Blackmailing

[Lorena551]

Hello, 

i need an advice with mine problem:

So I am a host and guests who are staying at mine place now is blackmailing me with a bed review. They wanna leave because they didn't read description about mine property they were book by looking pictures. Now they say it is to small for them. So they want a refund of money and I leave with no earnings because now I can find guest last minute. I contact airbnb but need time to contact me back. Anyway I l'm losing. Money or bed review wich can efect on me by losing a superhost. 
I think this is not ok but mine hands are tied up.

Thank you 

Lo

[Colleen253]

@Lorena551 What the guest is doing is a violation of  the review policy. Make sure the threat they’ve made is on the messaging platform so it is on the record and Airbnb can see it. Bring this to their attention by reporting the guest. 

“You’re not allowed to incentivize positive reviews, to use the threat of a negative review to manipulate a desired outcome....”

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2673/airbnbs-review-policy

. 

[Lorena551]

Mrs.Colleen253, 

thank you so much for your answer! 
Kind regards

[Yosune1]

We had a proof on a WhatsApp that the guest was blackmailing us, but not only Airbnb did not accept it, they cancelled our review to warn future hosts.

[Pat271]

It’s 2 years later now…but just to reiterate, WhatsApp is not enough and won’t be accepted as proof of anything. WhatsApp can be doctored up to look like things were said that weren’t, entire sections can be deleted, etc.

If someone attempts to chat with you on WhatsApp, redirect them to the Airbnb chat area, so that CS can evaluate what truly transpired. 

[Sarah977]

@Lorena551  If guests want to leave, the best thing is always to say yes, of course. (But not necessarily refund them and certainly not when they threaten you)

Unhappy guests will be bad guests, and they will always leave a bad review, so even though it means a loss of income for you, it's really better to be rid of people like that as soon as possible. 

You have tons of great reviews, so don't worry too much about a bad one, or even losing Superhost status. You'll still get booked and that's all that really matters, right? 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lorena551 

my recent guests also didn't read, were unhappy, I refunded them in full for remained nights and they left. You would think they would be grateful for that, right? Wrong. They shifted the blame to me and I got 4* overall, accuracy and communication, and in explaining why she gave 4* she admits she didn't read.

So, the point is, with bad guests you always lose, you just can't win.

Guests were superficial in the past as well but lately, this phenomenon increased drastically since Airbnb decided to hide the listing's description, house rules, and other important information behind the "Read more" link.

As @Colleen253  said, keep your conversation on the ABB messages system and use her threat as a reason to remove her bad review if she leaves one

[Yosune1]

The same happened to us. We even had a WhatsApp proving that the guest blackmailed us. Airbnb did not accept it as proof because it was not via Airbnb and on top of that they cancelled our review warning future ghosts about this person.