Being called racist and bigots by guest because of a dvd

Jay-And-Ahna0
Level 2
Garibaldi, OR

Being called racist and bigots by guest because of a dvd

Had a guest leave a glowing review in our cottage guest book. Then leaves a review of 2 and says “Extremely Disappointed” we were shocked until we read his feedback., then I fainted. 

 

" I found Fried Green Tomatoes in your videos for guests to watch. I thought we were trying to be done with racism and bigotry. Southern Americans are NOT all wife beating racists and movies like this are insulting and hurtful. Hollywood also put out Al Jolson in blackface, does that make it right? The greatest membership in the KKK in the 1920's was in Illinois - a northern state! For you to leave a movie like this for your guests encourages, supports and promotes stereotyping, bigotry, disparagement and hate!"

 

We reported this to Airbnb and they wouldn’t remove the review as it didn’t violate policy. We sent copies of the guest book and the feedback, feeling we were discriminated against and the guest was rude and out of line. They wouldn’t do anything. The guest was 5* all the way. Imagine or total shock of what he wrote. We have many DVD’s available for people to view. I’m stunned I got this over a movie. What would you do?

29 Replies 29
Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Jay-And-Ahna0  That review clearly violates the review policy and you should be able to get it removed for 'irrelevancy'. You may need to be persistent and keep trying with various reps, until you hit on one who 'gets it'. I should add, speak with Airbnb over chat, so you can link to the relevant policy and highlight the parts that apply, as many CS reps do not know Airbnb policy, astounding as that is. 

 

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2673/airbnbs-review-policy

 

See point three from the policy above. That review pretty much violates the whole thing.

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

Sorry @Jay-And-Ahna0  I misunderstood your post. I didn't realize at first that all the guest wrote in the review was about being disappointed. I can see why Airbnb wouldn't remove that. It's unfortunate, but I think you are going to be stuck with that. What a crummy way that worked out. If the guest had actually put in the review what he put in the private feedback, you could have definitely gotten it removed. On the up side, you have great reviews. Your hosting history speaks much louder than this one review and I can't see future guests being put off by this one, which will soon be buried beneath newer ones anyway. 

@Jay-And-Ahna0  To say that the guest misunderstands the movie, and the meaning of the word "racism," would be stating the obvious. But the broader implication - that hosts should be held responsible for the content of any movies, books, etc that are available to guests during their stay - is just plain disturbing. 

 

Scorched-earth censorship seems to be in vogue now, but it's not my flavor. I don't believe you should purge your library of any titles that might possibly offend a guest (which is to say, everything) but nor do I believe a review should be purged from the record because it offends you. A reasonable guest considering your listing is fully capable of seeing the big picture and taking one review out of dozens as an anomaly, and presumably you'd rather have reasonable guests than people who have a meltdown over your DVD collection.

 

In the future, though, when you post a public response to a review, remember that your audience for that is prospective guests. It's not the appropriate place to write a message to the reviewer, and it looks very odd when a host uses that opportunity to complain about star ratings.

Most guests will see it as a one off. But if you're worried, just write a public response that says, "I believe this rating is a mistake. The guest wrote the following in our cottage book ... (then write the glowing notes verbatim).

I do think the guest should be banned and Airbnb was SUPPOSED to take outlier ratings off our accounts once a year. I would tag Catherine Powell or post on social media. Airbnb is looking for positive press and these stories like yours tend to be newsworthy.

Also remember - CS is pretty bad and mostly outsourced so I'm sure the person you spoke to has no control and is reading from a script while sitting in their bathroom robe. An article came out that CS is outsourced to a third party company. So escalate and demand a supervisor address this.

I think the biggest problem with the hospitality industry is that we can screen out people with emotional triggers and other issues.

@Christine615 I remember when the idea of removing an outlier review or rating was floated, but it never became an actual policy, and can't be invoked as the basis for removing a review that's otherwise permissible.

 

Had @Jay-And-Ahna0  published a public review of the guest, a selective host could at least cross-reference that to see what he had written. But his profile appears to be unreviewed, so it's one missed opportunity. If there was no problem with his conduct during the stay, banning him from the platform just for some dumb private feedback seems like a pretty extreme course of action. Airbnb has banned some users due to their affiliation with neo-Nazi and other extremist groups, but I don't think it would look good for them in the press to penalize an otherwise well-behaved guest just for expressing wacky thoughts on "Fried Green Tomatoes." This would only throw more fuel on the persecution complex that many people in his shared ecosystem of Alternative Facts already love to flaunt.  

 

A screening-out of people with emotional triggers would also be problematic - there's no law or rule against having the wrong feelings; we can only regulate actions, and writing a bad review is not out of bounds as an action.

 

I like the suggestion of quoting the guest directly from the guestbook in the Host Response, although as he is the author of those remarks he would technically have grounds to have the response deleted if he became aware of it. Another approach would be to address it honestly:  "This guest left a glowing review in our guestbook, but privately communicated that his disappointment was based on our DVD collection containing a movie that offended him." 

 

My favorite approach would be to file this one away as a bizarre anecdote to quote later on, because once the sting of the negativity passes it's actually kind of hilarious.

