125 5 Star Reviews... first 1 star review and we lose Superhost status!

Nancy380
Level 2
Grand Rapids, MI

125 5 Star Reviews... first 1 star review and we lose Superhost status!

I am so frustrated I don't know what to do! We have been Airbnb hosts for 5 years. We have been Superhosts every quarter since we began. A few weeks ago we got a 1 star rating from problem guests and now we've lost our Superhost status!!! What kind of host support is that? They flat out lied in the review and there's not a single thing we can do. ARGH!!!!

8 Replies 8

Hi @Nan7 

 

Very sorry to hear that, we are in the exact same situation. We had two "revenge reviews" on one of our listings in the last 3 months due to our filing a (legitimate) damage claim which the guest was upset about and filed 1 star reviews out of spite. We were told by the CS drones that they cannot even evaluate the review in context, for example in-app messages that contradict their review, etc (they can only see the contents of the review itself). One CS person even said he agrees with me that it's unfair, but their hands are tied by Airbnb for some reason.

 

We have been superhosts for YEARS and now we have lost that status with a 4.79 average rating for the last quarter. I requested an appeal and the drone just said he couldn't do anything to help us. It seems like Airbnb is outsourcing all of the CS to overseas call centers and they have next to zero ability to help hosts. Very frustrating. 

 

R&D

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Nancy380 

You left the guest C. a short, but nice review.

But in your comment on C. 's review you come up with a violation of houserules (smoking) and guest not checking out intime.

 

And yes, one lunatic guest is enough to destroy years of good work.

And Airbnb will not remove the review, as it "does no violate their review policy"

Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

You have a large gap of almost 2 years in which it appears you weren’t hosting - from August 2019 to April 2021. Airbnb measures your performance over the last 12 months. For the assessment period ending June 30, for the preceding 12 months you only had 9 bookings. That coupled with the 1 rating put you below 10 stays and below a 4.8 rating over the last 12 months.

 

I can see you are an excellent host, and guests will be able to see this clearly, too. Don’t fret too much about this. I predict you will get your Superhost rating back next quarter, or the subsequent quarter at the latest. I bet it makes very little difference, if any, in your reputation or your booking rate. 

@Pat271 @Nancy380     The 10-stay requirement is waived until the December 31st assessment period. 

 

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/updates-to-the-2021-superhost-assessments-257

 

It was, unfortunately, the 1-star review at work here.   All one can do is try to get past it. In my experience, it does not affect booking rate. 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Nancy380 

 

Nancy, to add to @Pat271 's excellent and correct answer, on March 14 2020 Airbnb made alterations to the extenuating circumstances policy to allow for the effect COVID-19 would have on hosts, and part of that alteration was to quarantine the host's Superhost status for 12 months. What that meant was you would not lose your Superhost status if you fell below the required hosting rules of 10 stays, 90% acceptance and 1 cancellation for the previous 12 months.

 

As far as I am aware that ended as of March 14 2021 so, this July assessment we have just had is the first one not subject to the COVID Superhost waiver. It is because of this that you have managed to hold your Superhost status up until now even though you had a two year break from Airbnb hosting.

During the most recent assessment period, 1st July 2020 - 30th June 2021 you had 9 reviewed stays (with 2 in July which do of course not count) which dropped you below the required minimum of 10 for the assessment period. 

 

You will get it back again come the next assessment which takes place on 30th September because you will have once again achieved more than that minimum for the assessment period.

 

I hope I am right with my take on this!

 

As far as the revenge review is concerned you should be able to have that removed if Airbnb are going to follow their own rules. In your position I would get in touch with the Resolution Centre via this link....

 

contact us

 

Cheers.......Rob

I doubt it would be removed by AirBnB- unfortunately there’s a ton of stories like the OP’s about retaliatory reviews (I just had one that knocked down our rating quite a bit after having to chat with a guest about house rules during their stay). If you read AirBnB’s policy on reviews- they will not intercede if it’s an issue of truthfulness.

Noel704
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Hi

i really feel for you here , I’m an owner on Airbnb and now feel they are not listening to the owners/ hosts and are only taking the guests side in any communication or complaints. I have had my ad suspended  due to what I feel is an unfair guest review and after 2 appeals I’m now removed and I got no real explanation from Airbnb only to check my reviews. 

Jay2014
Level 1
Frankfurt, Germany

I know this post is a couple of years old but I’m in the EXACT same boat, and the “Superhost Support Team” isn’t doing a thing to enforce their own Review Policy. I have been an excellent host and earned my super host status (which takes a lost of work AirBnb!!) and recently hosted problem guests. They had a three night reservation but left after one night citing that they “loved my place but roosters woke them up at 4am” so they wanted a refund for their last two nights. I have a strict cancellation policy because you can’t find last minute guests (this isn’t a hotel), but I offered them credit that never expires and is even transferable to other people. This wasn’t good enough for them, so they left me a one star review, citing a whole list of things that weren’t true and that they never brought up before or after they stated they “loved my place”. I even literally have them caught in a lie between our message conversation and the review they left me (so proof of fraudulent information) and have shown that this is a review that violates the AirBnb policy “Reviews should be unbiased: They also may not be used as an attempt to mislead or deceive Airbnb or another person. For example, guests should not write biased or inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a Host who enforces a policy or rule.”

 

The support team did not car and told me their default position is to do nothing and cited the host review is “freedom of speech.” Freedom of speech does not include slander. And should not cost a host their Superhost Status based on retaliation when I enforce my cancellation policy. Otherwise, this forces hosts to refund money for any made up reason, just to TRY to avoid getting a 1 Star retaliation review (and even then, I could have refunded them 2 of the 3 nights and they could still cost me my SuperHost status for a year…over “Roosters that woke them up”). I have to earn nineteen 5-star reviews in a row to offset this 1-star review for an issue that I had ZERO control over. These guests chose to book my place in the country! And want to take away my superhost status because of roosters??