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Good news. I’ve often read how Airbnb looks out for the guests more so than the hosts. Well, I recently received a bad review… first one out of almost 200. I was devastated.
I called Airbnb support actually for advice on how to respond. Surprisingly, they reviewed the review and determined that the guest violated review rules. They took the post down!!
So… my advice to others, call the support team if you receive a review that you feel is unfair. I never thought they’d actually take it down, but they did. I’m thrilled.
Can you tell us, if you know, why Airbnb said they took the review guest down?
It’s important for both Host and Guest to adhere to Airbnb review guidelines. When irrelevant, personal or other inappropriate content is posted Airbnb may take down the review.
I’m glad that Airbnb was responsive to you and you obtained the desired result. Still, experienced Hosts have counseled others here – especially for someone like you, who has 200 reviews already – that a negative review that is not taken down is probably inevitable, . . . . and not to sweat it.
They are going to have to be careful with this. Our perception is, of course, Airbnb is on the side of guests. But, there are a lot of articles and posts by guests that are convinced that Airbnb is all about hosts and they are actively removing bad reviews to “protect their bottom line”. Guests are starting to not trust the good reviews due to the perception that Air removes anything they dont like.
That’s a good point @jdmlt. If all guests see are glowing reviews for everything, it starts to look suspicious.
And hosts are far too attached to those glowing reviews and Superhost status. There is no reason for a host with 200 good reviews to feel “devastated” by a bad review. If it’s all lies- a revenge review- it will stick out like a sore thumb. The notion that guests are all gullible idiots who’ll think twice about booking a place because of one outlier review is silly. A brief, factual host response to correct and clarify usually makes it clear that the review is BS.
If the bad review is because it was a bad guest/listing fit, so be it. If it was because the guest is just a complainer who can never be pleased, so be it.
If it’s a newer host with very few reviews, that is one circumstance where it seems a good idea to try to get a truly untrue review removed.
Another point is that, as we know, some hosts do not leave honest reviews and shy away from calling out a guest’s bad behavior. Many hosts cross-reference reviews to see how a guest reviewed past hosts, which sometimes results in a red flag. Hmmm, this guest has criticized every place they stayed. If a host manages to get the review of a serial complainer removed, other hosts would not have this vetting tool in their arsenal.
Regarding the perception that Airbnb always sides with…, whenever I read posts that say that, whether they are from hosts or guests, my response is, “Please don’t pit hosts against guests- we are not enemies. It’s a symbiotic relationship which normally works out fine. Whether Airbnb sides with the host or the guest is a matter of the issue and the CS rep who deals with the case”.
That’s my only big complaint about the current Air setup. They only show the average “4.8” and then the text of the reviews. They don’t show the stars of the individual reviews.
Anytime I’m looking at anything, I immediately go to the 1 and 2 star reviews… and read them!!! A lot of times, they say more about the reviewer than the product. And, I buy the product. Sometimes they show a specific issue with the product (hard to configure) that is not a problem for my specific application, and I buy the product. Sometimes they show quality issues I cant live with, so I look for something else.
I just booked an Airbnb for 2 weeks from now for a quick trip. I HATE I cannot filter the reviews by stars and read the comments on the 1 star reviews.
Here’s another example of hosts reacting absurdly to what they perceive as a “bad” review:
I have seen posts from hosts distraught about the supposedly “bad” review, but when you read that review, there is nothing bad about it. A guest simply stating facts, for the benefit of future guests, is not negative, nor is the guest complaining. A guest mentioning that the stairs are steep and may be difficult for someone with mobility issues, or that there isn’t any AC, just fans, even if those things are already stated in the listing, doesn’t make it a bad review, and in fact may be to the host’s advantage, as so many guests don’t read the listing info thoroughly.
I’ve even read posts where the host is distraught and asking for advice on a response because a guest “Was obviously unhappy” in the review (“They never brought up any issues during the stay and said everything was fine”) , when it was nothing of the sort. The host was accustomed to getting glowing reviews and perceived a brief, factual review simply saying “Listing was as advertised. No issues” as “bad”, just because the guest didn’t wax eloquent.
I agree. If you see a listing with a 4.2 overall rating, or low category ratings, you have zero idea if the listing really deserves that and was low rated by several guests, or they were solid 5 stars until some jerk guest left a 1* revenge review that Airbnb refused to remove.
There is an extension you can download called AirReview that shows the reviews by hosts and guests as well as the responses, all together. I used that for awhile, but it glitched out, saying “Host (or guest) didn’t leave a review” when they did. (Other hosts have had the same glitch with that app)
So the longer, manual version is to click on the profile photo of the host who reviewed the guest, which will take you to that host’s profile page. Scroll down their reviews to look for one from the guest you are checking on.
Then go back and do the same with the other hosts who reviewed the guests. (Added bonus- you can see the profile photos of the guests on the reviews they left)
I may be doing something wrong, but when I click on the host picture of a review, nothing happens. I’m using my phone rather than computer. Would that make a difference?
This happened to me once, what a guest said in her review was absolutely untrue, and quite scathing. Airbandb saw that my guest was way out of line and she too violated their policy two times by her remarks. They sent me a nice email stating the post was removed.
