Review Removal

[Sara6925]

I had a poor experience with Airbnb this past week, having to manage a guest who made a bunch of claims about my suite and was threatening via the message app. I was told by the Airbnb support person that I spoke to that I  would be able to remove a negative review within 24-48 hours and not to worry about it; that motivated me to help the guest out with a partial refund that they weren't entitled to. Now I am being told after filling out a review removal form that the specialist review team will not remove the review, because it was the guests 'experience'. If the guests experience is negative, even if they are making un-factual claims, they can leave their review up.

In this instance, the guest is lying to airbnb to try and make the case for a refund. The claim is that the suite was not cleaned (it was definitely cleaned), and even have gone so far as to claim smell and mold. That review is now up in perpetuity. The suite itself has been fully renovated down to the studs. There is no mold in the walls, which have new materials on them, and the foundation is sealed.

I find it very disheartening that a guest can lie, and this isn't considered 'retaliatory'. Despite having almost 60 reviews mostly with 5 star reviews for cleanliness and this guest having now just one review (mine), this review will be left up. So i am not really sure what retaliatory means here if it doesn't mean lying and further, I don't know what the purpose was of so many messages and calls with Airbnb with this result. 

Has anyone else dealt with this and had success having a false review removed?

[Emiel1]

@Sara6925 

I don't see a 1-star review on your profile, so I assume you were able to resolve it with Airbnb after all ?

[Sara6925 · Accepted solution]

Yes, I had to submit two different review removal requests with different explanations in them, and in the end it looks like the simpler review removal request worked when I identified that the guest was claiming I hadn't cleaned the suite, when the suite had definitely been cleaned. Or its possible that posting here is what did it. Not sure. Happy for a positive resolve in the end. 

[Joan2709]

@Sara6925 

Glad that worked out...

How did you prove the suite had been cleaned and was clean when the guest arrived?

Why did this guest retaliate? Did they break house rules? 

[Sara6925]

Hi Joan:)

I took photos of the suite after the guest left and added those to the review removal form specific to just one thing: the cleaning (since the guest claimed it wasn't cleaned).

The previous removal request I left had too much in it and wasn't specific enough. But alas, the airbnb support people at that stage weren't helpful. "It was the guests experience" was the response. 

In the end posting the issue clearly here with as much factual information is probably what did it, having another layer of airbnb support reading this, looking at my profile and previous reviews, and then making a different decision. 

Looking back again, I see he also claimed terrible location and noisy which makes me laugh because I live in a quiet town on a relatively quiet street. You can hear cars go by but other than that its quite peaceful around here.  

Sara

[Zheng49]

Thanks for sharing. That helps. 

[Elisa]

Hi @Sara6925 😊, 

Thank you for letting us know that everything is being resolved on your end.

Wishing you a great week!

[Abby465]

Hello Sara, 

I recently had a 1 star review because an incident happened. If you have time, I also posted here :1 star review dispute chance - Airbnb Community 
Summary is: guest booked 4 nights, on second day afternoon I messaged the guest looking for permission to enter garage area in a bit. While still waiting, our guy mistakenly thought it's all good and entered without us getting permission. Startled the guest. We hopped on the phone, offered compensation, they accepted it and praised it with "it's a very kind gesture" "we appreciate you" and all those words that shows their satisfaction with the resolution even through the last day of staying. Then left 1 star, saying there is major safety concerns and the refund isn't worth the risk. I issued another goodwill to show apology, knowing review won't be modified. And then received formal report the next day. 

I tried to dispute it based on two main grounds : (with screenshot of msg and all, of course) 
1. they accepted the compensation, show satisfaction/appreciation (not once not twice. More than multiple times in writing). No indication of dissatisfaction and leaving me no clue and no room to address it better. The review contradicts their expression towards the resolution. 
2. One star review mentioned "major safety concerns". However, they did stay till the end, and said "we appreciate the generosity" on the check out day. The review contradicts their own behavior. 

i got denied for the dispute and reason being "the guest didn't violate the review policy" 
I mean, I guess it can be read in a way that "guest can feel satisfied with the remedy yet felt like their experience was an solid one star experience. Their experience is their experience and their feeling is their feeling." And as for the second point with the safety/completing the stay , i guess one can argue that "yes they feel unsafe at the moment but they didn't want to go through the hassle of having to find another house right away" 

Do you have any insight to this because I feel like your case can be similar to this in terms of "whether it's clean or not can be subjective. Even if you have proof of cleaning, if someone doesn't think it's clean, then it's not clean in their mind"  and for the support team to reject your review appealing with this angle. So it would be great if you could share a little how you successfully go through the second request for evaluation. 
 
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it !