I will no longer post a bad review about a guest

[Megan160]

I had an awful guest experience and tried to settle it with the guest personally. She stayed at a reduced rate and then needed to extend her stay. We gave her an even bigger rate discount. When she left, she left the place a mess. Dirty, greasy dishes, pots and pans. All the furniture was in dissaray, both sets of blankets/quilts had spots and stains on them, there were crumbs in all the beds on the mattress pads (which had to be hand picked off), and she ruined a set of sheets.

I took 3 days to cool off before I texted her because we really went out of our way to help this guest and she took advantage of us. I told her I was unhappy about the state of the place and asked her to pay $50 to replace the sheets. Prior to this text, she had nothing but glowing reviews and thanks for me in all her texts. She did not understand why she should have to pay for her sheets because I was a woman and the damaged sheets were a result of a "woman thing" and thus I should understand. I said I shouldn't have to pay for her "woman thing".

After much internal debate, I decided to warn other hosts and gave her an appropriate but still not brutal review, even leaving out the refusal to pay for damages and passing on her lame excuse for the mess. She then gave me a bad review, lying about my place and me. Prior to this review, I had 5 star reviews. Now people think my place is noisy and I am rude. My bookings have almost stoped dead in their tracks after her review. Plus, my 3 month pre-book for Jan-March canceled right after the review. I have contacted Airbnb twice about this to no avail. I had responded to her bad review, but not in much detail because I assumed that if I could prove it was a retaliatory review, it would be removed. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Not only will they not remove it, they won't even let me expound on my explanation to her bad review.

So frustrated! I am knee deep in the process of spending a lot of money to make my other 2 rentals Airbnb rentals and now I can't even get bookings in prime season. Airbnb penalizes us for trying to warn other hosts about bad guests.

[Katya144]

I had a bad experience with a host and got a bad review as a guest for no good reason. We sadly broke a couple of dishes and I let him know and asked for instructions as to how to compensate. He was outright rude as a response and never asked me for any payment which I was happy to provide (hence I let him know in the first place). I left him a 4* review nevertheless cause I thought he just overreacted and it could happen to anyone. He completely trashed me in his guest review. Even though I struggled with some dated instructions, unfunctional oven, and old locker box that we could not make work for 20 minutes. Still I washed all the towels, took out the trash and swept before leaving. I do not travel that often and I’m honestly a neat person. Now I’m worried cause it’s my one and only review as a guest, and I am concerned other hosts will not want me.

[Reuven7]

Hello Megan 160,

I can appreciate your predicament and it sounds like you cut your guest quite a bit of slack and still she betrayed you.

However, sometimes it's the host who is unreasonable, even delusional, and vents online at the expense of the guests' reputation. Such was the case at a recent stay at an AirBNB in Western Manitoba, Canada, just outside Riding Mountain National Park. My wife & I and our daughter were checking out of an AirBNB after a 5-day stay. We complied with all of the proprietor's checkout instructions, i.e., washed and put away all of the dishes, swept the floors, stripped the beds, tied up the garbage and recyclables with the option of walking it 500 yards to the nearest bin, put used towels in the shower stall, only to discover to our utter astonishment that she maligned us on the AirBNB site, saying she had never seen her place in such disarray and blamed us for the delay she encountered in getting the place ready for the next guests. She even threatened to send us the plumbing bill for her kitchen sink that she maintained was not draining. It’s interesting to note that she had forgotten responding to my wife’s query a week before our check-in date as to whether there were any anomalies in the property we should be aware of. In fact, the host responded at that time that the kitchen sink occasionally did not drain properly. It sounds to me like a case of someone who absconded from her own responsibilities as an AirBNB host, trying to pass on to us the cost of a plumbing repair she herself, as the proprietor, should have addressed a long time ago! If this is a recurrent problem, she should have dropped a few bills on the purchase and install of a garbage compactor/garburator.

So let me ask you, what recourse do my wife & I have in terms of compelling, legally or otherwise, this individual to remove her unsubstantiated scathing comments about us? I dare say her rant will impact our ability to book accommodations through AirBNB in the future.

[Keeley14]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, Airbnb did this to me too but in reverse.  We had a terrible host with 5-star reviews and she abused us!  I posted my review and Airbnb took it down!  It's deeply concerning thinking that this host is going to get away with harassment and possibly hurt another family.  It does make me think that Airbnb shouldn't be trusted and I wonder if her "SuperHost" status had anything to do with it...  Regardless, we won't be using Airbnb again.  I'll VRBO next time.

[Ubaldo19]

I cannot agree more.  Just had the same thing happen.  Big drunken party destroyed a couch and two carpets.  It does not pay to give a bad review because of retaliation. 

[Marzena4]

Interesting, @Megan160. Do you think it was only because of that last review that they cancelled? Have you checked your results in the search?

I was wondering what Airbnb might come up with having offered star-ratings visible to those of us who are on Instant Booking. What I fear is that a bad review for a guest might result in dropping in the search results - it is pretty easy to add a line of code to cause it, and with all that non-discrimination bragging of theirs it is possible.

[Louise0]

Yes, I've often wondered if leaving a negative review for a guest pushes you down the search rankings.  Based on my extremely small sample size and entirely anecdotal evidence, I strongly suspect it does.  If so, the next question is whether this form of operant conditioning could be deemed discriminatory.

[Tseten1]

Leaving honest review is important and helps out other hosts if guest is troublesome 

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

but if you have to do it - I think the star rating may seem harsh - I didnt know that a 3 star would mean it automatically bars a guest but that is actually appropriate but I think that my passive aggressive non checkin was designed expecting that I would not write a negative review - in effect, he would get away with giving me a hard time because I would be lenient.   But i felt it was so mean spirited that I a review had to be put down on the record because he and his friends would bother me again in the future otherwise even if they are going to bother me now.    That review was my only opportunity to respond.  Which is why I find it very strange that a concurrent guest's review is now denied me from viewing and responding to and perhaps it has damaging inaccuracies that will be a part of the permanent record on my profile.  I hope airbnb is not discriminatory as you suggest but we shall see.   It has already been  a week and I am still denied seeing his review and therefore cannot respond to it. 

[Isabel203]

Hmmm... I have left bad reviews for guests before and have not seen it influence my listing or bookings at all.

[Annette308]

i think you are wrong there.I was treated like rubbish,by airbnb,had a guest rude messed my furniture,dirty,and i did not agree with his review,so put my reply.was banned from airbnb for 7 days.  and downed to 2 stars from 5.so not fair, so have now went elsewhere,and getting more bookings.

[Kierra7]

What platform did you switch to?

[James2800]

Did you get an answer to this

[Michael4416]

Isabel is there any way that our guests can know if we are leaving a bad review? 

[Emilia42]

@Michael4416 None. Unless you tell them.

[Laura99]

The review you leave about the guest will appear on the guest's profile. So of course they'll see it. I don't understand this answer.