I will no longer post a bad review about a guest

[Megan160]

I had an awful guest experience and tried to settle it with the guest personally. She stayed at a reduced rate and then needed to extend her stay. We gave her an even bigger rate discount. When she left, she left the place a mess. Dirty, greasy dishes, pots and pans. All the furniture was in dissaray, both sets of blankets/quilts had spots and stains on them, there were crumbs in all the beds on the mattress pads (which had to be hand picked off), and she ruined a set of sheets.

I took 3 days to cool off before I texted her because we really went out of our way to help this guest and she took advantage of us. I told her I was unhappy about the state of the place and asked her to pay $50 to replace the sheets. Prior to this text, she had nothing but glowing reviews and thanks for me in all her texts. She did not understand why she should have to pay for her sheets because I was a woman and the damaged sheets were a result of a "woman thing" and thus I should understand. I said I shouldn't have to pay for her "woman thing".

After much internal debate, I decided to warn other hosts and gave her an appropriate but still not brutal review, even leaving out the refusal to pay for damages and passing on her lame excuse for the mess. She then gave me a bad review, lying about my place and me. Prior to this review, I had 5 star reviews. Now people think my place is noisy and I am rude. My bookings have almost stoped dead in their tracks after her review. Plus, my 3 month pre-book for Jan-March canceled right after the review. I have contacted Airbnb twice about this to no avail. I had responded to her bad review, but not in much detail because I assumed that if I could prove it was a retaliatory review, it would be removed. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Not only will they not remove it, they won't even let me expound on my explanation to her bad review.

So frustrated! I am knee deep in the process of spending a lot of money to make my other 2 rentals Airbnb rentals and now I can't even get bookings in prime season. Airbnb penalizes us for trying to warn other hosts about bad guests.

[John6858]

So sad

[Scott1497]

At present, we find ourselves in a similar situation. To our disappointment, we've found that Airbnb's policies allow guests to make false claims against hosts without proper vetting. As a result, hosts may be temporarily de-platformed until an investigation takes place. In our case, it's become evident that the guest who filed a complaint took photos of the guestbook and guests names and even admitted doing so via the Airbnb app and SHOWED A PICTURE of the guestbook open. Despite this, the guest remains on the platform while we as the host are still waiting for the "investigation" to come to a close so we can be listed again.

It's incredibly disheartening as we've never received a review that wasn't a perfect 5 stars. As hosts, we strive to make our guests' stays truly memorable, but situations like these can make our efforts feel futile. It's especially frustrating in this case since it seems the guest's only motive was to receive a refund on the day of check-out.

I agree with the comments below, as hosts, let's be honest with our reviews and weed the bad folks out.

[Sajid26]

Megan160 - no worries use their own words against them. I, as a Host left a review of a Horrible Person who had booked our home. They not only damaged the Tonal equipment they never signed the waiver for, damaged the dishwasher - whereas it had to be replaced, they also left the front door wide open after they left and drove off. My review was removed because the complaint was it included personal information. Just say the same thing - Poof! Review is gone. Apparently - if you complain about privacy they freak out. Good Luck! We have since moved off the AirBnB platform to more Host friendly platforms.

[Ryan3505]

Air b and b has been terrible to hosts in my experience.  I also have been screwed by air b an b with extremely poor customer service and support.  They docked me $1200 on a 4 night rental due to an issue being “unresolved” pertaining to guest use of a washer and dryer.  I offered a solution on the first day as well as following air b and b’s suggestion to remedy the situation by allowing the guest to find another accommodation with a full refund.  I even offered to give the guest an appropriate discount per night.  The guest CHOSE TO STAY, then waited until after they checked out to inform me they were unhappy and disagreed with my offer.  Air b and b then decided to refund the guest after their entire stay $1200 of my money…

Customer service will not answer in a timely matter nor will anyone actually help or support you as a host. They simply use you for your home, and side with the guest at your expense regardless of the situation.

I’m finding this out the hard way unfortunately.  There needs to be a company out there that will actually value and support its hosts.  Air b and b is not it.

[Darcy108]

I leave an honest review but I learned never ask them to pay for anything until they've written their review or the 14 day review period has passed then I file a claim. I was able to get a guest review removed for retaliation for this reason. 

[Chloe470]

his company makes it impossible to withdraw your money. I already terminated my business with them after An asset recovery team Againstcon.com tracked and recovered my money

[Dante3]

Airbnb NEVER protect hosts and i've been hosting for almost 10 years now. They will ALWAYS put profit ahead of you. Sometimes i wish they go bust for all the horrible injustices they've done to so many countless victims, but then i need the extra money. Some of the stories i've read all these years have been so horrific that it'll make anyone's blood boil. I don't understand how the CEO can sleep well at night. If there's a competitor elsewhere, i'll jump ship without any hesitation.

I once had a guest tell me he likes young asian boys and then proceed to tell me his sexual exploits. Told him i didn't want to listen and frankly i was absolutely disgusted. He then lectured me for judging him and brought my religious faith into the picture too. I didn't know what was more shocking - the fact he told me he was a pedophile or being gaslit by one, in my own home.

What would a host do in this situation ? He wouldn't stop fighting with me (verbally), so i lost my cool and told him to leave. Admittedly it was very unkind of me because it was almost midnight and he wasn't familiar with the city.

