Fake Reviews Anyone?

[Rick3713]

Has anyone had to deal with a fake review? I had someone book one night in one of my hotel rooms. They didn't stay, requested a refund, wrote a fictitious review promoting another hotel.

The user went so far as to say "the mold was growing through the countertops and backsplash." They obviously had not seen the room as brand the kitchen and granite had been installed 28 days prior to their arrival. I recently purchased this beachfront hotel. And although we have 100+ 5 star reviews in the first two months, this was the 3rd review for this suite and now the average is so low Airbnb has suppressed the listing and reservations have stopped 100%.

We became superhosts rather quickly. I contacted support and was told the fake review would be removed within 24 hours. 30 hours later I got them on the phone and was told that Airbnb has changed their mind. I can sue the author of the fictitious comment easily enough but that still won't get the review removed.

There seems to be no process or moderation regarding reviews. I am afraid this system is ripe for abuse. Has anyone here had a fake review removed? If so, would you share the process for that with me?

Thanks,

Rick Culleton

[Christine615]

Escalate to customer service (It will take a while). It's a fake review, the terms of service says it should come down. Find the post on the forum where @Catherine Powell is answering questions about these types of reviews. We've suggested Airbnb start flagging on their own any reviews left by someone who didn't stay on the property. Also, advertising another hotel (probably a competitor) should be immediately removed.

[Rick3713]

Thank you. I have written customer service again. I will try to find Catherine Powell as well.

[Christine615]

@Rick3713

I just read the review - compared to all the others people will assume it's a one-off. Airbnb should certainly take it down because the other reviews would have mentioned mold if they found it. The man will just sound like and angry entitled guest.

Here's where you fell of the rails. You responded in anger. You CAN NOT DO THAT! it then causes guests to wonder about how you respond to other issues. We all have difficult guests we want to respond to, but sometimes, you have to let it go. A lot of other people called your place wonderful and that's what other guests will respond to.

In the future - if you respond, keep it short, and just make it clear you disagree without making it personal. Future guests can read between the lines.

By the way - your pictures are lovely. Don't let one sour guest spoil your experience.

[Laura2592]

@Rick3713 this happpens. I have a friend who renovated a mid century motel in a small city and her competitors did something similar right after opening. She had to totally take down her profile and start a new one in her company name because the ratings were so low. She now hosts only on VRBO and her own website as she found that a better fit. Hopefully you get this resolved. There should never be an opportunity for a blatant attempt at smearing your livelihood by a competitor to remain up in your legit review pool. 

[Rick3713]

It sure seems like the review system on Airbnb is ripe for abuse without any moderators. 

[Anonymous]

@Rick3713   You also wrote a review of this guest. The full text of it is:

"Adiam was a fantastic guest."

Is that not also a fake review? 

Airbnb does have a moderation process for reviews, but the policy explicitly says: "Airbnb doesn’t mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews."  The only way you'd really have a case here is if you could unequivocally prove that the guest was actually affiliated with the competitor that he mentioned, and realistically I doubt that the moderation process is sophisticated enough to litigate that.

You've got another problem on your hands that you should probably fix right away:  that policy also states that you're not allowed to incentivize positive reviews. Your listing description currently says you're offering a deep discount and a free massage in exchange for higher ratings. From the guest perspective that sounds super sleazy, so it's understandable that it hasn't delivered you any bookings. If someone were to flag this listing, your offer would likely get you de-listed and possibly banned from the site, so I strongly recommend abandoning that strategy.

[Rick3713]

I had hired someone to write polite generic reviews for every guest. After this situation, we have stopped writing guest reviews altogether.

Funny you say that asking for the review is not allowed. The reduction in rate, 1-night maximum, and review request were all suggestions of an Airbnb employee. I added the free massage. This one review is costing us $90 a night (discount and massage) for a couple of months, but I couldn't think of a better solution.

With the negative review, the listing got buried by Airbnb. The only way it shows up now is if they sort the lowest price first. Sadly, this hurts everyone around me and makes it look like rentals here are cheaper than they should be.

It is amazing how much damage one crook can do. They are still fighting to get a refund on top of everything else.

