Bad review from slob-can I fight it?

Ohhh my blood is boiling. Guest left me a terrible review, I reviewed him terribly as well. BUT why do we get penalized for our guests’ issues???
Guest left the place A MESS, so cockroaches came in and feasted on the food he left lying about. He most certainly didn’t lose his appetite because there were enough food containers to last me a month. So I get dinged that I need to clean better? He hated the weather in Hilo, NOT MY PROBLEM! I can’t change the weather. AND the accuracy of my photos??? what does that even mean???
Is it even worth fighting Airbnb to remove parts of his review?
47 PM

20 x asshole!..!!!

Oh dear… well the guy can’t spell and looks like an ignoramus to begin with. Very sorry, I hate the review system that allows this sort of idiot to spew.

You can try calling but they are not going to remove it, it doesn’t violate any of their standards. It’s the guy’s opinion lame and crappy as it is.
They just do not support us in these situations… I have never successfully got them to remove a review even tho I felt it was harassing or violating.

So sorry Brittany. This is a lousy Christmas Eve “gift.” :tired_face::cry:

Brittany do you have the chrome AirReview extension installed? It will let you see what sort of reviews he has left for other hosts. I will look him up.

Personally, I’d take a shot at getting the review removed, though Kona says that’s unlikely to work, and she certainly has the experience.

I recommend being a bit more cautious about guests. Are you using IB? Check previous reviews hosts have left for a guest you are considering hosting, and also the reviews the guest has left, as Kona suggests. Personally I also like to engage in a little dialog with the guest to make sure he/she can respond sensibly. If they can’t write a proper English sentence my desire to host them plummets. Maybe I’m a snob, but nobody’s perfect… I’m willing to make some allowances for non-native speakers.

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I hope most potential guests will read between the lines, and assume that Shawn Son is a massive twat.

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Unfortunately as we all know many guests don’t read listings…let alone between the lines :slight_smile:

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and probably won’t read reviews!

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Again… I want to caution all hosts about making a defensive response to a review like this. We all want to blast them, and me more than anyone. But you have to keep in mind the guest in question will never be reading this response. So anything you say must be directed to future guests. I like to address them in the third person. to keep the response neutral…

It may be better to respond with something along the lines of…

“This guest did not understand that leaving food out in the tropics can attract a variety of unwanted visitors. He left the apartment full of uneaten food, take out containers and trash. We cover all these considerations in our house manual, but apparently he didn’t read it. We are sorry he didn’t enjoy his stay. To future guests: we pride ourselves on offering an affordable place to stay in the heart of historic downtown Hilo, as evidenced by our XX number of good reviews. We treat every guest with respect and appreciation. Aloha.”

Brittany, it’s just a suggestion. You can call them up and ask them to edit your response. Just have it written and ready so they can easily replace it.

What I would NOT do is involve future guests in the drama or suggest that Hilo isn’t a good place to stay. Future guests are looking to you to see how you handle a situation. They don’t know you any better than they know Shawn the Sh%t. So you have to take the higher road on these things.

I always wait a few days before firing off a response, tempting as it is.

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But they were his personal experiences??

As you know, that awful review I got over the summer was just a rant about me and how I had scammed him and how bad Air was and they still wouldn’t remove it.

This is when I seriously got disheartened with this company, as they so vehemently sided with these awful guests. I blocked off a month because I just didn’t want to deal with people who seem GREAT and HAPPY when they book, only to find out they hated your guts and were too cowardly to mention it while they were here, yet keelhauled you in a review.

What Airbnb ought to do is add a standard more vague to their content standards so it could be left open to interpretation and more could be done to help hosts.

Such as “violates the spirit of Airbnb.”

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The guest might read the response. I don’t know how likely it is, though. I get emailed guest reviews. Does Airbnb email responses to reviews too?

Yes, I think the Airbnb reps take these decisions individually. So it’s a bit random. And this is a pretty jerky review.

Well…since he did not stay in basement, then it technically wouldn’t be his experience. At least worth a shot since they keep certain reviews for strange reasons, and remove reviews for strange reasons…

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You always take me literally. Of course they may but they are in most cases they not going to. They hated your place and want to move on.

The point is, direct your response in the proper way. NOT to the guest. Using the third person keeps you from using the YOU word. YOU did this or that. YOU shouldn’t stay in Hilo. YOU didn’t clean up after yourself… get it…???

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She can try but in Hawaii we don’t have basements. It’s a garden level apartment under the house like I have. A first floor apartment.

But she should try. You never know what they might do.

Kona
I want to thank you for consistently writing the exact responses that I would write in these threads and so eloquently at that. You always get there before me and say exactly what I am thinking, which saves me immense time and effort in responding myself…:slight_smile:
Hoorah!

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I applaud the response left by Brittany. It was professional, addressed every complaint in a dignified and non defensive manner and somehow was able to portray the guest as a major asshat without coming right out and saying so. Coupled with the literacy issues in his review, it should be clear to any host what they are getting if hosting him. It should also be clear to any future guests that the problem wasn’t with the accomodations. Perfect.

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I’ll be darned! There really is a word “asshat.” The “top definition” is: “One who has their head up their ass. Thus wearing their ass as a hat.”

LOL! …who knew!!

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Ummm…well…uh…never mind. :sunglasses:

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Wow, I’m Impressed…wish I had you as my teacher in school! … :star_struck:

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I’m reading his review as an outsider. His twit factor is very high: here’s a full grown man not being able to sleep because of small animal noises. Any adult reading this is going to smile. Most people read reviews; give them credit for having the common sense to read through his crap.

I’ve had a few twits myself (I married one) so I created an Airbnb twit file on Word. I confess I’ve re-engineered a number of responses 5-6 times; the 14 days are great for this. Then I bullet point the comments and copy and paste so it’s easy to read. Nothing over 200 words.

My evil twin would like to remind you that in the long run, you will rise above this if you stand firm and do your best. Your review of HIM may be more damaging.

Good luck, and God bless.

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“I’ve had a few twits myself (I married one) so I created an Airbnb twit file on Word.”

Priceless!! I nearly choked on my drink. I don’t suppose you have an anecdote to share (…no, I didn’t think so!) … :wink:

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