Our house is getting trashed

[Joni178]

Our guests steal items, break things within owning up, and leave the house a disaster. But if we don’t give them a good review they give us a bad review and Airbnb threatens to suspend us. Do you need to give everyone is 5 star regardless? 

[Vivek143]

Hi @Joni178 

No, you should not give everyone 5 stars.

But there is a strategy to doing this without hurting yourself.

What many experienced hosts do:

Leave honest but neutral wording instead of emotional reviews:-

Example:

“Guest stayed x nights. Communication was okay. Would recommend future hosts clarify expectations regarding house rules and cleanliness.”

Avoid overly harsh wording, this reduces the chance of retaliation

You can use private feedback to be more direct about issues.

Helpful tactics:-

Wait until the last day to leave your review

Keep everything fact-based, not emotional.

Use security deposits, stricter screening, and clearer rules to prevent bad stays in the first place.

Let me know if that helps 👍🏻 

[Shelley159]

Regardless of when you post your review, a guest can't see what you've written before they submit their review @Joni178 

Once both reviews are posted, both parties can see them and they cannot be edited.

If only one party posts a review, it becomes visible 14 days after checkout.

So what you write cannot have an impact on what the guest writes (unless you give them reason to believe that you'll leave a negative review).