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.

[Karol22]

Best antidote to bad reviews is more great reviews. Offer a deal to upcoming guests. Surprise and delight them. Build those good reviews back and you're good to go. I'm really sorry to hear your situation. Bad reviews happen and it's never fun when they come. 

[Amber700]

I am a new Host and had a guest leave a terrible, inaccurate review because she saw “homeless people” near my property.

She contacted me and Airbnb in a panic - I cheerfully and generously refunded the entire amount and allowed her to cancel immediately (Even though I didn’t have to ; under Airbnb’s long-term stay cancellation policy I was entitled to keep the entire one-month rental amount).  

She never stayed at the property; she was on the property for less than one hour. She did not pay a dime for that reservation.  I formally objected to the review with Airbnb; they absolutely would not budge.

Airbnb allowed her review to go forward, because she came to the property and unlocked the door she had “checked in” under their rules, and so she was allowed to leave me a review.

Brought my rating down from a perfect five-star to a 3.67.

[Haotian2]

But your review is not visible to her unless published. So she based her review not on your review but only on your internal conversations? Now it's 5 years later I don't know whether the review rules changed

[Matthew1661]

I had a similar incident with similar issues with Airbnb. Customer support. The guest attempted to extort me by saying if I did not give her a full refund even though I had already given her half that she would have to say negative things about me on line. At that point, I felt I was being extorted and I would not negotiate with Terrace is basically the way I look at it. I immediately contacted Airbnb explain the situation, and this was before she even put a review out .

Keep in mind she didn’t even ask for the refund or demand it or say anything at all that there was a problem till she had been away from the property for three days. I gave her half the refund upfront because she didn’t use up all of the days that she was going to stay, but she already reserved those days in advance and paid but I went ahead and gave her half of it back   Which she acknowledged and excepted but then three days later, that’s whenever she started telling me there was issues of this, and this all over the place not one time was it told me brought to my attention to make a long story short she did a review that was just scathing And Airbnb, even though extortion is against their policy, they didn’t call that extortion even though it’s blatant to me. I even gave them the proof. And immediately after that review, my bookings went to zero I was getting steady bookings even though this was a new property, I was getting at least three a week , it went to zero. I guess I should’ve just given her the full refund, but I thought Airbnb would have my back. It doesn’t matter. If you have proof, it doesn’t matter at all with them they will not help you at all. In fact, the customer service guy said he wished he could  and he all but admitted that there was a policy that said they would do nothing they would try to make both parties agreeable, but they would do nothing to remove any reviews. I’m not happy, but it is what it is. 

[Laura2714]

How to leave a bad review for a guest.

Wait, 13 days and 23 hours.

You have 14 days to review a guest and the have 14 days to review you. After the 14 days you can not review them and they can not review you. 

Wait until the last hour of the last day to review them- and then the review function will time-out before they can give you a review.

This works for me cause it gives me a cool-off time to reflect on whether that person deserves a bad review or not. 

Usually by the time the 13th day rolls around I’ve totally forgotten about it and choose to let it go. 

But, yeah, wait two weeks to give the bad review 😀

[Rosa3226]

I have been hosting for a long time and my last guest were every host nightmare.

The husband was nice and communicate with but his wife was very unpleasant. She said everything was wrong from not knowing how to switch the lights on to.. Everything. 

I offered them an extra day on me as I thought this would change her attitude but it only made it worse. When they left the place was the worst any guest had ever left it. There was the smell of rotten meat and fish, there was crisps all over the floor, bed, table etc.. There was water on the floor, table, and kitchen counters. Stains on the bedding and my large pedestal fan was broken. I had to get extra cleaners and after cleaning the whole day we could still not get rid of the rotten fish and meat smell in the whole flat and fridge. 

I have to right a review to warn other hosts out there but not sure how to go about it as am very still upset.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks. 

[John6858]

So sad

[Scott1497]

At present, we find ourselves in a similar situation. To our disappointment, we've found that Airbnb's policies allow guests to make false claims against hosts without proper vetting. As a result, hosts may be temporarily de-platformed until an investigation takes place. In our case, it's become evident that the guest who filed a complaint took photos of the guestbook and guests names and even admitted doing so via the Airbnb app and SHOWED A PICTURE of the guestbook open. Despite this, the guest remains on the platform while we as the host are still waiting for the "investigation" to come to a close so we can be listed again.

