The guest canceled at 8:04 AM and our check-in is not until 4 pm.
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Thank you, this is really good advice.
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I really appreciate all the advice. @muddy , I had no idea that there was a policy now against revenge reviews, I am so happy to hear that. I have often hesitated to enforce any but the most critical safety policies for fear of a bad review.
I think after reading all this, I will write it up in bullet points, first for the reason that is a revenge review - they didnât like our fire policy or the countyâs and therefore wrote a 1-star revenge review on things they could not possibly have assessed.
second, writing a review for things they never saw and could not have evaluated does not provide any value to other guests, on the contrary, it confuses them and gives false information.
I also agree with @muddy on fires in general. People can be very stupid. We are in the desert and what we have for bushes and vegetation fights hard for survival and is protected, and I caught 2 guests once ripping out bushes hundreds of years old to use for firewood because they were too lazy to go into town and buy it. Their excuse was that they were from the Caribbean and it was normal there.
I also love @dpfromva 's response - how selfish can you be when roasting marshmallows is so important that you donât care about burning peopleâs houses down.
I think from now on we will also put shovels, water buckets and fire extinguishers out by the 2 firepits we have.
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OK. IMHO, Thatâs important information to include in your request to remove the review.
Thatâs awful. One host posted that her guests took all the decorative pieces of driftwood she had placed artistically around in the gardens and burnt them up in the bonfire. Another host, who lived onsite in another dwelling saw huge flames out in the yard one night and the fire dept. had to be called out- the guests had had a fire in the firepit and then went to bed without dousing it.
Very good idea. And if you can, maybe chat a bit with the guests to try to determine if they are experienced with fires. Some guests may be veteran campers and quite responsible and savvy about fire safety. They might even heat with a woodstove or wood fireplace at home. Itâs the city slickers or suburbanites who just think staying in a yurt and having an open fire sounds cool, but have never done anything like that before Iâd be worried about and want to monitor and give an in-depth fire safety talk to.
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Yes ask to have the review taken down, I saw a review taken down when a host reviewed a guest who did not show at short notice but it was removed bc airbnb said it did not fit their review policy., that is because clicking stars is not valid if the person was never there.
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Perfect response. Would consider change âguest did not understandâ to âguest did not take time to familiarize themselves withâ or âguest did not familiarize themselves withâ. To not imply that information was provided.
I also list in 
country, so this thread has been very helpful
Update: Air removed the review on the first try. I gave as the first reason that it was a revenge review, and as the second reason that her feedback was completely unhelpful to other guests as she judged things she had never experienced because she never checked in. Airâs response was mostly the typical apology fluff/filler. The one sentence that gave a reason for them removing it was: â. . .the reservation was canceled and the Guest wasnât able to check into your listing.â
What really blew my mind was when I was writing to Air and reviewing everything, I noticed on the original reservation that this guest is also a host!!! Why would you do something that shitty to another host? I canât see where she is from on her profile, or any hosting reviews, but all her prior visits were within a 3 hour radius from us.
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You have to take that âAlso a hostâ with a grain of salt, unless you can see a listing on the guestâs profile. I think it might say âalso a hostâ even if someone threw up a listing years ago, and then deleted it without ever actually hosting anyone. One of my guests whose profile said that, but who didnât show any listing, said that she had just rented out her place once or twice, years ago and the guests hadnât left a review.
As for why someone who is also a host would not deal with you as they would like to be dealt with, there are many reports of other hosts being the worst guests hosts have ever had. It seems odd, and it hasnât been my experience, but it does happen.
Congrats on getting the review removed. However Airbnbâs wording, âthe guest wasnât able to check inâ, leaves a lot to be desired. She wasnât âunable to check inâ, which sounds like some fault on the hostâs end, she chose to cancel before arrival.
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Thats good news, I have just experienced my first ârevenge reviewâ and 1st approach to airbnb CS to request it be removed was advised they will not remove it and it does not go against the review policy. 1 star across all domains and calling me shameless and a liar in the review. Muddy has provided some great sensible information about persistence etc. in these matters. I read elsewhere that making assertions against a personâs character etc was not permissable. Muddys suggestions about actual messages and tracking conversations rather than phone calls is golden advice for which I am grateful. I wonder if anyone has come up with the idea of tips for hosts to avoid these traps.
Could you explain what you mean by this?
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I have just had the 1 star revenge review by a guest and realised that there is a wealth of host knowledge and information about how to navigate these issues that I did not know about. I am still learning especially appropriate and respectful ways to manage these guest / host dilemmas.
Eg I wasnt aware that a host review and a public response can both be done rather than either or.
Keep communication with airbnb in written form, not phone calls that can lead to confusion when trying to sort out reservation issues.
What constitutes an acceptable review and a transgression of the Airbnb policy review.
How to deal with trying to have a revenge review removed, hosts experience of how they go about it etc etc.
Updates to changes in policies and policy interpretation etc.
Everything youâve described is laid out in the help center.
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And host actual experience is a valuable adjunct to the info you link to. Thx.
Absolutely. Thatâs what this forum is great about. But the things you described are basic how-tos that are in the help center. The best thing you can do is to sit down and read them. Host experience varies dramatically. Itâs useful but itâs not the terms.
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Consider posting the review and let this community arm you with words of how it violates Airbnb policy.
Words like âshamelessâ and âliarâ are judgments, name calling, not facts. I would think you could get it removed on that basis. But let this group use the power of groups to collaborate and help you.
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Thatâs what I thought you meant but didnât want to assume.
As has already been pointed out, indeed someone has âcome up with the idea of tips for hosts to avoid these traps.â This forum is a great example. What typically happens is that hosts donât read all the Terms of Service, or go to the community center (Airbnbâs official forum) or even search the internet for answers until after they have a problem. Thereâs no way to get all hosts to be proactive. A few people end up here on this forum and read regularly thus âavoiding the trapsâ as you call it.
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Thanks KKC I will endeavour to keep up to date as there seem to be issues that arise that are not always easily answered in the policies but host experience is invaluable. I have had great advice for my issue.
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Thx - however profanity, name calling and assumptions about a persons character is not in the updated Nov 2022 Review Policy which states airbnb âdo not mediate the truth of a reviewâ. Along with this Nov 2022 Review policy gives an egâ should not write inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a host who enforces a policy or rule.
I am not sure how and where facts and truth vs opinion is interpreted in these policies.