Frustrating situation, and very disappointed in Airbnb Support.
We run a successful listing, taking pride in providing great experiences and making sure our guests enjoy their stay.
Out of 70 reviews we have received 68 5-Star and 2 4-Star reviews, giving a score of 4.97.
However, we received a 1-Star review retaliatory review from a dishonest guest.
The situation which occurred
1. We first received a booking request from a person stating he, a woman and his producer friend would like to film a music video in our apartment.
- We chose to decline this request as it against house rules of commercial photography, he had no reviews, it was a last minute booking and we do not know what kind of music they make. The situation just seemed unsafe concerning the property's wellbeing.
2. Some hours later, we received another last minute booking request from a person saying he and his business partner would like to book the apartment.
- As this booker had some good reviews we approved the request.
3. Upon further reviewing the details of this new guest, we noticed that something was off.
- We looked him up on social media and it confirmed our suspicion. This person was in fact the music video producer mentioned in the first request.
- We viewed his social media and saw he was connected to the person who's request we declined.
- Our suspicions were strengthened when we saw the videos he had produced. Drugs, guns, partying, police arrests - offensive themes which we do not want the our apartment to be associated with.
4. We contacted Support.
- We compiled the evidence that showed the connection to the first booker, and screenshots showing the offensive themes of his productions.
- Support was understanding of the situation and they cancelled the booking for us, assuring no negative consequences for my Superhost status.
- We thought the situation was handled and all was okay.
5. The guest leaves his review.
- To our surprise, we saw that the guest had managed to leave a review of his stay. It was 1-Star on all areas.
- The review contained multiple lies to hurt the listing. These lies are easily falsifiable by looking at our chat log.
6. We try to remove the review.
- Since the guest never stayed or arrived to the apartment, and since the review contains claims which is obvious lies we figured it would be easy to remove it.
- First attempt, we contact support and briefly explain the situation. Then make a request to get it removed. The request was declined.
- Second attempt, we compile and attach all the evidence concerning how the review is dishonest, and our reasons for the cancellation and how the review conflicts with Airbnb Review Policy. We send it and again, it was declined without any justification.
7. Contacting Support again
- Since we cannot make another request to remove the review, I call Support.
- I tell them the situation, and they say they cannot do anything. Finally the support tells me that she will take it up to a manager.
- We receive an explanation by a Senior Case Manager who says he has reviewed the case and documentation.
- The manager says that the review does not violate Review Policy and that the review is the guests subjective perspective and experience and they are unable to remove the review and they will not do anything more.
This is completely unacceptable. How can the bookers "subjective experience" be valued higher and surpass objective truth and factual evidence based information?
The booker lies about arriving and waiting at the property, it is disproven by our chat logs.
The booker lies about us not responding, we responded and it is proved by chat logs.
We understand it would have been frustrating for the guest, but his actions was from the very start dishonest. He chose to bypass our first decision to decline the request by purposefully withholding their actual intention of making music videos so that we would approve them. When we were able to access his information and saw who he was, his work and his connection we would be, by any honest persons standard, justified to act to secure the wellbeing of our property.
Just an incredibly frustrating and unfair situation. Let us know if anybody has any tips for how to remove this review.
