Retaliatory Review After Guest Broke Rules – Seeking Advice

[Donna1663]

I’m reaching out to share a frustrating experience I’m having with a retaliatory review and to seek advice from those who’ve faced similar issues.

We recently hosted a guest who booked for six people but arrived with 11, violating both Airbnb’s policies and our house rules. Our listing explicitly states that we do not allow additional guests, and this person had agreed to this beforehand. When all of the other people arrived, we contacted Airbnb immediately and asked for their help. They cancelled his reservation but then agreed to let him stay in the house until the next day. He was literally able to sit in our house and leave a one-star review. Plus, he asked for a refund and they gave him a refund for 2 of the three nights. So, he suffered no consequences and actually got paid for his behavior. We feel completely sick.

Airbnb initially, verbally acknowledged that the review violated their policy on retaliatory feedback and agreed to remove it. However, they later reversed their decision, stating it does not qualify for removal under their guidelines. This has been incredibly disappointing and is impacting our business reputation, as the review now appears on our profile despite load of positive reviews.

I’ve tried escalating the issue with Airbnb support but continue to receive scripted responses without resolution.

1. Has anyone successfully disputed a retaliatory review? If so, how did you handle it?
2. Are there additional steps I should take to escalate this issue effectively?
3. How do you address retaliatory reviews in your response to reassure future guests without sounding defensive?

[Zheng49]

It can be tough to dispute a retaliatory review.

With a relatively neutral review like this, it can be hard if not impossible to get it removed.

Basically what the guest is saying that without using outside surveillance cameras to count people, you wouldn't have found out that they came with more people that what they registered with.

I double checked your house rules, and you don't have a rule on visitors. We have a rule on visitors, basically visitors can not stay overnight (or after 9PM in our case).

I feel like booking for 6 but arriving with 11 is okay, if the other 5 are visitors that are not staying overnight. However, if you want to prevent this scenario, it should be added into your house rules. 

[Donna1663]

Thanks for your message. The total 11 people did stay overnight. We have a property manager who is present during the day from 8am-4pm and she called us immediately to report that 11 people were there. That's how we found out. Maybe we need to highlight the no visitors policy in another area but it is stated in our listing and on our welcome message that only registered guests are allowed on the property. He also checked every box possible to indicate that our place was dirty, pet hair, trash, pool was inaccessible, not in a good location, etc. None of that is true.

[Zheng49]

In that case - I agree with you.

They broke your house rules, and then you had Airbnb support cancel their reservation on grounds of house rules being broken. Then they wrote a review that basically amounts to them getting caught breaking your house rules. 

But yes, definitely work the visitors can not stay overnight (or past a certain time) into your house rules, and make it prominent. Although I feel like not allowing visitors of any kind is a little unreasonable - but that's your call to make. 

[Leslie1061]

I had a retaliatory bad review and in my public response, I addressed each of her negative points with a polite explanation of why it broke my house rules, or wasn't allowed by my city, or that my listing clearly states that the amenities she felt were lacking were not available on that property. It didn't seem to affect my bookings much after my response. Just stick to the facts, and be polite.