Removing Negative Reviews

[Cam4019]

We recently stayed at an Airbnb in Falcon, Western Australia which had not been cleaned since the previous guests had departed. We provided additional time for the owner to rectify the problem, but when we returned later in the evening, the house was still unclean and the dirty bedsheets had not been changed.

We had voiced our concerns with the owner at the time, who was grateful for the extra time we gave them and wrote us a positive guest review. However, our review reflected this negative experience and it was made objectively and without emotion.

Shortly after posting our review, we were notified by Airbnb that our review had been removed from the listing following an objection from the owner (reason not disclosed). When we requested further explanation, or an opportunity to provide evidence of our evaluation, the Airbnb representative apologized, acknowledged our frustration and promised to investigate.

The representative later emailed to confirm that, after a "thorough investigation" (which apparently didn't require the guest's input), concluded that our review should not be re-instated. We understand that this is now common practice for new reviews to be removed without author consultation and that past reviews are also able to be removed, causing an immediate improvement to star ratings.

The removal of negative reviews may help to promote Airbnb listings, but it undermines the trust we place as consumers of this important service.  

[Zheng49]

@Cam4019 

It seems like the listing owner didn't have time to clean the place since you arrived at the listing a couple of hours before the designated check-in time.

Therefore, it is a breach of the house rules, and may be why your review was removed. It's not fair to penalize a listing for cleanliness issues, when you arrive ahead of the designated check-in time. 

[Kia272]

@Cam4019 I can't speak to what happened, and we don't know if anything in your review violated policy, but you're probably better off for having it be gone. 

If the only review on your guest profile is a negative one that you've left, you'd be hard pressed to find a host that will accept you as a guest. Yes, we hosts check guest profiles. 

Better luck with your next booking. 

[Cam4019]

Thanks  @Kia272 - that kind of transparency must be empowering for hosts. My concern is that the unsubstantiated removal of negative guest reviews does not afford prospective customers the same level of transparency.

It also diminishes the credibility of the majority of hosts who actually are 5 star.

[Kia272]

@Cam4019  The transparency works both ways. Guests are able to read reviews and also see how hosts respond to reviews. 

Again, we can't see what you wrote, so I don't know if it violated any policy. I will tell you from a host's perspective that it is EXTREMELY difficult to get a review removed. And I mean extremely. The prevailing reasoning is that it is the guest's opinion and reflects their experience. They can blatantly lie in a review and customer service will not take it down. 

I understand your concern about the review system overall, but be reassured that to have a guest review removed is extremely rare, and it likely had something to do with a violation of the review policy. If a host is not performing, it will eventually catch up to them. Unfortunately, AirBnB is slow to act when it comes to removing low-rated properties and hosts, but it does happen. Please don't let this one experience ruin your options with using AirBnB. There are plenty of fantastic hosts and properties out there. Just read reviews and choose accordingly. 

[Frances3408]

@Cam4019. Cam, you raise some fair points but without more evidence we are left with Airbnb to arbitrate sometimes. And yes, Airbnb did announce that historical reviews could be reviewed. Havent seen many hosts post here any successes though.

What star rating did you give the host?