It's incredibly disheartening as we've never received a review that wasn't a perfect 5 stars. As hosts, we strive to make our guests' stays truly memorable, but situations like these can make our efforts feel futile. It's especially frustrating in this case since it seems the guest's only motive was to receive a refund on the day of check-out.

I agree with the comments below, as hosts, let's be honest with our reviews and weed the bad folks out.

[Sajid26]

Megan160 - no worries use their own words against them. I, as a Host left a review of a Horrible Person who had booked our home. They not only damaged the Tonal equipment they never signed the waiver for, damaged the dishwasher - whereas it had to be replaced, they also left the front door wide open after they left and drove off. My review was removed because the complaint was it included personal information. Just say the same thing - Poof! Review is gone. Apparently - if you complain about privacy they freak out. Good Luck! We have since moved off the AirBnB platform to more Host friendly platforms.

[Ryan3505]

Air b and b has been terrible to hosts in my experience.  I also have been screwed by air b an b with extremely poor customer service and support.  They docked me $1200 on a 4 night rental due to an issue being “unresolved” pertaining to guest use of a washer and dryer.  I offered a solution on the first day as well as following air b and b’s suggestion to remedy the situation by allowing the guest to find another accommodation with a full refund.  I even offered to give the guest an appropriate discount per night.  The guest CHOSE TO STAY, then waited until after they checked out to inform me they were unhappy and disagreed with my offer.  Air b and b then decided to refund the guest after their entire stay $1200 of my money…

Customer service will not answer in a timely matter nor will anyone actually help or support you as a host. They simply use you for your home, and side with the guest at your expense regardless of the situation.

I’m finding this out the hard way unfortunately.  There needs to be a company out there that will actually value and support its hosts.  Air b and b is not it.

[Darcy108]

I leave an honest review but I learned never ask them to pay for anything until they've written their review or the 14 day review period has passed then I file a claim. I was able to get a guest review removed for retaliation for this reason. 

[Chloe470]

his company makes it impossible to withdraw your money. I already terminated my business with them after An asset recovery team Againstcon.com tracked and recovered my money

[Dante3]

Airbnb NEVER protect hosts and i've been hosting for almost 10 years now. They will ALWAYS put profit ahead of you. Sometimes i wish they go bust for all the horrible injustices they've done to so many countless victims, but then i need the extra money. Some of the stories i've read all these years have been so horrific that it'll make anyone's blood boil. I don't understand how the CEO can sleep well at night. If there's a competitor elsewhere, i'll jump ship without any hesitation.

I once had a guest tell me he likes young asian boys and then proceed to tell me his sexual exploits. Told him i didn't want to listen and frankly i was absolutely disgusted. He then lectured me for judging him and brought my religious faith into the picture too. I didn't know what was more shocking - the fact he told me he was a pedophile or being gaslit by one, in my own home.

What would a host do in this situation ? He wouldn't stop fighting with me (verbally), so i lost my cool and told him to leave. Admittedly it was very unkind of me because it was almost midnight and he wasn't familiar with the city.

The next couple of days, both of us, complained to Airbnb. I spent hours speaking to various support agents, and all of them said they empathized with me but rules were rules and they refused to remove the guest's bad review for me, and proceeded to penalize me too for breaking Airbnb rules. They also said i discriminated the guest. 

LOL !!

What sort of world are we living in now that a self-confessed pedophile have rights too ?! 

My almost perfect rating dropped so much and i lost my Superhost status overnight. Airbnb also deducted from my next payment (without any prior notice), to compensate the pedo guest.

Because of this and a couple more negative experiences, I no longer turn on instant book. And I'm also careful with reviews too, because i know the guest will always have the upper hand and Airbnb doesnt give two hoots either about protecting hosts.

If i don't like a guest, and if it's something i can tolerate, i usually leave nothing for them. After 14 days (i think), I'll be able to see the review they've left for me. So far, I haven't had a guest(s) who've left me a bad review ever since. Mainly because i've been a great host to them.

But if anyone leaves me a bad review, I know i still have one shot to argue my case by replying to their review. That way i have the advantage of knowing what they really think of me as a host first.

[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.