vindictive review

[Anne11944]

I'll try and keep this brief.

Person A books to stay at our property for 2 nights. He messages to say the will be late at 7.30pm but arrives at the door at 10.00pm and asks for the key. He states that he is going for a meal at another Airbnb property and will return later with his family. I ask him to keep the noise down on his return as it will be well after midnight and I asked if there were only 4 of them which he assured me it was him, his wife and 2 children. In the morning at 9.30am I get a message to say that they were not leaving till 11.00am. I go to the property and explain to the lady there that check out is 10.00am to allow for cleaning, as other guests were coming later that day. At 10.00am I access the property to begin cleaning. There is still someone in the shower. I begin to clean other areas of the property. A man appears but it is not Person A. He says that person A said he could stay at the property and person A was at another property. I told him this was a violation of Airbnb policies. I report this to Airbnb, and carry on cleaning the apartment which was going to take most of the day. The review was posted a few days later and person A who had not stayed at the property gave an extremely negative review in retaliation to being reprimanded by Airbnb. Airbnb are refusing to remove it. How do I deal with this? I would like some advice please. 

[Emiel1]

@Anne11944 

As you can read on the profile of the guest there are more reviews mentioning same issues with not respecting check-in / check-out times. Based on that i would not have acceped this guest.

It seems you did not review this guest ?

You can still write a public comment on his review.

[Anne11944]

I did review the person who booked, but he has given me the negative vindictive review which Airbnb are refusing to remove 

[Gwen386]

@Anne11944 You are fortunate that an altercation didn’t happen. You could have been assaulted! I would have been scared to be in an apt with an unregistered guest, let alone a male. And, I truly don’t understand how you could clean around people who are still in the property. As far as I’m concerned, and as a guest, I wouldn’t feel the place was clean. House rules were broken and you should have notified the registered guest and then reported him to airbnb.

Next time, please don’t do this again. You might not be so lucky as to get only a negative review. This scenario  could have ended much, much worse.

[Anne11944]

Thank you for your concern Gwen but my husband was in the adjacent apartment and there were 2 of us cleaning. But thank you for caring x 

[Luann56]

Hi
Just charge an extra $50 per person per night for any unregistered guest!!  

[Anne11944]

Perhaps I’m not explaining well….

I would like the negative review removed but Airbnb are refusing to remove it. 

[Huma0]

@Anne11944 

If this is Kunal that we are talking about, why did you leave him a positive review?

[Anne11944]

I didn’t. 

[Anonymous]

@Anne11944  I can see that you've written a reciprocal and unflattering review of K****.  Your comments in thar review echo what you've written here.

To answer your question, what you can do is post a public response. Keep in mind that the intended audience is your future guests,  so your response should not critique K**** (you've already covered that) but rather address any misconceptions that his brief comment might cause. As long as you come across as graceful and professional about it, there should be no negative impact on your bookability.

I don't know where you got the idea that the review could just be removed when you feel it was vindictive, that's not how the internet works. But censorship would be a really extreme solution to a problem you can solve so much better with a few well chosen words. 

[Anne11944 · Accepted solution]

Thank you, as you can see I’m new to Airbnb, and was trying to follow their policy of an unauthorised guest accessing my property, and reporting it to them. It has cost me dear in review stars, and becoming a super host. I will think of an appropriate response to the review and post it in due course.

[John6556]

@Anne11944  found the links to the new policy 

https://www.airbnb.ca/resources/hosting-homes/a/ground-rules-for-guests-554

https://www.airbnb.ca/resources/hosting-homes/a/a-simpler-way-to-dispute-retaliatory-reviews-552

[John6556]

@Anne11944  Any defamatory review is the responsibility of the website provider to regulate.  There is a new policy now effective today that is supposed to regulate reviews and have them removed in the event policies and / or house rules are violated by the guest.  I'll believe it when I see it work. I myself have been violated and Airbnb has treated me like crap, reinstated a review that was defamatory after it had been removed and I didn't have a chance to reply. Airbnb is liable for damages to reputation,  rest assured. 

Here is the new policy.  You can get to it under Resources and Tips, Ground Rules for Guests at the bottom of the main page in the mobile app. Find and click on updated reviews process

It can also be found in Resource Center > New features and policies 

A simpler way to dispute retaliatory reviews

Request removal of a retaliatory review, no matter how long ago it was posted.

By Airbnb on Nov. 16, 2022

·

2 min read

Updated Nov. 16, 2022

You can request removal of any retaliatory review, no matter how long ago it was posted. You’ll be able to flag reviews from guests who:

Commit a serious policy violation, like damaging your property or overstaying their reservation

Violate your house rules—for example, by having an unauthorized party or event at your place