Another one of "those" reviews

They must have been very unlucky to experience sun in the UK.

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On a Sunday, the only place open in our barriada is the church. Tabancos, bars, shops, all closed.

There is one exception, the local Chinese restaurant! I can’t remember the last time I saw it closed, and come to think about it, I can’t remember the the last time I saw it with any customers!

JF

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I had a very similar situation- great guest, 5 stars in every category and 4 stars overall. I went back and asked her the reason for 4 stars- her reason? “Oh your house was lovely and we really couldn’t recommend it more but my kids were sick so my husband and i were worried so we didn’t enjoy ourselves as much as we could have”

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Had a host stay in our unit recently and complained that our downtown neighbors WiFi was not secured - ergo, four stars. Ugh…

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We got one because despite knowing they had booked a room in our home, where we live, they were upset that they had to see us in the hallway while we walked to our bedroom.

Excuse we while I slip on my cloak of invisibility.

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Had a private response from a couple who stayed for Wimbledon Tennis championship “lovely stay, but very crowded in the village and at the tennis” Really? What a surprise!

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I had someone complain that I didn’t have a ‘real’ coffee pot and mark me down on accuracy for it.

I have a picture of the pour over coffee set up in the listing, mention it twice in the listing, mention it in the check in message, and sent him detailed instructions on how to use it when he asked.

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You can’t be serious!! That’s crazy!

Truly. I could write a book…

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While these examples are funny, it sadly underscores how AirBnB makes us vulnerable to occasional irrational and/or vindictive guests. I believe AirBnB needs to have an arbitration group that looks at crazy reviews and removes them from the cumulative score, while still leaving the text of the rating on the review for others to see.
This would not only better serve the hosts, but also ensure that the potential guests are getting a fair and accurate view of the available accommodations.
Do we have any combined strength with AirBnB to get them to consider this? Could we provide AirBnB with a volunteer “review board”?

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I agree, @cliffkeller, that a method for dealing more fairly with vindictive reviews would be nice.

But I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. As Airbnb hosts, we are in business. We interact with customers, just as businesses do. No business is immune from negative reviews. Their only recourse is to take legal action.

We have that same right. We could take legal action when a guest says inaccurate or nasty things. But it’s unlikely to be worth the time and money for most of us.

My husband and I have owned businesses for many years. Negative customer feedback is one of the things that business owners have to learn to live with—and deal with, if that’s the prudent thing to do. But it’s rarely prudent to get embroiled with customers.

Customers are customers. Some are nice, some are rotten, and some never respond.

As much as I dislike negative reviews (the two we’ve had were both wildly inaccurate), I can see that Airbnb’s function is—as others have said elsewhere on this forum—as a marketing/reservation/payment handling service.

To offer more robust customer service that could investigate and mediate every claim would be costly. Each of us, as a host, would undoubtedly pay a higher fee to Airbnb to offset those costs. Guests would probably see an increase in their fees, too.

For my husband and me, I think the better course is to consult Airbnb when we have to (for example, when I can’t figure out how to do something I need to do with the platform, or if we ever have a dreadful guest situation) and to simply accept responsibility for most of what happens.

I’ve learned from this forum that a simple, brief, factual response to a negative review is the best course of action for us—and then move on.

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Well, if anyone is vulnerable, then surely they do that to themselves? Every business and every product can be reviewed online by just about anyone who cares to do so, and Airbnb hosts are no different. What matters is how we react to them … if at all.

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This sounds like a nightmare to manage.

This would be grossly unfair unless there are also guests on the review board and they also remove reviews that are unfair to guests.

Volunteers to review reviews, no thanks. Volunteers have no accountability what are you going to do, fire them? And I’m not willing to spend more in fees for that service.

It doesn’t seem to me that hosts have much power. It’s cheaper for them to burn and churn? Don’t like your reviews? Bye, we have hosts lining up to take your bookings. That seems to be their current strategy.

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:laughing: Oh that is so … ridiculous!

Hi Lynnie, it pisses me no end that someone can falsely allege there were rats on the premises. An Identical false review has also happened to someone else. I think this is libel in fact, but who would spend such a huge effort chasing it with a solicitor?

Have you posted your public reply? If you make a new post on here, you can get lots of ideas how to reply that will show any guests looking at them who is the one out of bounds.

Basically I categorically denied what I’m certain is a malicious slur.

Prior to his review, I asked him to pay for the damage he caused to the fuseboard and he got ratty, pardon the pun.

But you admitted in another thread that you DO have mice, and most folks can’t tell the difference, and you can’t easily prove the malice required for libel. You do have a vermin problem, and you need to deal with it instead of whining here.

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I’m new to hosting (only a little over a month) and I got one almost identical to this…so ignorant!!! Thanks for the laugh