How to respond to a retaliatory review?

[Carrie234]

Hello all, I need your valuable opinions! Last week we hosted a family that was new to Air and it turned out to be a regrettable experience! They flooded the bathroom in the suite, cleaned up the mess with our bath towels. They then bagged up the towels and threw them in the outside garbage. We werent home when they check out and I discovered this when I went to clean. They didn't respond to any of my messages so I escalated it to Air. They also didn't respond to any othe Air's messages so they reimbursed me for the extensive cleaning required. I am still waiting for a decision on the request for replacing the towels. I will post my review once a decision has been made

In the meantime, I receive the dreaded email that they left me a review. The nerve!!! I took a few days to calm down but now I am preparing my review as well as my reply to their review. I have already contacted Air about removing the review but they said it has to be posted before they can review my request to remove it. 

Here is what I came up with so far.

My review for them:

​"Proceed with extreme caution if you decide to host [GUEST NAMES] & their kids. They plugged our toilet, flooded the bathroom and cleaned up the mess with our bath towels. Then they bagged up the towels and put them in the driveway garbage bins. No mention whatsoever of any issues during their stay so we didn’t have the opportunity to help with the flooded bathroom. Zero communication about what happened (after numerous messages were sent).   We did not enjoy having to replace the towels and spend excessive amounts of time cleaning, disinfecting and odor removal. Hopefully other hosts can avoid the same problems we had with these people." There is so much more I could say but I don't want to seem like I'm going on & on. Thoughts? 

My reply to their review:

"This proved to be our most challenging hosting experience to date. [GUEST NAMES] liked their stay much less after we asked them to reimburse us for the damages they caused during their stay. They flooded our bathroom, cleaned up the mess with our bath towels then threw the towels outside in the garbage. We received zero response after numerous attempts to communicate with them. We definitely would have dropped everything to help but we were not given that opportunity. All of the other issues (cleanliness, lack of communication and additional guests at check-in) were overlooked as we wanted them to enjoy their vacation. We take pride in hosting a great stay for every guest & all of our 5-star ratings didn't come by accident."

I don't want my review taken down for any reason so I am being selective of what I say.

What do you think?

[Carrie234]

I also want to write in my reply to their review that "this is a retaliatory review based on the circumstances". Should I do that?

[Angelyn1]

I too have had a retaliatory review. 

Only I was not as nice as you are. I started with Horrible guest and was brutally honest. Airbnb is growing exponentially, and new guests are challenging. 

I am now developing a procedure for dealing with new guests.

1. Check the profile of all bookings 

mske sure they meet your requirements.

2. Contact them by phone guiding them through the process and reassuring them they are going to

love Airbnb.

3. I have created an introductory letter for each property for new guests that lays out expectations for ALL guests staying in my

hpuses.

4. Be prepared for Airbnb to not have your back, frankly they suck at 

taking care of hosts who have issues!!! 

Good Luck!

[Lisa723]

@Carrie234 your review of them is good. There's little point drafting your response to their review until you see it. But when you do, keep it brief and professional and remember that the point is to reassure future guests. If the review is bad, I would calmly (and again, briefly!) correct any false claims and add something like "this review is retaliation for my attempt to collect payment for extensive damage resulting from this guest's negligence."

[Sarah977]

@Carrie234  I think your draft review is fine, but as @Lisa723 says, it's pointless to do a draft reponse as you have no idea what they will write in the review. The response should only address anything they said in the written review, it is not a further review of them, nor does it need to go into any detail. Used to correct any lies or misconceptions that potential future guests may read. So do that, depending on what they write, as well as pointing out that it's retaliatory because of being asked to pay for extensive cleaning and replacing ruined items. 

Future guests don't really care exactly what these guests did- they're not hosting them. They care to know if what was said is true, and if not, why not. And to see how you as a host handle a bad situation, professional and unemotionally, or like some crazy ranter whose likely to find fault with every guest.

Review of guests: for benefit of other hosts.

Review response: for benefit of future guests.

[Carrie234]

@Sarah977 I'm preparing for the worst! And I will be changing things to address any lies in their review. These people are insane. Thanks for the advice!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Carrie234 

They plugged our toilet, 

Did the guests do that, plug the toilet? Only it appears in review 1 not review 2.

Retaliatory? Why not!

Your reviews look very good. The main thing is that they're truthful.

[Carrie234]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 Good eye! I'm changing that right now

[Lisa723]

@Carrie234 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 note that these guests will probably never see your response to their review, and neither will their future hosts. The people who will read it are your own future prospective guests and you need to target them only. They have no reason to care about this guest's misdeeds, but only about your response to whatever the guest may say. Personally, I wouldn't want a narrative about a plugged and overflowing toilet displayed on any listing of mine, regardless of cause, and I most definitely would not put it there myself!

[Carrie234]

@Lisa723 that's a valid point as well. I'm 95% sure they will mention it in their review. So I will wait to see what they say then adjust accordingly. 

[Sarah977]

@Carrie234  I'm not sure why they'd mention that they plugged the toilet in their review, unless they claim it happened because your toilet wasn't working properly. They're more likely to just lie about things like the place being dirty, or saying they tried to contact you about it, but you were non-responsive. We shall see. Good luck.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 @Lisa723 

The flooded bathroom could have been from showering the walls, floor and ceiling.... the point is they flooded the bathroom somehow.

I think the pertinent points are:

1. Initial reviews are unseen so you just need to be truthful as a host. It is evident that the GUESTS have left devastation behind and have ignored @Carrie234 's messages as well as Airbnb's messages.

2. The GUESTS will post a bunch of lies as a review.

3. @Carrie234 's future guests get to see the previous GUESTS' lies on @Carrie234's listing

4. @Carrie234 needs to tell future guests the truth as a reply to previous GUESTS lies which will also appear on listing.

5. Future guests get the opportunity to judge the truth for which "We take pride in hosting a great stay for every guest & all of our 5-star ratings didn't come by accident"works brilliantly.

Obviously the second review would be adapted to GUESTS review.

[Carrie234]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 It was most definitely from the clogged toilet all the signs are there (I'll spare you the details except to say they took a pail and scooped out the 'remains'... LOL) 

I'm definitely going to fight this! It's clearly retaliatory, I hope Air sees it that way. 

Maybe I should have less detail about the incident in my reply and more detail in their review?!?!?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@ carrie

Less is more type of thing?

"These guests were the worst. We take pride in hosting a great stay for every guest & all of our 5-star ratings just didn't come by accident. The house sighed with relief when you left would be an understatement" 

(edited)

[Fiona243]

Great point! I've just had guests who left horrible brown marks all over my bed linen (I think blood, not s**t). I don't want future guests to feel uneasy about sleeping in a bed that has previously been slept in by dirty people, so have confined my comments about the nature of the mess to the private portion of the review. In the public part I have just said the guests left the room very dirty.