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?

[Mike1034]

@Sarah977 I did see the review about three hours ago. @Carrie234 would you please share your experience how you had Airbnb support removed the review? From that review itself, I would doubt Airbnb would remove it. There could be cases that some support staff is more reasonable and has the sympathy to a suffered host like you. Anyway, good job! @Carrie234 

[Carrie234]

@Mike1034 I called and gave them the Reader's Digest version of what happened, then I requested that the review be removed because it violated the content policy. That's it. He put me on hold to check it out, came back and told me that it referes to an open investigation & will be removed - he gave no further details. I checked the content policy and I think it falls under the realm of "reviews motivated by a threat of extortion".  

[Carrie234]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Mike1034 @Sarah977 they determined it did violate the content policy. I have to say that I have had nothing but positive experiences with CS everytime I needed them!

Recently, I accepted a guest who had to leave his apartment for pest control. It didn't dawn on me that some of those pests could have hitched a ride and made themselves comfortable in my home. I was mortified! I contacted CS and was able to cancel the booking without penalty - I didn't think that was possible. I did have to get the guest to disclose which type of pests he was fleeing from... apparently if it's any sort of insect infestation, then a host can cancel free of penalty - at least this was my experience. They told me that if he said some sort of rodent, then I would not be able to cancel free of penalty...

Anywho, thanks again for all your input. Onward & upward my fellow hosts!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Carrie234 @Mike1034 @Sarah977 

Good support deserves praise. Well done CS and @Carrie234 i'll bet you're relieved.

Which part of the review was deemed to violate content policy?

[Carrie234]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 I am! I don't actually know but I suspect something to do with "Reviews motivated by a threat of extortion"

[Carrie234]

@Lisa723 just out of curiosity... what do you do for bedding for your listing? Is the bed made up of: fitted sheet+flat sheet+blanket? Do you wash the blanket after each use as well or wash just the sheets? 

[Lisa723]

@Carrie234 fitted sheet, flat sheet, duvet with cover. Blanket optional, washed as needed.