I'm struggaling to understand how Airbnb's review system works. It seems some people know how to game it and I'm the idiot over here trying to be honest.
I'm super pissed. I used to go under the assumption of always leaving 5 star reviews because I know as a host and how ratings systems work anything less is bad.
I used to leave 5 star reviews for guests even if I had minor issues with them, because its not a big deal.
But guests who had no issues with their stay and seemingly enjoyed it would then leave and write a 3/5 star review or 4 star review then comment on a bunch of silly biased things. It seems some people just want to complain.
One time a guest had an issue with the location, I clarified it, allowed him to cancel, refused, kept the booking, then left a negative review saying the location is inaccurate that were lying.
I work so hard as a host, and these guests just leave negative reviews because of wtvr bias or hatred they have.
So I decided that with this guest I will be honest for the first time, since I can't see their review, most of the time when I think a guest is going to give me a good review they leave a bad review out of no where.
I was honest for the first time, exactly how this guest behaved, and how was that guest review removed.
Airbnb used this excuse:
"Attempting to influence a review through intimidation, extortion, or incentivization, or using a review to try to influence an outcome or harm competition, are not allowed under our policy."
So I asked Airbnb what intimidation or incentivization I did, they responded with "you asked for a review"
I looked up their policy: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673. The word "ask" or "asking" cannot be found on this page.
I've asked to have so many reviews removed, one guest almost burnt our house down and another guest broke the law by removing the fire alarms, and Airbnb said 'no sorry we can't remove those reviews'.