The next couple of days, both of us, complained to Airbnb. I spent hours speaking to various support agents, and all of them said they empathized with me but rules were rules and they refused to remove the guest's bad review for me, and proceeded to penalize me too for breaking Airbnb rules. They also said i discriminated the guest. 

LOL !!

What sort of world are we living in now that a self-confessed pedophile have rights too ?! 

My almost perfect rating dropped so much and i lost my Superhost status overnight. Airbnb also deducted from my next payment (without any prior notice), to compensate the pedo guest.

Because of this and a couple more negative experiences, I no longer turn on instant book. And I'm also careful with reviews too, because i know the guest will always have the upper hand and Airbnb doesnt give two hoots either about protecting hosts.

If i don't like a guest, and if it's something i can tolerate, i usually leave nothing for them. After 14 days (i think), I'll be able to see the review they've left for me. So far, I haven't had a guest(s) who've left me a bad review ever since. Mainly because i've been a great host to them.

But if anyone leaves me a bad review, I know i still have one shot to argue my case by replying to their review. That way i have the advantage of knowing what they really think of me as a host first.

[Katya144]

I had a bad experience with a host and got a bad review as a guest for no good reason. We sadly broke a couple of dishes and I let him know and asked for instructions as to how to compensate. He was outright rude as a response and never asked me for any payment which I was happy to provide (hence I let him know in the first place). I left him a 4* review nevertheless cause I thought he just overreacted and it could happen to anyone. He completely trashed me in his guest review. Even though I struggled with some dated instructions, unfunctional oven, and old locker box that we could not make work for 20 minutes. Still I washed all the towels, took out the trash and swept before leaving. I do not travel that often and I’m honestly a neat person. Now I’m worried cause it’s my one and only review as a guest, and I am concerned other hosts will not want me.

[Reuven7]

Hello Megan 160,

I can appreciate your predicament and it sounds like you cut your guest quite a bit of slack and still she betrayed you.

However, sometimes it's the host who is unreasonable, even delusional, and vents online at the expense of the guests' reputation. Such was the case at a recent stay at an AirBNB in Western Manitoba, Canada, just outside Riding Mountain National Park. My wife & I and our daughter were checking out of an AirBNB after a 5-day stay. We complied with all of the proprietor's checkout instructions, i.e., washed and put away all of the dishes, swept the floors, stripped the beds, tied up the garbage and recyclables with the option of walking it 500 yards to the nearest bin, put used towels in the shower stall, only to discover to our utter astonishment that she maligned us on the AirBNB site, saying she had never seen her place in such disarray and blamed us for the delay she encountered in getting the place ready for the next guests. She even threatened to send us the plumbing bill for her kitchen sink that she maintained was not draining. It’s interesting to note that she had forgotten responding to my wife’s query a week before our check-in date as to whether there were any anomalies in the property we should be aware of. In fact, the host responded at that time that the kitchen sink occasionally did not drain properly. It sounds to me like a case of someone who absconded from her own responsibilities as an AirBNB host, trying to pass on to us the cost of a plumbing repair she herself, as the proprietor, should have addressed a long time ago! If this is a recurrent problem, she should have dropped a few bills on the purchase and install of a garbage compactor/garburator.

So let me ask you, what recourse do my wife & I have in terms of compelling, legally or otherwise, this individual to remove her unsubstantiated scathing comments about us? I dare say her rant will impact our ability to book accommodations through AirBNB in the future.

[Keeley14]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, Airbnb did this to me too but in reverse.  We had a terrible host with 5-star reviews and she abused us!  I posted my review and Airbnb took it down!  It's deeply concerning thinking that this host is going to get away with harassment and possibly hurt another family.  It does make me think that Airbnb shouldn't be trusted and I wonder if her "SuperHost" status had anything to do with it...  Regardless, we won't be using Airbnb again.  I'll VRBO next time.

[Ubaldo19]

I cannot agree more.  Just had the same thing happen.  Big drunken party destroyed a couch and two carpets.  It does not pay to give a bad review because of retaliation. 

[Marzena4]

Interesting, @Megan160. Do you think it was only because of that last review that they cancelled? Have you checked your results in the search?

I was wondering what Airbnb might come up with having offered star-ratings visible to those of us who are on Instant Booking. What I fear is that a bad review for a guest might result in dropping in the search results - it is pretty easy to add a line of code to cause it, and with all that non-discrimination bragging of theirs it is possible.

[Louise0]

Yes, I've often wondered if leaving a negative review for a guest pushes you down the search rankings.  Based on my extremely small sample size and entirely anecdotal evidence, I strongly suspect it does.  If so, the next question is whether this form of operant conditioning could be deemed discriminatory.

[Tseten1]

Leaving honest review is important and helps out other hosts if guest is troublesome 

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

but if you have to do it - I think the star rating may seem harsh - I didnt know that a 3 star would mean it automatically bars a guest but that is actually appropriate but I think that my passive aggressive non checkin was designed expecting that I would not write a negative review - in effect, he would get away with giving me a hard time because I would be lenient.   But i felt it was so mean spirited that I a review had to be put down on the record because he and his friends would bother me again in the future otherwise even if they are going to bother me now.    That review was my only opportunity to respond.  Which is why I find it very strange that a concurrent guest's review is now denied me from viewing and responding to and perhaps it has damaging inaccuracies that will be a part of the permanent record on my profile.  I hope airbnb is not discriminatory as you suggest but we shall see.   It has already been  a week and I am still denied seeing his review and therefore cannot respond to it.