Bad review if we do not give a discount

[Yosune1]

Recently I was blackmailed by a guest for a good review. The guest sent me a recording via WhatsApp complaining about the room she was renting in our house.

This is a house that we run as an B&B with good reviews on Boooking.com, but from November until June we rent bedrooms on a monthly or weekly basis.

We offered her the option to cancel for a full refund, but we refused to let her blackmail us for a discount, simply because it is unfair and humiliating. She decided to stay anyway, but after she left she gave us a relatively bad review. In our review we wrote what happened including her attempt to blackmail us.

Surprisingly (or maybe not) Airbnb cancelled our review and left hers. We called Airbnb and said that we had a recording as proof of the blackmailing. Airbnb did not want to accept the proof because it was a WhatsApp and not messaging through Airbnb.

We are mesmerized that guests can blackmail their hosts in Airbnb with  impunity. We thought that already we had more proof than most since usually most people would do it face to face. 

How can we trust a website that not only does not punish the wrongdoer, but punishes the host for trying to warn future hosts of this person? What if this takes on?

[Paula · Accepted solution]

Hello @Yosune1 , I'm sorry to hear about this situation.

I have forwarded your case to the team that can help, and they will reach out to you if they have any new insights. I thought it might be helpful to share this article with you regarding 👉Airbnb's Reviews Policy and another one talking about the importance of keeping 👉communication through the Airbnb platform.

[Yosune1]

Thank you for your concern Paula, but given the situation, which I find to be a serious issue, I have decided to delete my account with Airbnb and use a different website.

As you can understand I have no interest in renting my house through a website where its guests can blackmail with impunity their hosts. 

You mention that it is useful to maintain the communication through Airbnb, but I am sure that you may understand that the guests is not going to blackmail its host through Airbnb. He/she may do it tête a tête or by phone, but unless that person is very stupid he/she will not use Airbnb to do it. I was lucky enough to have the blackmail recorded, but asking to get it in writing through Airbnb is unreasonable.

Airbnb should believe the host more than the guest since who has a financial interest in blackmailing is the guest. Why would a host lie about it?

[Yosune1]

I was blackmailed by a guest, a good review in exchange for a discount. Since the guest only sent me a voice message and did not write it on Airbnb, Airbnb did not believe me.