Airbnb Guest Review Lies that Damage Hosts’ Reputation

Recently we had a very strong summer of bookings at our coastal house. All of our reviews were very positive — even those who had minor issues provided positive feedback — until the last booking. The guest stated our property was not worth the price and that we charged $100 a night higher than what she paid. She also suggested we didn’t provide wifi which we are very transparent about in our listing, given it is a remote coastal property.

In trying to address this with Airbnb, where we believe a guest has breached their review guidelines, they simply dismissed our concerns of a review that presented misleading and incorrect information that damages our ability to book the house. I can only assume that a guest can make up whatever lies they want with no accountability from their position. I have requested my concern be escalated beyond the community helpers or whoever actually works for Airbnb and sent higher where it will be considered beyond the sugarcoated script quoting inaction that accompanies Airbnb’s generally response. If anyone here has had any success in having a review taken down which was just blatant lies, please let me know how.

Posted in Airbnb Host Stories and tagged , , , , , .

3 Comments

  1. HOST HOSTAGED by GUEST? how many “refunds” or extorsions/speculations or a nice review for something else?
    A girl booked for herself – she arrived with a guy and we asked her to register it in Airb&b – she got very very angry and she planned her revenge, yes. She stayed one night, then she put dirt everywhere, she broke a curtain, scratch a wall that we had to repaint, filled the sink with water and took a picture! threw garbage in the toilet – she took photos of each thing and she asked for the full refund of the 3 days arguing the unit was dirty – and the review was snowy. She gave us a horrible review.

    After she was there, a guy stayed with no problem.

    After this guy, came another girl (we recorded a video before showing how the unit was cleaned). This girl saw a neighbor’s cat through the window and freak out with an uncontrolled behavior screaming sending pictures to us from inside the unit showing the cat in the yard. The same, she called saying that the unit was dirty and were cats inside – the unit does not allow pets – no pets can be inside – in the end, she got her refund and we got a horrible review. The unit’s day is too cheap, we believe this is a point that has to change. We will remodeling and put a higher price and see if the people want to play games risking their money. Unbelievable.

  2. I had the same thing – a tenant blocked the toilet, called me up from the ski slopes and told me to fix it as it was my responsibility (I was travelling 2,000 km away..), and when I arranged a plumber she told me this was an inconvenient time and that she would check out early and demanded a refund.. She then trashed my property with her review so it was suspended. We should form a blacklist for these tenants from hell.

  3. I totally understand what you say! We have had several issues with guests and false accusations which had ended up our listing get suspended for a while until we prove otherwise. This is absolutely ridiculous on airbnb’s side! They as our partner back stabbing us by adhering to their policy which they act like it’s a God sent!

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