Guest left retaliation review after we filed a damaged furniture claim

[Jessie141]

Hi, 

our recent guest broke our living room sofa and we filed a claim against him. He refused to pay and left a false review saying the sofa was already broken when he checked in. However, not one word was mentioned during his stay, all he said was great, happy to stay at our place etc etc. it’s until he checked out and we found the broken sofa, he turned on us and left a false review said we tried to scam him. 
we already contacted Airbnb to have the review take down but no words from them yet. 
anyone with similar experience and advice on what to do next are appreciated. 
thank you! 

[Colleen253]

@Jessie141 Develop a habit of doing a video walkthrough of the reset space before every check in. It only takes a minute and is valuable to have. Airbnb’s horribly guest centric Customer Circus being what it is, it won’t guarantee a hassle free experience with every claim, but it can offer good leverage. 

In this case, a date and time stamped video showing no broken couch parts on the floor before check in, and a time and date stamped photo of the broken couch parts on the floor right at checkout, may have helped your case. 

[Mary996]

Excellent advce @Colleen253 . I did this kind of by accident prior to one-off guest damage. I had been updating photos. The disrepancy was date stamped. 

I understand we can now 'attach' docs to the message service ... so does this now include videos? 

Anyone done a video presentation of their property?

[Sarah977]

@John5097 @Jessie141   That is one thing to keep in mind- in the "olden days" furniture was hand-made and built sturdy, was passed down through the generations, and could last for hundreds of years. These days a lot of stuff isn't really well made - things are mass produced, don't have a really long life span and break at some point whether someone has abused it in some way or not. The furniture may look nice, but the inner construction is not of high quality materials. Something may look like solid wood to the untrained eye, but a carpenter can take one look at it and know that it's pressboard covered in a thin wood veneer. So unless something is relatively new, it could be ready to break at some point and all it takes is someone heavy to plunk themselves down on it and something snaps.

Of course, that doesn't excuse a guest from not letting the host know about something breaking during their stay, or claiming it was broken when they arrived, but just that it's not always a matter of the guest abusing something.

[John5097]

@Jessie141 Appreciate the explanation. I would have gone about this differently, but everyone has their own style. Guest should have let you know it had been damaged, but even so if I thought it was from collapsing or failing from the weight of the guest, I would have simply mentioned in the review, that couch was damaged and guest didn't inform host. I would then update the house rules and guidebook of the weight capacity. If you are planning to make a claim through Airbnb Host Guarantee, and already requested $800 from the guest, you might need a receipt. I'm more flexible with damage if its not intentional. The guests who broke my sleeper couch didn't weigh over 250 combined. I just didn't think they were bad people at all, in fact just the opposite, I liked them, and being overweight isn't exactly a crime either. 

@Colleen253 I guess I should also start doing a video walkthrough. You never know! 

@Sarah977 Great points about furniture. A big dude with bad knees could likely put a strain on couch springs. I've had so many things damaged from shipping also. The gas stove I bought for the unit was delivered damaged, brand new, and I didn't notice it until installing many months later. It ended up having a very small gas leak from the damage, and have also damaged couches and other furniture and appliances  trying to move them myself. 

I also get pretty upset with anything stained or damaged. I find its best to communicate with the guest. I wouldn't just send a request for money. I would discuss it with them first and explain how the process works.  

[Si6]

I’m convinced it’s by design that airbnb won’t remove clearly biased retaliatory feedback. Next time you will deterred from requesting money from your guest regardless of what they break. I’m now unable to view guest star ratings for new inquiries or requests to book and airbnb tells me it’s because hosts leave false feedback and it’s unfair to their guests... so you know whose side they always pick. 

[Ann72]

@Si6  Interesting point, although in my experience hosts mostly leave false-positives, which doesn't help the rest of us!

Can we see where Airbnb told you this about hosts leaving false feedback that's unfair to guests?  Curious how they sent this message.

[Si6]

**[Conversation with CS removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

 

[Si6]

They told me hosts can no longer view overall star rating for new guests because of false reviews left by hosts... there you go. First, I’m having a hard time believing  it’s a system wide change and all hosts can no longer see star ratings for guests... second, if this is true and not a technical bug, this is another unfairness done unto hosts. 

[Ann72]

@Tara-Bunch   This is not the reason we’ve been told that hosts can’t see reviews.  Are customer support individuals seriously instructed to tell hosts this?  I’m having a hard time believing that this is the company line, but if it is, we’re in trouble.  @Lizzie @Nick what do you make of this???

[Si6]

What’s the reason you’ve been told? 

[Ann72]

@Si6  Discrimination https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/a-new-way-were-fighting-discrimination-on-airbnb-20...

[Si6]

I don’t see how seeing guests star rating is going to make hosts discriminate based on race. 

[Ann72]

It's the whole profile @Si6.  

Are we seeing the same thing?  I have noticed I see the stars when it's 5 stars, and I don't see the stars when it's not.  That tells me something.

[Tara-Bunch]

Hi @Ann72 @Si6, 

Thank you for your message. I checked this with the team and the reason you were unable to see the guest's rating here is because, as for hosts, guests must receive 3 star ratings before the overall star rating will appear on their profile. However, you should be able to see the written reviews for this guest regardless, so hopefully this helps to give you an idea of if the guest is suitable for your listing. 

To confirm, this is not a new feature, and it is not related to Project Lighthouse. 

I hope this helps to clarify. 

@Ann72 I appreciate your feedback on the general status of Support, and I will share your message with our team.

Best,
Tara

[Emilia42]

@Tara-Bunch I don't think that is accurate or at least it is not universally true for all. It is true for hosts that star ratings will not show on a listing until a host has 3 reviews. But I can see star ratings of guests who message me regardless of the number of reviews they have.

@Ann72 @Si6