[Helen3]

Why would you employ someone to write generic reviews. The reviews should be an honest summary of your experience of hosting the guest and are there primarily to help warn your fellow hosts of bad guest behaviour. It's a real shame you are choosing not to review your guests. 

Presumably you have this in writing from Airbnb that they suggested you offer an incentive (some might say bribe) in return for a good review.

Can't believe they put advice in writing to you that is against their T&Cs.

Can you post please @Rick3713 

I do hope you don't get banned from the platform for doing this, particularly now you know it's against Airbnb's T&Cs

[Rick3713]

I think we are going to refrain from reviewing guests altogether. Since there are so many in and out every day there is no way to write an honest review for everyone. I don't work in the hotel so I don't have any honest feedback or comments.

The girl who suggested lowering the rates and soliciting reviews did so over the phone. The young lady who apologetically removed the review today looked at the listing and didn't have a problem with it. I also send an automatic message asking every guest for a review. I don't think asking for reviews violates any of the policies. I am not sure about giving freebies away with your reservation. But once the fake review was removed we raised the prices and removed the free massage so I guess it is no longer an issue at any rate.

[Anonymous]

@Rick3713  Most Airbnb hosts are not hotel operators - we're giving keys to our own homes to guests, and in many cases sharing living space with them. The consequences of being misled by a totally BS "polite generic" review from a mercenary can be devastating. I'm glad to see that you've decided not to review your guests considering that you're not involved in hosting, and I hope you find a better use for the funds that you were wasting on that garbage reviewer you hired.

Your listing in its current state doesn't violate any policies - so relieved that you deleted that sleazy massage offer - but bad and contradictory advice from the contractors to whom customer service is outsourced is par for the course.

[John5097]

@Rick3713 

I didn't see the part about free massages that @Anonymous mentioned so won't comment on that, although I happen to have a kink in my back while writing this.  

However I did read the review in question and agree with @Christine615 that is  should be removed because it specifically mentions another hotel and some kind of discount as well. How more blatant can it be? I saw yours as an honest response. I find some of these fake reviews to be very compelling in some aspects, so its kind of surprising to see such a compelling first few sentences with such detailed claims about mold, although too dramatic, to such a blatant advertisment of a competing hotel including discounts or special favors. 

Sorry a bit off topic, but still relevant, I had a dream last night that a guest, a man, was upset because the view of the marsh was blocked by some vegetation growing along the marsh. He was really upset. I tried to inform him that the marsh area was protected by state and federal laws and critical habitat, then noticed he was smoking a cigarette, and told him it was against the rules. We were both upset at each other, I then said, hey lets not ding each other in the reviews, as we both will lose, but then realized that I allowed a guest to break the rules. Also, while I was dreaming this, there were two tornado warnings,  my phone blew up with loud tornado warning at 1:30 am and 3:00 am from the tropical storm and I have a guest that I knew it also woke up. Thunderstorms can be very loud in this area. So internet was out this morning, crazy storms, crazy dreams, and now I'll probably get dinged for a thunderstorm. But if host are dreaming of review hostility then kind of wake up to it, maybe that's more than host really need to deal with, or just not worry about it as everyone will likely realize its a fake review or one without merit. In a way maybe more and more are all getting further away from facts.

[John5097]

Forgot to include the most important part. This morning when internet was out, I called Wow, my provider, and she scheduled a technition to stop by even though there were no other reports yet in my area. The nicest man came by even though service had been resorted, and gave me a few tips for my router settings and recommendations. The point being that a company actually cared about me! Pretty rare and proved it with an meaningful action to make things right. Complete contrast to so many greedy companies.  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Rick3713 I assume you have read the Airbnb review content policy? I would contact Airbnb again quoting the section that say the following is not allowed (I have bolded the relevant bit):

• Reviews that are biased and exhibit indications of extortion/incentivisation, conflicts of interest, or direct competition

[Rick3713]

It took exactly 11 calls but they removed the fake review. Here's some advice for what it is worth. If you need to talk to support, select the callback option. Something happens to cause the calls to drop after 11 to 16 minutes. If you hold for support you will use up much of that time. I had 8 dropped calls over the last week and was about to give up altogether when I tried the callback feature.

Thanks for all the help!