Unfair Guest reviews

[Nadya43]

Hello! 

Please advise . If anybody had the similar experience 

The several guests  arrived to our house in the late afternoon, my mother met them in person and showed the house ( I was present on phone call all the time during the check in process)  . They checked everything in the details, wrote me message  to my AIRBNB platform that they are "OK to stay and received the keys".  They asked if they can check out later next day, and I replied that so far "yes", unless somebody would do last minute booking ( then I will ask them to leave on  official listed Check out time at , because of needs for the  house cleaning, which is common sense).

Few days in advance of arrival I asked them  (via AIRBNB platform to pay extra fee 100 $ for only one night booking  ( as it written on my house rules, that we prefer at least 2 nights stay) and asked if they would like to stay longer I will remove those fees . They  responded that will pay additional 100, and I remind them about it again during check in process. They agreed to adjust the reservation for that extra payment, received the keys  from my mother with advise to contacted me for any reasons ANY time

They stayed longer and left next day late afternoon ( as agreed, if no sudden reservation happened),  

We never got any calls/ texts/ AIRBNB messages about any complains/ requests from them except text message in the late afternoon that they are leaving the property and the keys will be left  on the table" .

Few days  later I got the call from AIRBNB that guests decided to ask their money back, because according to them "the house was very dirty, and we manipulated them, FORCED them to pay extra money, WOULD NOT LEAVE house and WOULD NOT GIVE the keys till they paid that extra fees, we keep playing with check out time, etc

They also wrote that never complained before because "were afraid of us, because we leave near by and could returned to the property anytime".

After detailed review of their complain, AIRBNB refused to pay them money back based on time frame of their stay , which caused , obviously very angry review.

My requests to AIRBNB to remove this review is also keep postponing, with explanation that is " nothing  wrong with guests to share their experience".

We strongly disagree with it, because its not just lie ( otherwise, why would they never contacted us, not just right away or next morning, but stayed till late afternoon in "Dirty house" . We  consider it as a personal offence. This is  not just their opinion. The cleanliness of house is definite subjective matter, and very broad subject, which is hard to argue( as something very clean for one person is dirty for another and personal standards are different). However it is not about the condition of the house.  This is definite accusation of us in actions, which they even unable to proof, because it never happened - in FORCING them for  extra payment, would not give them a keys and would not leave the house",  "Manipulation with check out time"  , and the best of all - the statement that they were AFRAID OF US, because we could comeback anytime".  Meaning , that 7 grown adults were afraid of 70+ years old retired  school teacher  in causing them  ... what? Beat them? Harm them somehow?  Kicking them out of house ?  It was not clarified in review, yet nobody called AIRBNB to share those fears or concerns for next few days .

All above means the guest  have the  right to write anything they want without the proof of it as soon using "the polite , acceptable, non offensive  words to share their experience" even  this is lie or unproved  accusation  .

How about the offensive/ insulting  statement itself ? 

HOSTS, please , any recommendations would be appreciated,  because I still think the review should be removed. 

Its not just about rating 1 star. Its accepted already as a  personal offense.

Shell I contact the legal department for getting the objective opinion beyond  AIRBNB customer service, who just keep creating one ticket after another and referring to different teams for further assistance ( with involving enormous amount of my personal time) 

If anybody had the similar experience? 

Thank you . 

[Shimae0]

Hi I just encounter the same mess with someone I hosted and is still dealing with that but, the only thing you can do is look for the review and click on it and respond to it with your counter but make sure you first address them politely that way if someone reads it they will be like the guest was wrong and the host was right. Such as thank you for your review but I am afraid your review is not correct then explain in detail what really happen. Always try to seem like you are not mad at them because you will have many people looking at what you put. Its sad that we have to be all nice when they are the ones who do things to the host and we can't do nothing about it but smile and act like things are great when clearly they are not. But yes go respond to your guest review if they have left one. 

[Sharon683]

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@Nadya43 wrote:

Hello! 

