Compliment to Airbnb about the development of Retaliatory review policy

[Mar125]

I recently had a guest who refused to follow my instructions about A/C and then one of his guy broke the A/C thermostat and the A/C also stopped working. He left me an 1 star. 

I was able to remove the review immediately with Airbnb support’s help. 

It’s been years since I appreciate Airbnb’s listening to us by this degree by this depth!

I really appreciate Airbnb hearing us hosts on the retaliatory reviews. I am so glad Airbnb developed this policy recently. 

Just a vent and sharing with the host circle! 

[Fred13]

Good show @Mar125 . Not all CS personnel have gotten the memo on the new policy, but it is a matter of time.

[Suzanne302]

@Mar125 

It depends on which rep you get. They are wildly unpredictable which is indicative of poor systems/training/procedures.

I recently had a guest directly contradict my listing amenities in a review. Things easily verifiable. The rep told me the review could not be removed even though it contained verifiably FALSE information.

I repeated it back to him multiple times, "So you're saying it is Airbnb's policy to allow false information in a review?" He refused to deny it.

[Mar125]

@Suzanne302 

It’s a little hard to use the irrelevancy policy to fight against the negative review. Try another policy ( safety, privacy) and call another US agent. 

[Suzanne302]

@Mar125 

It's not a negative review, actually. She just says at the end she wished my place had XYZ, but it does. It's actually in my description, and hard to miss in my home.

It's not worth my time.

[Joan2709]

Hi @Suzanne302 :

I found using the Message system to contact Airbnb, rather than calling, has helped me when dealing with situations like this. At least the conversations with Support are documented, unlike a phone call. Airbnb allows Hosts to use this feature to Request Removal of a Retaliatory Review now (who knew 🤷‍😊).

[Fred13]

Also Airbnb always follows such exchanges with a survey of the  CS person and perhaps that causes them to do a thorough job.

[Joan2709]

Good point @Fred13...never thought of that! 🤔

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Fred13 Have you seen the Customer Support survey recently? I can't remember the details but it was a 1-10 scale where 9 was 'didn't really help' and 10 was 'absolutely brilliant'. My words are wrong but you get the gist - either you criticise them unfairly or you give them a glowing report. As such I didn't fill in the survey.

[Fred13]

Sure. I fill them out all the time for many reasons.

[Suzanne302]

@Joan2709 

And I've found the less you have to contact customer service, the better. And if you don't get the answer you need and you know you're right, keep contacting CS until you get it resolved.

However, in this case, it's not worth the effort. I simply replied to the review with the correct information so no one would be misled. And this review will quickly fall down in line anyway.

Everything in my conversation with CS is documented through messenger.

[Joan2709]

@Suzanne302 I agree!  Sometimes it's best to just respond in a factual way and move on. Most prospective guests will discount one negative review. 

I'm not familiar with messenger, so didn't know there was a way to document phone conversations?  I will definitely look into that!

[Suzanne302]

@Joan2709  I didn't call CS, I messaged them.

[Joan2709]

@Suzanne302 Oh..... We were actually talking about the same thing when contacting Customer Service (make sure you can refer back to the messages/written conversations instead of calling them on the phone).  😊 😊

Thanks for clarifying! 

[Aline473]

Excelente!! 

Fico feliz quando este tipo de situação se resolve de forma justa.