Retaliatory Review

[Kathryn657]

I received a retaliatory review from my second guest after he found out I opened a claim against him for cleaning and damages to my home. Guest has a prior bad review but 2 others weregood ones, but I believe he was alone w/o wife, 6 kids and “service” dog.  He said his bad review  was untrue  and I made the mistake of giving him a chance when he wanted to rent, once I brought my concern to his attention. He did have his wife, 6 kids and “service” dog scheduled for his booking.  I checked in via Airbnb messages, and asked if everything was ok and if they needed anything in which he stated that all was great. I bought a pack n play for their use and a high chair since he has a young child., before their visit. When we came into the house afterwards their departure, the dog peed everywhere.m a living room and bedroom and area rugs in second living room and On brand new curtains, on a small front door rug that they removed  afterwards to hide. The spilled on my new couch lots of white liquid and stains of food. Blueberry stains everywhere, sauce in the beds and on dining area walls. Scratched my front door large glass front door. Gauged out my brand new dining table. This guy is a traveling doctor and books airbnbs often for his family to spend time with him   Therefore, he booked more dates on my calendar. Once I posted a negative review and put a claim for carpet cleaning and for my couch, he immediately canceled his bookings and gave me a 1 star for everything. Claimed my house had bed bugs and black mold, smelled bad (sure did after 7 areas of dog pee) , run down furniture and repairs needed. Complete lies. Said they were stung by wasps and had to go to the emergency room. But not one of these claims were mentioned anywhere before the review and open claim for damages. It was completely retaliatory. I sent pictures Etc, to airbnb.  My house is immaculate. My first review shows that. I’m a new host and this has been a terrible experience. And this was on my second booking. They too give me canned responses and in the end say it wasn’t against their  policies or standards  and the review will remain. It’s created so much stress and is very slanderous and all lies. I believe I will need to put a claim to BBB San Francisco as well as a prior host stated. 

[Fred13 · Accepted solution]

@Kathryn657  Anyone starting out hosting needs to keep two things in mind: it is a time to take little risk with any guest and also exercise high tolerance on your part not to get into a conflict with one.

Of course, this character is beyond the pale. You may be better off starting over vs. fighting that 1* bad-review start forever, but now you be re-starting quite a bit wiser. And if anything that unfortunate guest said is valid, address it, it will be to your advantage. Good luck.

[Kathryn657]

thank you Fred for the feedback. Definitely a lesson learned. 

[Frances3408]

@Kathryn657. A "service animal" is trained, does not require being tied up (guests words) and is never to be left alone. It sounds it was left inside alone for long periods of time. Did you point this out to ABB? Keep to the facts.

Your insights are correct- do not doubt yourself just because you are a new host. It would appear the guests two bad reviews came from the combined family vacation bookings. I note the other guest bad review listing is not showing (and only has one review). All places he has booked on ABNB were with relatively new hosts.

@Fred13 has some wise advice. Do consider closing listing and starting again as the 1 star will weigh against you until (and if) removed.

Its hard but I would have written a much shorter review and left posting it until the 14 days were almost up. Words like ""would not host again" is helpful to other hosts. Assuming you didnt have any incoming guests I would have delayed lodging the claim until then as well. If you're upset then type the longer version of what you are feeling in a word doc separately. After many more hostings you can look back and hopefully be able to laugh about it.

And maybe send that other nice guest a special offer to get them back- sounds more like the type for your listing.