Removing a 1 star retaliatory review

[Sally116]

I was excited to read retaliatory reviews are being removed. And about time! It's so ridiculous to allow those scam reviews to affect our ratings thus our businesses.

So I sent a message asking to have one of mine removed. ( Yes I have many!) So I started with the first and most obvious no-brainer.

Two friends and their two children checked into my small twin room for 4 nights. It was a year ago so prices were dirt cheap ($244.27) which saw local couch surfers of no fixed abode able to afford a stay (especially if they are banking on scamming a full refund).

They wrote in airbnb messages to me the night before checkout that they "absolutely adored your place! was so beautiful and homely". But just after check out they send a message asking if I saw their request? And then said 'I hope I can still give you a good review.' I had no idea what they were talking about until I see a request for $250. (The amount of the booking) The reason given is that they found syringe needles in a draw. Little doubt there were needles in the room but they weren't there when they checked in as I check every room after cleaner is finished. I didn't pay it . I got a 1 star review.

Airbnb contact me yesterday and say they see nothing wrong with the review. I point out they gave me a one star review as retaliation for not paying the ransom. They don't agree. I ask for it to be escalated. After much discussion she says it will be. They phone today and say they won't be removing it.

So a 1 star review on a superhost's property that has an average of 4.79 from 128 reviews (lower than my identical room because of that 1 star) doesn't look out of place and suspicious to airbnb?? They aren't wondering if there's a reason that guest hated everything about a room that so many others loved???

That fact that they wrote ' I hope I can still give you a good review ' isn't rocket science for "I will give you a good review IF you pay  but I'll retaliate with a one star if you don't ".

Thoughts? Anyone had a similar one taken down?

[Sally116 · Accepted solution]

update:  I did what was recommended & continued to put these circumstances to ambassador after ambassador. When they refused to escalate it and the decision was final I opened another case.  Eventually I did get it removed.  I see that some replied here that they would look at it.  Are some of these replies from airbnb staff?  I'm confused.  Very happy to see justice.  I had 128 reviews & 4.78 average.  Once removed I had 127 reviews & average of 4.82 so it was worth it!  Do it!!  

[Bhumika]

Hello @Sally116 ,

Glad you are happy about having it removed now. To answer your confusion, the people who escalated it for you are the Online Community Managers (Moderators) of this forum, including me. Thanks for getting back to us and giving an update about your situation. Kudos to your resilience🙌

We're happy to announce the Month of Celebration!

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[Fred13]

Good show @Sally116 !

[Gillian166]

and now what should happen... you should get your superhost retroactively put back. 

[Emilie]

@Sally116 Thanks for coming back to update us, I'm glad it's all been resolved now! Nobody on the Community Center is part of the Support team, however we read everything you and other Hosts share here and where needed and possible we'll do what we can to help. 🙂

Emilie

[Fred13]

@Sally116  Nothing is more infuriating than stupidity.  Why would a CS person be asked to not make a judgement when a review is being used as leverage in an obvious scam? The fact it passed through more than one level is also very alarming, for then it shows is a corporate problem.

   Mean-spirited reviews do not serve Airbnb well on many counts: it causes their review system to be viewed as suspect because it shows it could be easily manipulated and it also gives ideas to hustlers since they see how easy is to do so. Besides it defies fairness and that inherently bothers most people. It is a bad look all around.

[Cam26]

Most of them don't even read the reviews 🙂 I had caught them at least 4-5 times when they were "listening" to me and browsing web to apply to other jobs in other companies. Most of the time, those guys work for 3rd party company that heavily underpays them.

[Gillian166]

@Sally116  yes, this is 100% a no brainer, this is against the rules and is extortion. should be removed, should have been removed a year ago actually. Keep trying, and thanks for sharing. 

[Sudsrung0]

@Sally116 

After all the noise about getting reviews removed, I would like to hear from any host who did manage to get them removed, seems to me same old same old.

Personally I cant be bothered to even ask airbnb to remove the one bad review I have,

[Emilie]

@Sudsrung0 I always appreciate a healthy dose of skepticism - there have been some reports such a this one. If you spot experiences from Hosts who are finding it challenging to follow-up on a review that appears to fall under this new policy, feel free to tag one of us in so we can nudge the team for them please, as we've done here for Sally earlier. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Jenny]

Hello @Sally116 

I'm so sorry to hear about this.

I've escalated this for you to see if we can find out more information about what happened here!

Jenny

[Cam26]

We have a guest that never came, reservation got canceled, he got a refund and still wrote a 1 star review stating that he was never refunded. Anyway to help us too?

[Emilie]

Hi @Cam26, 

As part of the recent changes to this policy, you can request removal of a review from guests who:

• Commit a serious policy violation, such as damaging your property or overstaying their reservation
• Violate your house rules – for example, by having an unauthorised party or event at your place

If this applies to you, do get in touch with the Support teams who will be able to assist you further. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Cam26]

I spoke to 15 different support agents, at least 8 of them did not even listen and replied with standart messages, some were browsing the web and acting as if they are "listening" to what I am saying, I don't blame them, because I know how underpaid they are 🙂 That's why I'm trying to get attention here. New policies have a part where it says

• " If a guest never arrived for their stay or Experience, or had to cancel due to circumstances unrelated to that stay or Experience, their review may be removed."

Basically this is exactly our case, they never arrived. The problem is, that is not clear, as there is the wording "may" meaning it may or may not be removed.

[Emilie]

@Cam26 Thanks for coming back to me and providing more details! I'll see if I can nudge someone for you on this one, if I get any news I'll let you know. 🙂

Emilie

[Robbie54]

@Emilie surely after @Cam26  spoke to 15 different agents they'd be no need for you to do anything. This alone is proof that Airbnb's customer service is broken and have been for a long time! 

[Emiel1]

@Sally116 

From the review policy:

"Members of the Airbnb community may not coerce, intimidate, extort, threaten, incentivize or manipulate another person in an attempt to influence a review, like promising compensation in exchange for a positive review or threatening consequences in the event of a negative review. "

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673

[Sudsrung0]

@Emilie 

I remember a guest saying to a friend of mine, if she gives him a discount he will give here good review,

[Tina9064]

This is false, and I'll go one better.  

Despite AirBnb's policy for guests to "not write biased or inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a Host who enforces a policy or rule" this is obviously contradicted in the following response from your support team.  (This is what I tried to argue when a recent guest left a retaliatory 1-star review (my only one after 4 years). Here's AirBnb's response...

"In order for a review to be removed, the contents of the review has to be in violation of our policies, after checking several times through the review which was left for you, the review did not violate our polices. We also do not remove review based off truth or fairness." 

"Based on the content in the review, we could not find any content or language that goes against our policies, we understand that this may seem unfair to you and wish that there was something else that could be done however, we are not able to make exceptions or override the policies." 

So, it really doesn't appear to matter that a guest can violate house rules, or that his review was untruthful, or that he admitted in his review that he violated house rules, only that his review didn't violate AirBnb policy....which is for guests to respect and follow house rules and not retaliate when a host tries to enforce them.

[Sally116]

Thanks!  I'll quote this