Dear community:
I have long been a loyal and positive Airbnb guest with about 100 stays over the years.
My fiance and I decided to invest in hosting our home this year.
The first couple were a learning curve but certainly gave us great feedback and excellent reviews that were fair and honest.
This 6th guest was a nightmare from the start and we called on day 1 to report the guest via phone call to Airbnb as the guest had me call them instead of use platform for conversation. Big mistake!!! She told me that our driveway was steep and her car slipped and we damaged her car and asked us to pay for a tow truck for her! We had her send us pictures and we saw her on our outside Ring camera. She was at the BOTTOM of our driveway and she steered the car into a ditch. We gave her some tips to drive out of it, but she damaged our lawn area. We were glad she was safe but honestly told her no to a tow truck.
Then came her deciding she can trespass into our neighbors "do not trespass" sign and got us a fine. And she misused our water equipment and made the house a mess while completing a late checkout without permission.
We have pictures and ring camera footage timestamps as proof. We told her this and she decided to extort us by demanding a FULL refund for their 5-night stay! Worst of all, she continued to harass us after we politely and firmly gave her reasons for why we cannot due to her multiple violations.
I called Airbnb over 5 times to flag this person who I should have never accepted as never had one single review. I disputed review per their recommendations with two long essays and submitted photos and that person's text saying they decided to park at our neighbors. I told them extortion is illegal and this person's claims are false as we asked Airbnb 5x to review if we are posting right or if we needed to worry about being wrong and they reassured us that any review from this person is considered retaliation.
But in the end, I have spent hours on this and they still did not take it down. I am heavily considering involving legal because this is highly unjust and I have lost all trust in Airbnb being a good platform for hosts if they don't protect us from malicious guests with defamatory secondary gains.
I stumbled upon this forum as I see many are suffering similar fates. Please help me with your wisdom if you can? I am exhausted and I feel extremely wronged and am concerned for slander. Thank you!
