that booked 21 nights, and a few hours after checking-in decided she wanted to leave because the sheets were Polyster and not cotton and the beds were uncomfortable. We told her even though we have a strict, no refund policy; we wanted to act in good faith and be good hosts, so we would refund her for any unused nights. She asked us if she could stay until she found a new place and we allowed that. A week went by and she messaged us saying she had found a new place and was leaving. We sent her the alteration request and that's when she said she wanted us to pay her 1/3 of the cleaning fee plus only pay for 3 nights. I told her we could not since she had been there for 7. She refused to accept the alteration request and I had to get Airbnb involved since she was blocking off our calendar. Airbnb Support manually adjusted her alteration and she messaged us saying she wanted us to refund her because she wanted to leave earlier and we were slow to respond to her. She obviously left a 1-star review.

We requested Airbnb twice to remove this and both times denied without any explanation. I am not sure what happened to Airbnb Support, but this is just atrocious. I tried to call Airbnb but according to them there is no explanation as to why this was not able to be removed. There is also no one from that team that we can contact. And no way of us disputing the review. This is such a terrible part of Airbnb. We have never had a 1-star review in years and first time requesting support from Airbnb gets denied.

Is there any way to talk to the Airbnb "reviews" team? Also, what happened to Airbnb's support? I am so disappointed in them at this point.

[Joan2709]

@Mauricio925 

Sadly...there is no "human team" handling review disputes. Airbnb has turned it over to AI and your experience is mirrored by many other Hosts.

Hosts are having to file arbitration claims under Section 22 of Airbnb's terms of service in order to get Airbnb to abide by it's own written policies.

Terms of Service - Arbitration 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2908#22

I also suggest listing on other platform's if you haven't already.

[Tara0]

@Joan2709 I tried the B word a couple of years ago. It's hard to describe the nightmare of its user interface, the sheer incompetence of the entire platform. I never got to the point of listing, but I'm still trying and failing to delete the draft listing. They have zero human customer service. You call and you speak to a bot, and when you say "speak to human" they hang up. 

[Joan2709]

@Tara0 

I have heard the same.

Try the "V" platform 😊

[Mauricio925]

It is just sad that Airbnb would take this stance against us. We clearly are not trying to "cheat the system". We have been a SuperHost for so long and we have enjoyed our Airbnb journey through ups and downs. Airbnb support of host has lowered recently, and I am disappointed.

[Jessica3188]

I'm sad to say I have this EXACT same situation. A guest was at our property for fifteen minutes and made an effort to get a full refund with 12 "complaints" such as mail in the mailbox, existence of stairs, and complete lies like "AC doesn't work," but would not allow me to address any of the concerns or help them. 

Airbnb upheld us against the guests, but when then when the guest made a 1-star review, my appeal of it was denied. I was told there was nothing to be done by the "tier-1" team -- it's a separate team, department, cannot talk to them or email them, just re-appeal. I spent a full day documenting (heat thermometer, etc.) but received the same "no explanation" denial email. 

Calling in, they said, "i see you disputed this review twice. specialized team has already given decision, and have again filed the review request. they say it is not violating. hence final decision. not able to take any action. 

"Unfortunately, there is no way for us to make an exception in this." 

"Since there are a lot of updates to review policy, as of now, we are not able to call someone. We have to educate the hosts, we cannot make any changes here." 

[Joan2709]

@Jessica3188 

Yes...it appears Airbnb is using AI for review disputes and there is no "human" Team to appeal to once you have filed 2 requests to remove. The current thinking is file a review dispute once with the specific Airbnb written policy that supports removal (quote from it and provide the link).  Did the guest contact you first BEFORE contacting Airbnb and ask you to address the issues (some of which are ludicrous and any human would recognize that). Then if denied, don't use the AI form, but contact CS directly.

It sounds like this guest wanted to cancel the stay but couldn't get a full refund, so they decided to make up stuff and contact Airbnb to get a full refund. They probably had another booking elsewhere. They are required to provide "proof" of the issues (photos, etc.) BEFORE the refund should be approved. I would ask Airbnb what "proof" the guest provided to them for legit issues (not mail in the mailbox).

Refunds

[Jessica3188]

Yes, they first reached out to us and insisted upon a full refund, but none of their 'reasons' held water. They clearly had not read the listing, when complaining about things like "Small" (literally the fourth word in our description: "Welcome to this small-but-mighty haven...")-- and "couldn't find the third bedroom" and "clearly not handicap-friendly" which we did not claim anywhere (picture with stairs is the FIRST picture on our description).

When I offered to address the issues (e.g. a potentially valid concern, "AC doesn't work") the guest refused, saying there was too much wrong with it. (Mail in the mailbox and "chicken fencing" for part of our pet fence were two of the concerns stated)

I then contacted Airbnb support before the guest did, noting that the guest was threatening us with a bad review if we held to our cancellation policy. Thankfully the tier-1 support upheld us in this, but again, the review process they said is "completely different department" and they could do nothing about. 

Absolutely wild that Airbnb is willing to burn a host like this -- even as we were contemplating buying and starting another. NOT anymore! 

So sorry, Mauricio that you've had this kind of experience as well. I hope our voices raised together can make a difference for other hosts. 

[Joan2709]

@Jessica3188 

"noting that the guest was threatening us with a bad review"

This would be your ammunition for removing the review as the guest stated that if they didn't get a refund they would write a bad review. I would not give up on getting the review removed. You should provide screen shots of the guest stating this and quote the Airbnb help article below:

Review Policy

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673

You can also file an Arbiration claim against Airbnb for not enforcing their own written policies regarding review removals:

Terms of Service - Arbitration

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2908#22

I also would not hold back listing another property...just list it on Vrbo and Furnished Finder and not Airbnb. No need for you to miss out on income because of Airbnb's anti-host policies.

[Mauricio925]

Yeah, it's terrible. And our Airbnb has been impacted. We used to be booked completely full and this month, we have had two full weeks open. It's sad because we are SuperHosts and one bad review on a property that is relatively new has impacted our earnings negatively. And Airbnb could not care less. They called me as a result of this thread just to say "sorry, but you can reply to the guest and explain your side but we are keeping the review." It's atrocious.