Guest trying to extort money or threatens bad review

1

A guest contacted me personally via Whats app asking me for a refund of 200 euro in exchange for a 5 star review- he said if I do not pay him he will claim that the house was dirty (Im a super host and cleanliness is always 5 stars) that there were not enough blankets (There were plenty) and that the upstairs neighbor wore high heels and made “clicking” noises.
I constantly kept in touch with this guest during his visit asking if everything was ok- I have all the messages- he never complained and told me everything was fine.
Only after he checked out when I asked him to please let us know if he could write us a good review, did all these complaints, and request for money, come out.
I wrote to airbnb as it is a clear case of extortsion and did not reply to the guest.

Please let me know your thoughts-

2

Hi @Elizabeth

Not sure what to add really?

You have already done what you should have by contacting Airbnb with a screengrab of the offending What’s App message.

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3

I was curious to know if anyone else had this experience and what happened;
I will let you know if airbnb agrees to block the review.

4

what a horrendous guest! I await the outcome :slight_smile:

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5

Where’s a good vigilante party when you need one?? Sorry to hear about The Jerk.

Hopefully you haven’t written his review yet! “Cannot recommend Guest, who threatened me with a bad review unless I paid him 200 euro bribe!”

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Hit him in the review, not sure it makes much difference but best you can do.

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7

It’s probably best not to solicit reviews from guests, it puts ideas in their heads that you are needy as it did in this case.

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8

I didn’t solicite a review- I simply asked him how his stay was and to kindly give me feedback when he had a chance (as he wrote me various messages on how happy he was)…
If airbnb has any ethics they will block any feedback he leaves; I sent them his message which is a blatant attempt to extort money.
If they don’t then, yes, of course I will give this information out to other prospective hosts on his review.

9

I’d like to know about this behavior regardless of what Airbnb does with his review of you. If they don’t kick him off the platform please review appropriately.

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11

Agree with cabinhost - this is surely extortion and could be a chargeable offence? I had heard a rumour of this sort of behaviour from some “guests” but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it reported by a host.

I don’t often use the word “scumbag” but nothing else seems to fit here!

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12

I am sure st one point those who hosted long enough experienced this. I had it only once. And I usually refund if it’s one night and last minute booking because sometimes people make mistakes but this time the guy really got on my nerves and I said no refund.
He started threatening me and did the same with review.
They removed his review and didn’t refund him.
The funny part was that he was a host himself but pretended likehe doesn’t know rules

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13

He wrote me again today asking me “what I had decided”…
I still didn’t reply- waiting to see how airbnb proceeds-they still have not responded.

14

Take a screen grab, then block him.

Send it to the case manager dealing with your case and then call them to ask them what they are doing about this guest blackmailing and harassing you.

Best of luck

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15

“I have already contacted Airbnb, but I have also decided to contact the police. Extortion is a crime.”

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16

Had a similar situation with a guest. I took a screenshot of the text, called Air and sent it. They blocked him from leaving a review. Didn’t say anything about removing him from the system.

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17

Case closed; day 3 airbnb finally got back to me- they said they called the guy and explained to him he could not solicit money in exchange for a review- and any review he wrote would not be published.
They did not seem to be concerned by his aggressiveness, they had more of a tone of trying to get me to understand his naivity of the airbnb process- my opinion he was a low class thug.
But anyway…moving on :slight_smile:

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18

Absolutely and no one in the world wants to host him. Why wouldn’t they remove him from the platform?

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19

But what?? That’s horrifying! Can you review him?

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No, I cannot review him either.

21

That’s outrageous that they haven’t removed him from the platform. Why would you have to contact someone and explain they can’t blackmail someone. Are they living in the real world?