@Anonymous Airbnb's big glitch at the moment is showing many profiles as empty. @Jay-And-Ahna0 did review the guest. The unfortunate thing is that a review of "I was severely disappointed" leaves those cross-referencing hosts with little to go on. What an unfortunate situation for everyone!

 

 

 

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@Emilia42 Thanks for pointing that out; I stand corrected.

 

If I got a request from that profile and was able to cross-check his review, I would probably ask the guest to explain why he left a damaging two-word review, and it's unlikely that his answer would inspire me to accept. Of course, for reasons suggested by @Sarah977 below, I can be confident that this person would never request my listing anyway. 

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

@Emilia42 I keep getting the '0 reviews' glitch... I find refreshing the page restores normal service & all reviews. Sometimes it takes several hits!

J-Renato0
Level 10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

@Jay-And-Ahna0   @Anonymous  @Sarah977  @Christine615 

 

Certainly the review could be removed.

 

However everyone should learn a lesson from this. If you have books, movies or statues on the shelf that has sensitive content, avoid exposing them to any guest.

 

I have never watched this movie (Fried Green Tomatoes) !

However I think some movies, books and statues  can spark an uneaseness in some people.

Well...Some people would love to see a General R.E. Lee statue on the shelf and others would hate it.
I believe that people from some countries would not like to see a collection of action movies dvds where they are always steriotyped as mobsters.
I believe that afro americans would not like to see the movie-dvd "The Birth of a Nation" on the shelf and so on.

 

It strikes me when someone thinks that "pepper in the eyes of others is the same as eye drops."

@J-Renato0   I can't speak for all other African-Americans here, but it's not going to trigger me if I see "Birth of a Nation" amongst the titles in a DVD collection. Now, if the house was decorated with Confederate memorabilia, I'd probably think poorly of the host, as a design motif can be easily interpreted as a deliberate statement. But only someone who's deliberately trolling would comb through a bookshelf, DVD collection, or CD rack to find one title to get apoplectic about. 

 

The host did not implore the guest to watch the the movie; he claimed to be offended by the mere possibility that he could have chosen to watch it. This was almost certainly disingenuous - he used the politically sectarian language of a Tw***er troll in his online comments, but notably had nothing negative to say in his handwritten remarks. 

 

Perhaps something has happened in America recently that makes angry white conservative men feel extra aggrieved when visiting a Blue State...I can't imagine what that would be!

 

 

J-Renato0
Level 10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

@Anonymous  @Sarah977  @Christine615  

 

Okay, I see your point 

 

However I was just advising the hosts on how to reduce the issues, meaning, from my point of view. Just my 2 cents!

 

You know, Airbnb says you can not pick guests! So you are subject to receive all type of guests, protestants, cahtolics, guests from different  ethnicities, different political orientation, guests  using a M.A.G.A. cap , or guests that supports the  Elected President, supporters of different football and basketball teams and so on.

 

It is just my opinion. It will  be you who will have to deal with it!

 

@Jay-And-Ahna0 

As for the review in question, If Airbnb refused to remove it, I would not care!
I would reply the review like this: "It was not me who made that film. You have to complain with the director and screenwriter of that film."

@J-Renato0 Well...you can't exactly pick your guests, in the sense of discriminating against certain demographics. You can nudge your guests to self-select somewhat. Anyone reading my listing and viewing the photos can see that my household is not a sociopolitically neutral space - our individual characters are steeped in all of the art and design choices, including those in the private guestroom, and the community outside our doorstep has a very particular character too.  

 

You don't have to share my point of view or politics to be welcome here, but you do have to respect the fact that a traditional Airbnb is still first and foremost someone else's personal space. I've had to learn over time how to screen out requests from people who don't grasp this concept and eliminate most of the people with entitled attitudes. And what could be more entitled than insisting that someone's DVD collection cater to their little sensitivies?

I don’t agree. I’ve had a lot of compliments about my art feeling like a home and not an overly stark, sanitized investment property. If someone doesn’t like my assortment of items they can go to a hotel. 

One person wrote in our guest book how much they loved the eclectic selection (kid movies, sci fi, drama, tv series, etc.) 

 

you can’t live your life avoiding triggering overly sensitive people. I mean, come on! Fried Green Tomatoes ? That’s a red flag the guest needs emotional help.

Disagree. People are booking someone's home, not a generic hotel room with art by the pound. While it wouldn't be a great idea to, for instance, furnish an Airbnb with purely Christian literature, Christian movies and crosses and pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary all over the walls (or the trappings of any other religion), a religious book among a collection of all sorts of literature that might appeal to one guest or another should be perfectly acceptable. 

 

There is no way a host should have furnish and supply their home in a way that couldn't possibly offend anyone in any way that you could anticipate. If you are going to go there, you couldn't have any books or movies, lest someone like this guest absurdly object. You couldn't have any Disney movies, because of the way they tend to portray female characters and some guest might be outraged that you would support such a thing.

 

Airbnbs are all unique, that's part of the appeal as opposed to a bland hotel room.

@J-Renato0