Host harassing me after leaving negative review

[Sarah3260]

I recently stayed at an Airbnb the end of Jan. The house was less than stellar and the host was actually violating his permit with the City by having more occupants than he is allowed. After confronting him and leaving a negative review, he looked me up and found my business I own on Yelp and left me a fake negative review. He didn't even try to hide the fact it was him, used his real name. 

Obviously I contacted Yelp and they are refusing to remove the review. I have contacted Airbnb also regarding the host, it seems there are no consequences for a host doing something like this?

What would you do? I've talked to a lawyer and was recommended to sue him for libel and implicate yelp in the lawsuit.

[Rowena29]

I'm not a lawyer @Sarah3260 but if you want your Yelp review taken down I suspect that might be your only recourse.  Or you could just reply briefly, factually, diplomatically to his review so it was clear to other users what is going on.

I dont' agree with this hosts behaviour, but I suspect it's going to be as hard for you to remove his review from Yelp and it is for him to remove your review from airbnb.

Personally I would have tried to be a little more diplomatic in my reivew of this host, but that's not my business and I didnt' stay there, not have your experience.

I can certainly understand why airbnb CS is not going to get involved in this however.

good luck sorting this out and keep us posted

[Emilia42]

@Sarah3260 

This happened to me except in reverse. I left a guest a negative review and he called me at my family business and threatened me. I am not sure if he ever left a review of my business (which he never entered.) I reported his profile but nothing seemed to come of it. I can understand why you would want to sue him but it just may not be worth the stress and money. This is the world we live in now, where anyone can post anything on the internet whether it is justified or not. It's unfortunate. 

[Anonymous]

@Sarah3260  Doesn't Yelp still allow you to post a response to a review from an account that is explicitly identified as the business owner, just as Airbnb allows you to respond to a host's review?  If so, this seems like a much better option than going to the trouble and expense of a lawsuit.

[Roland403]

I’ve had an similar experience after giving an Experience host a standard review of 3 stars for failing to fulfilled what he advertise. He got hold of my private number and left me threatening messages