Retaliatory Review Severely Damaged My Listing - Denied Twice, Still No Help from Airbnb

[Rami430]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been a proud Airbnb host for 4 years with consistent 5-star ratings and great relationships with guests. Unfortunately, five months ago, I received a false and retaliatory review that has seriously impacted my business,  and despite multiple attempts to get it reviewed, Airbnb has refused to remove it.

The guest, who left after one night of a longer booking, wrote things like:

“Nothing positive to say. I was charged nearly $1K for a one night stay... This place is a scam... Awful bed... Unempathetic host. Stay away.”

Keep in mind this is my first ever negative review, previously the lowest review I have ever gotten was a 4 star. This review was clearly written out of anger after I declined his request for a full refund, which he demanded even though he chose to leave on his own and the listing was exactly as described. I tried refuting the review twice, providing full documentation and screenshots of our messages, but both times Airbnb denied my request. They even said they would escalate the case, but I never heard back with any resolution.

Here’s what I publicly responded under his review to stay transparent with future guests:

“I’m very disappointed by this review, as it is both misleading and unfair. The unit was professionally cleaned before arrival, with fresh linens, sanitized surfaces, and a fully stocked kitchen. I responded promptly to every question and request, personally delivering a clean stainless steel pan and fresh batteries for the remote. All amenities, including AC, Wi-Fi, parking, and recycling, were fully functional and exactly as described. The guest displayed aggressive behavior upon arrival, but I remained respectful throughout. He stayed one night, then requested a full refund, which I did not honor because there was nothing wrong with the unit. Only after his refund request was denied did he post this retaliatory review. He did not pay $1,000 for one night as claimed - this is false and misleading.”

After speaking with eight Airbnb ambassadors, I kept receiving scripted responses saying they “couldn’t help.” It’s extremely discouraging because this one review has drastically lowered my overall rating and nearly halted bookings (**I’ve had only 1 booking since it was posted!!).

According to Airbnb’s review policy, reviews that are retaliatory, irrelevant, or contain FALSE information should be subject to removal. This case seems to fit that perfectly.

I’ve even spoken with a lawyer, who reviewed the situation and noted that the review appears to be in clear violation of Airbnb’s own published guidelines - which makes this lack of support even more concerning. I’m still hoping to resolve this internally and fairly, but it’s something I may need to revisit further if Airbnb continues not to uphold its own policies.

I’ve always taken pride in being a responsible, responsive host,  and it’s disheartening to feel so unsupported after years of positive hosting. Has anyone experienced something similar, and were you able to get Airbnb to take action? Any advice or insight from fellow hosts would be appreciated.

Thank you for reading,

-Rami

[Csaba54]

Hi! I'm a European host, but Airbnb is also treating its own policies in such a mean way! I also get retaliatory reviews like this from time to time. There was a recent case where a guest tried to steal electricity to charge his car. Moreover, he did it in a fire-hazardous way. I noticed this and told him to use the designated paid outlet in the parking lot and pay for the electricity. I sent him a payment request, attaching the security camera footage where the incident is visible! He refused. I contacted Airbnb customer service, and based on the evidence, they paid the requested amount. Now here's the thing. That's why the guest wrote a retaliatory review, which was nothing but lies! Lots of different lies. One of them was that there was no door to the bathroom and therefore the neighbor and everyone on the street could see when the guests were taking a shower. He also wrote that there were cameras everywhere and the guests had to live under them! Of course, this is not true, since the bathroom has a door and there is no camera anywhere, only 1 that monitors the car park! I sent photos of these to Airbnb customer service and asked for the retaliatory review to be deleted! I also wrote that this guest was caught stealing by 2 other hosts and this can be read in his profile. The fact of the retaliatory review was completely clear, and the previous hosts had already written this to him. Despite this, Airbnb customer service wrote me exactly the same answer that they wrote to you! I also asked them to apply the Airbnb policy regarding the deletion of retaliatory reviews, but they were not interested in that either. They sent all kinds of meaningless answers. The whole communication with them was completely ridiculous. They simply sent irrelevant answers, as if they hadn't even read what I wrote about their own policy. It was outrageous that they refused to apply the Airbnb policy on this, but when I asked why, it was as if they didn't even see my question, they wrote an answer about something completely different over and over again! They were completely unable to explain why the rule doesn't apply when I, a superhost, refute the guest's lies with a photo. Moreover, the lies of a proven thief guest who is also stealing from another host! The deletion request, which took at least 10-15 minutes to read and interpret due to its length and the attached documents, was rejected by Airbnb in every case after 1-3 minutes. It is perfectly clear from this that they didn't even read it, they just sent an automatic AI-generated response immediately rejecting it. This is what they do everywhere in the world! And then, if the host files a complaint, they lie and say that the team dealing with this has already rejected it and they can't override it! They lie about this so they don't have to deal with it. The whole review system is a joke right now. It gives guests the opportunity to lie in their reviews if the host is caught stealing or causing damage so they don't have to pay compensation. And it forces hosts to write negative reviews every time the guest messes up something due to their own stupidity and is expected to write a retaliatory review! Airbnb is currently digging its own grave because potential guests are afraid to book on Airbnb because of the increasing number of retaliatory reviews. And hosts are increasingly rejecting booking requests because of the many negative reviews. All this because they don't handle cancellation requests with human power, where based on the facts and evidence, a human could decide what the truth is in a few minutes. An AI or maybe not even that, just an automatic rejection message that is set to send a template rejection message x minutes after the request is submitted. I'm also thinking about moving my ad to another platform, because for some time now, it has been allowed to ruin business.