This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Please help. Found out a convicted felon was renting our home after he called the police on us. He is trying to set us up so he can get a complete refund. Reservation was cancelled and now my account is suspended. At this time he is allowed to write a review. Can someone help me know if this would be acceptable as a rebuttal to his review? I want to be able to keep my airbnb listing and I don’t want to go against Airbnb policies.
Dear ****,
Your review is exactly what I expected from you. It’s unfortunate that you had to bring yourself down to this level. Please note, I have all the events that took place during your stay in chronological order with back up documentation showing quite a different picture from what you have here. And as I have not responded to any of your other harassing text, I will not respond any further to this.
Dear Future guest and host:
Background checks are extremely important to know whose home you are staying in and who is staying in your home. Not all background checks are thorough and sometimes felony conviction charges for harassment slip through the cracks. However, you can do your own due diligence by looking online but sometimes there is a fee. You may find traffic violations, DUI’s and also pending cases for harassment with retraining orders. In the long run, it is worth every penny. Too bad I was late in taking my own advice.
Show us his review please
I would have said something more like
This guests personal history shows he should never been allowed to join the Airbnb community.
I would be wary of showing your investigation skills.
Lose the last paragraph as @Debthecat suggests. Stay factual and keep it short.
No need for “Dear Future Guest…” line.
“We expected such a review as guest was irate and sending harassing text messages after stay had to be canceled due to unacceptable and unstable guest behavior. We won’t bother responding to the nonsense in this review for the same reasons.”
This is just an example that may not be relevant since we haven’t seen his review yet.
Let him sound like the ranting crazy one. You be professional and to the point.
There are simpler ways of getting a refund than calling the police. I’m surprised that he did that in view of the fact that he was a convicted criminal - surely the police would believe a respectable home owner over a bad guy? What was his complaint? What did the police say and do?
He was trying to get my husband arrested. He called him down, while sending me messages and then called the police saying he didn’t think he was going to make. But my husband didn’t go down because he was digging potatoes. When police got there he just talked nonsense because he was drunk.
What I was trying to do to dear guest is let him know that I know his background without accusing him.
That may be fact, but as a potential guest reading reviews, I would not choose to stay with you because of the “research” factor. I have absolutely nothing to hide, but I have the “hotel” attitude - do they research their guests…?
Airbnb is the party that allowed a bad guest into the community.
If you know 100% that he is in fact a convicted felon and if it’s a matter of public record then I presume you’ve reported this to Airbnb? Someone correct me here but I thought that a felony was any crime that involved a minimum of one year in jail, the most common felony being drugs?
So if this bloke is a drunk and a drug user, I wouldn’t fancy his chances.
Totally agree and that’s why I’m in the forum. I’ve been a nervous wreck over this all week. He’s had a fantastic stay and I have written documentation. I can’t believe they’re allowing him to review since Airbnb cancelled reservation themselves due to the circumstances.
I did report it to Airbnb and I’ve been sending documentation. I’m waiting to hear back. In the meantime he reported us as bad host although his messages don’t read that away until he was ready to leave. I also know he planted recording device in the house. I haven’t found it but I was able to stop it from transmitting. Will need to call a professional to locate it.
I just had the same thing. Guest hasn’t reviewed as of yet. I am not reviewing because they didn’t stay with me & I won’t lie on stars (1’s or 5’s). If you aren’t aware of the countdown clock do a search on this forum. You can get yours in, leaving him no time to post his.
Have your short “Will never host guest again. Broke house rules…” ready to blast off but review Air policy to make sure you don’t put anything that would make it removable. 1 star in all categories.
That’s creepy! Not illegal? How did you know? This gets more and more weird.
@theabernathync What you posted here is what you are thinking of leaving as a response to whatever review he posts? NO! absolutely not, no way.
That is not what review responses are for. Their purpose is not to address the bad guest. Responses are used either to thank a good guest for staying with you and leaving a nice review, or to correct misinformation, lies, etc. in a review for the benefit of future guests.
They are also used to indicate that you’ve corrected an issue that a guest mentions in the review. “Sorry that one of the dining chairs had a broken leg, and thanks for bringing it to our attention- our co-host forgot to notify us about that. The chair has been repaired.”
Review responses appear on your review page, not the guest’s. They are read by future guests, who have zero interest in whatever drama played out between a host and a previous guest. Never use a response to attack the guest- it is highly unprofessional and will keep others from booking with you, wary that you might do the same to them.
You cannot come up with a review response until you read the review the guest left because the response should only address what is written in the review- not something the guest said to you privately, not some detail that no one would ever know about if you didn’t mention it.
When the review comes in, depending on what it says, you may be able to get it removed, and if not, post the review here and ask for input on a response.
You are understandably quite emotional right now, but emotion has no place in reviews or responses, which should be as brief as possible and factual, and you should never write them when you are upset.
I would share all the facts with AIrbnb and bump it up the ladder if necessary to get some response. Do NOT post your long review. Do not engage with him at all. The reason for his police call is still a little fuzzy to me. Nevertheless it sounds like legal matter requiring legal expertise at this point. He sounds like someone who will thrive on attention so don’t indulge him.
Thank you. This is good information. Yes I’m a bit emotional which is why I’ll take my time crafting my reply. I’ll sit on this for a bit. This was helpful for me to understand this whole process. I’ll come back to this thread when I’ve tried again. Thanks again.
There’s nothing wrong with writing out a review or a response that you’d like to leave. It can be cathartic to get it off your chest, let 'er rip and call the guest every profanity in your repetoire. Just don’t submit it.
After a week or so, you won’t be nearly as nerve wracked as you are now and will be able to compose a brief, non-emotional review that lets other hosts know not to accept this guest.
And the review response is a bridge you can cross wheen you come to it. Sometimes there’s nothing more needed than “This a revenge review left as a response to the guest’s unsuccessful attempts at threatening us in order to get a refund for no reason. Please refer to our other reviews for an accurate picture of what to expect when staying here.”
And as another poster mentioned, if the review a scammer guest leaves is a crazy rant, it often doesn’t even require a response. You have to give guests credit for not being stupid and gullible- they don’t believe everything they read and can spot and dismiss a BS review in the midst of all the other reviews saying the place was great and the hosts were lovely people.
I did a network scan to be sure nothing was left behind. There was an iPhone 14 ( no such thing. 13 just came out so I knew he edited the device info) still connected. I downloaded a hidden camera scanner and it came up with an unknown device possible camera. I changed the router and modem passwords to get it to stop transmitting. Guest said he use to be a Private Investigator
One thing here- to have a guest who has a warrant out for their arrest would be a different matter. While most hosts would be wary of having a convicted felon as a guest, once someone has done their time for whatever crime they committed, they are free to do whatever other people are free to do unless there are restrictions on their release, such as with pedophiles who are prohibited from being within a certain distance of schools and children.
So I doubt that Airbnb would ban someone simply because they had a felony record.