Please advise . If anybody had the similar experience 

The several guests  arrived to our house in the late afternoon, my mother met them in person and showed the house ( I was present on phone call all the time during the check in process)  . They checked everything in the details, wrote me message  to my AIRBNB platform that they are "OK to stay and received the keys".  They asked if they can check out later next day, and I replied that so far "yes", unless somebody would do last minute booking ( then I will ask them to leave on  official listed Check out time at , because of needs for the  house cleaning, which is common sense).

Few days in advance of arrival I asked them  (via AIRBNB platform to pay extra fee 100 $ for only one night booking  ( as it written on my house rules, that we prefer at least 2 nights stay) and asked if they would like to stay longer I will remove those fees . They  responded that will pay additional 100, and I remind them about it again during check in process. They agreed to adjust the reservation for that extra payment, received the keys  from my mother with advise to contacted me for any reasons ANY time

They stayed longer and left next day late afternoon ( as agreed, if no sudden reservation happened),  

We never got any calls/ texts/ AIRBNB messages about any complains/ requests from them except text message in the late afternoon that they are leaving the property and the keys will be left  on the table" .

Few days  later I got the call from AIRBNB that guests decided to ask their money back, because according to them "the house was very dirty, and we manipulated them, FORCED them to pay extra money, WOULD NOT LEAVE house and WOULD NOT GIVE the keys till they paid that extra fees, we keep playing with check out time, etc

They also wrote that never complained before because "were afraid of us, because we leave near by and could returned to the property anytime".

After detailed review of their complain, AIRBNB refused to pay them money back based on time frame of their stay , which caused , obviously very angry review.

My requests to AIRBNB to remove this review is also keep postponing, with explanation that is " nothing  wrong with guests to share their experience".

We strongly disagree with it, because its not just lie ( otherwise, why would they never contacted us, not just right away or next morning, but stayed till late afternoon in "Dirty house" . We  consider it as a personal offence. This is  not just their opinion. The cleanliness of house is definite subjective matter, and very broad subject, which is hard to argue( as something very clean for one person is dirty for another and personal standards are different). However it is not about the condition of the house.  This is definite accusation of us in actions, which they even unable to proof, because it never happened - in FORCING them for  extra payment, would not give them a keys and would not leave the house",  "Manipulation with check out time"  , and the best of all - the statement that they were AFRAID OF US, because we could comeback anytime".  Meaning , that 7 grown adults were afraid of 70+ years old retired  school teacher  in causing them  ... what? Beat them? Harm them somehow?  Kicking them out of house ?  It was not clarified in review, yet nobody called AIRBNB to share those fears or concerns for next few days .

All above means the guest  have the  right to write anything they want without the proof of it as soon using "the polite , acceptable, non offensive  words to share their experience" even  this is lie or unproved  accusation  .

How about the offensive/ insulting  statement itself ? 

HOSTS, please , any recommendations would be appreciated,  because I still think the review should be removed. 

Its not just about rating 1 star. Its accepted already as a  personal offense.

Shell I contact the legal department for getting the objective opinion beyond  AIRBNB customer service, who just keep creating one ticket after another and referring to different teams for further assistance ( with involving enormous amount of my personal time) 

If anybody had the similar experience? 

Thank you . 

---

Sorry to hear about your terrible experience.  Yes, I had two guest that lied and gave me a bad review.  Airbnb removed one of the reviews because they stated their policy rules were broken.  Unfortunately, they would not remove the second review.  They advised me to reply to the negative review explaining my side of the story.  I had over 100 5 star reviews then I get two guest that decided to give me a 1 and a 2 star.  I was furious!  I recommend you reply to their review ASAP.  Do not wait.  You want new future guest to understand what happened.  And dont forget to mention that you are a senior!  Good luck!

[Huma0]

@Nadya43 

There are a few things that are very odd about your story.

Firstly, if you prefer two night stays, then set your minimum stay at two nights. It's not really okay to accept a booking for one night and then, a few days before the stay, tell the guests they have to pay $100 over the advertised price because they only booked one night. It doesn't really matter if that's stated in your house rules or not, it's just not okay. Remember, a lot of guests do not read the fine print, so something that important needs to be reiterated in a message to them BEFORE they book. Anyway, I guess they decided to say yes and go ahead, but clearly they weren't happy about it. 

