When another host abuses you!

[David3267]

You know Airbnb is going downhill when another host direct messages you calling you a f****** d*** and an a******* in two separate messages and Airbnb does nothing about it! Both messages reported to Airbnb but the (bot generated?) replies say the review cannot be removed. I'm not too bothered by her review and didn't even ask for it to be removed even though its a ranting, factually incorrect diatribe. My issue is 1) Airbnb do nothing about this abusive behaviour 2) they clearly do not read or are unable to understand a clearly written, detailed complaint about this host, supported with the fact she was brazen enough to write these abusive things via messages which are clearly visible to Airbnb 3) they hide behind confidentiality as their excuse for doing nothing 4) Perhaps most concerning is that despite my 4 star rating of her (obviously before the abusive messages started) she still appears on her profile as the perfect 5* guest. Obviously I ticked the "I would not host again option" but now even doubt if this is registered against her. So, the moral is, even as a super host (but as long as you're playing the guest card, you can be as personally abusive  & foul mouthed as you wish without any obvious sanction. Any one from Airbnb wish to comment on this as all i get is, case closed, case closed...???

[Gillian166]

@Helen744  unless he gets the attention of one of the mods, doubt anything will come of it. People are allowed to be ashhats. I'm really not on the team that supports censorship and cancelling of people for minor infractions. Calling for her to be banned off the platform is going too far IMHO. 

But absolutely he's welcome to have a whinge here! 🙂 Having someone abuse you in a private chat is really awful. I was on the receiving end of that once, and my colleagues urged me to report it (which I did) but then they were outraged this person wasn't kicked off our forum (or out of our business) and I couldn't agree with them, as awful and destructive as she was (is!) I won't mess with someone's livelihood like that. 

[David3267]

Gillian, if only you'd read the thread properly, it's not about the review, I never asked for it to be removed! It's about personal abuse in the messages she subsequently sent, not in the review!

[Genaro18]

thank you for the post, my time crunch limits me from spending the necessary time here in the forum - but I will say this advice

DO ANOTHER COMPLAINT OVER AGAIN

but

Use a different method - if the first was email - go by phone. If first was phone, go by chat support etc etc.

Shock actions like . . .

Resolution center request $5, use the text areas to get the attention of someone

exhaust EVERY way to get A DIFFERENT agents eyes on it, even a third time if this means a lot to you ( I think it should, and I have experienced rogue agents and some truly shocking behavior

[David3267]

hi, thanks for your suggestions, think I'll put the energy into getting a VRBO listing up and running instead.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@David3267 Two thoughts

1) You have a right under law to have your review response removed. Given that it is likely to be damaging to you I would recommend you do so

2) VRBO does not seem so well marketed in the UK. I would run them in parallel before you switch. 

[Gillian166]

@David3267 
sometimes if I know i'm leaving a less than perfect review, i try to post it as a time when the person will be asleep, so they won't react badly straight away.  Or if they do, I won't react badly back at them either. 

[David3267]

nice idea but do we have to come to this? The point of reviews is to be honest. I gave her 4 *, highlighted that she wouldn't read any descriptions and would then moan a lot and it would be your fault she hadn't researched something which was important to her.

[Gillian166]

@David3267  do i have time for this?  YES, I do. I have 3 listings, and I have time for this. I make a note in my calendar regarding a problematic guest review, it's only 1% of my guests, so yes, i have time for it. The rest of my guests get a range of generic reviews that say they were lovely and I recommend them, I have various reviews written that I cutnpaste. 

As I host I don't need to read some flowery paragraph about how wonderful a guest was, keep it short please, they were great+recommend.  (if you had a personal connection then feel free to write more)

most of us are looking for the warning signs in reviews. and that's where I am helping my Host Community, so I do actually take more time with this.  

[Richard531]

@David3267  Let me be perfectly clear: this guest is awful and a complete moron.    

We all know the type:  They think they are a "world traveler" because they went to England for a couple 1-month tours.  When in reality, they are as ignorant as someone who watched documentaries on the countries they've visited on a tube television in their mommy's basement.  They also think their way of doing things is 'better' than yours.  And they flaunt this driveling nonsense in a public review along with a boneheaded name/country signoff.  GET ME A VOMIT BAGG ASAP!

Now that we agreed that this person is awful and a complete moron, why are we letting them get you down by being derogatory to you in an offline IM? 

Airbnb is a great (imperfect) place to continue being a great host of your fun listings.  Just block this jerk and never think about them again.  NEXT!

p.s. don't EVER respond to a review again.  1% of hosts do a good job of it.  You're absolutely not one of them.

[Michael5689]

@Richard531 I will make one slight counter point on this about the guest but agree with the bulk of above.

If you look at most of the guest's other reviews even during their trek in the past month or so, they are fairly succinct and a more typical and by-the-book guest review.  I'd guess they knew exactly what they were doing with the review, while keeping the really bad stuff in PRIVATE communication and were trying to provoke a bad response in public because they thought they might get one.

If that was so...she succeeded.

And...double-the-PS.

[Christine615]

wow. Just wow. The guest had a point of view but was constructive and positive alerting foreigners to the challenges (I've had the same issue when traveling sometimes re: credit cards and apps and now travel with more than one option).  The only thing that came off badly was your response. That should have been private. At no point in the review did she say anything derogatory - so no, Airbnb isn't going to help with this since it's a he said, she said and the review doesn't point to an abusive guest.

Next time, hold your breath and don't respond.

[David3267]

@Christine615 It's not about the REVIEW! I couldn't care less about her review, it's about her calling me a *** and being abusive in a series of direct messages (all clearly explained in my initial query)! As for the response I made, Airbnb support suggested I should respond! 

**[Inappropriate content removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Christine615]

Did you just want us to come here and agree with you? Because a lot of us are giving you the same advice. The public facing review was fine. You made things worse by responding in the tone you claim she did to you in private. So while most gas might think this is an outlier, you come off bad and she does not. Unless you have a recording or a text message of her calling you a bad word, just block her and MoveOn.

 Customer service arevthird party freelancers working for an outside vendor reading from a script. Everyone knows that,  So why would you take their advice to respond to her post based on anger no one in the public could see?  And certainly I don’t think they told you to respond with anger.

Sorry you didn’t like my response to you. But it stands. I’ve had guests do awful things, but when the reviews are decent I don’t respond with a critical public comment about them. I keep that between me and Airbnb. Because she came off measured and for the most part positive and after ranting in your response, you didn’t. 

[Jenny]

Hi @David3267 

Sorry to hear about what's happened.

The Community isn't a customer service medium, so we're unable to provide support on this issue.  Instead, I've asked Airbnb Support to get in touch about your concerns.

If I hear anything back I'll drop you an update here.

Jenny