I do agree with you RE the check out issue though. The guests asked for late check out and you said they could have it as long as no other guests were checking in the same day. That's perfectly reasonable and a logical person should be able to understand that. However, perhaps because they unexpectedly (and by unexpectedly, I meant not at the time of booking) had to pay an extra $100, maybe they felt they were entitled to stay a bit after the check in time? I don't know...

As for the other issues mentioned by the guests, I have no idea what did and didn't happen and whether your listing is clean or not clean, but the ratings for your listings are pretty low by Airbnb standards, so I suspect there are some issues going on that other guests have also noticed. 

I have also had reviews and ratings I felt were unfair and undeserved, but it's also important to take on feedback from guests. Saying that the place was not less bedrooms than advertised because it depends on which entrance you use and that the living room is also a bedroom, or that the door worked fine but then mentioning there is a problem and you haven't gotten the locksmith to sort it is not really okay.

Well, it's okay, but then don't expect to always get glowing reviews.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Nadya43 ,

I can imagine how frustrating it must be to receive such a review when you believe you made sure to have all the necessary communication from your side to the guest.

I have also raised your concern to the related team if they can provide any clarity regarding your situation. I hope you hear from them soon!

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Rochelle127]

I understand your frustration, especially when we as hosts truly believe we did all we could to make it a perfect stay. My best guess is that they were frustrated with the sudden $100 charge for a short stay, I would be too. You need to either not accept stays shorter than 2+ nights or make it very clear in your description and everywhere else that stays shorter than 2 days will incur an additional $100 fee and it needs to be paid when booking with the guest accepting it as part of reservation. I agree that most guests do not read the fine print we have all spent so much time writing and sometimes even the house rules, lol. Anything of importance, I make sure to make note of in description as well as in the welcome message I send right after each guest books. 

On the other hand, some reviews are just unfair. It would be great to see a topic started on here where we can all post our craziest reviews. I once had a guest leave me a one star review because I didn’t answer the phone at 3 am to give them my Netflix password (Netflix is included on smartTV but not to my own account, lol). Another guest left me one star because I didn’t have specific (complimentary) snacks available for them and their friends. I try and go the extra mile and provide a very wide variety of snacks for my guest and include everything from kid friendly, gluten free, vegan, sugar free, regular, etc. I forget now what specific dietary snacks they were complaining about but I do remember that I had to look it up online to even know what they were talking about and remember it being so far fetched and I was so insulted that someone would complain about completely free snacks stocked for their stay. Being in real estate investment and having airbnbs has taught me that it is impossible to please everyone. No matter how accurate and overly descriptive your listing is and how far above you go, there will always be someone you can’t please here and there. You just have to roll with it and (eventually) laugh about it. 

[Jean174]

I pride myself on making my accommodations beautiful and a guest's stay comfortable and relaxing.   Recently I had a guest complain about using the lock box and not being able to find her room when CLEAR AND ACCURATE instructions were provided for both.  She did not bother to read the check in instructions. 

I actually pinged her twice through the app asking if she read and agreed to the house rules, and read the check in instructions.  Later, she also actually told me she did not want to use the lockbox because she had very long fingernails.  If she had communicated her check in time (despite my asking twice), I would have greeted her in person.

I believe she used this in an attempt to get $$$ back.  Now Airbnb will not remove her review, saying this was her "perception."

This is so discouraging and disheartening.  With increased competition, we have to lower rates.  When we lower rates we get overly demanding people who want a vacation but resent having to pay for it.  They then take it out on the host by complaining in an effort to get money back.  So brutally unfair after bending over backward to accommodate.

[Dawn241]

I don’t think you can charge an extra $100 for 1 night stay because you prefer 2 night stays. We just have a 2 night minimum, period. Our jurisdiction requires it and it’s not worth it to me to clean for one night or risk losing a full weekend stay because some books say just Saturday night instead of Friday and Saturday night. 

if you insist on allowing a one night stay, you could experiment with different nightly discounts (discount for 2 nights or more)  and the additional charges- short term stay vs long term stay cleaning fee, pet fee, linens fee, resort fee, management fee, community fee, extra guest fees- to achieve the same revenue in the end without “demanding” an extra $100 at the end-Airbnb will not allow that.