Has *anyone* had a retaliation review removed?

Seems like they should remove the one where the guest said the cabin is nasty but didn’t actually stay, since it definitely falls under the category of irrelevant (unless the guest actually showed up and then left).

Stepping back to look at the numbers, it’s really a shame, because if you have 75 good reviews and can’t make Superhost because of two retaliatory 1-star reviews (I’m assuming they are 1-star overall), it means your overall rating without the two outliers could be a very respectable 4.9.

Welcome to the forum.

I have not yet had any retaliation reviews, just a few passive aggressive 4*s when I say no to people.

RR

True, one is two years old but one is more recent.

1 Like

True. I’m not that great at math but I’m hovering around 4.67 now with 70 reviews, I would need over a year’s worth of 5 star reviews (for me, I mostly only rent weekends where I am, and it’s seasonal). I think I need dozens and dozens of five-star reviews in a row to get back where I was. It actually seems improbable.

If superhost designation is the concern…don’t worry about it. Airbnb sent a notice that due to the effects of Covid-19 cancellations & travel bans, any host who had superhost status would keep it.

Also the time for having these removed has probably passed. The most recent is from December 2019.

I lost my superhost status two years ago after the first one star review. Was getting close to getting it back when I got the second bad review. I’ve been contacting them over and over within the period to remove it, and otherwise. I consider these reviews to be libelous and directly affect my income.

Just wanted to share this so other people know…

1 Like

I know I am not answering your question here, but I have a comment, take it or leave it.
I’m sympathetic; the guests sound like uncooperative jerks. And unfortunately anger can be directed at a host for a vacation ruined by an unanticipated weather, municipal infrastructure, or multi-unit building system event.
However, the replies publicly call a guest dishonest in the first case, and publicly call a guest a lawbreaker in the second case, both with a bit of snark in the final sentence. So if I were a potential guest reading them, I would hesitate to book with you.
I have no doubt your statements are true, and this forum is a great place to vent and say such things without putting them in public comments.

3 Likes

I had a guest who said there was a shooting by our house. Turns out what they heard was fireworks. They said other not nice things, I think because their car was rifled through as they left it unlocked. This happens, unfortunately. We were able to get the review removed because of the “shooting”. We were able to prove to Airbnb that there was no record of a shooting in the vicinity in any local newspaper of police report.

I had an unfortunate incident last August. It was resolved by Airbnb customer service quickly. It did not take 7 months. Yes Covid-19 has made CS communication difficult but in January & February access was fairly easy.

I hate you’ve had a difficult time but roll on. The reviews will eventually fall off.

They did break the law in my state. I did not say anything false.

What you said was not false, I would suggest not responding to reviews, it just draws attention to them.

RR

1 Like

I’ll follow the others by saying Welcome to the forum

I’m not familiar with the policy change you reference or when it took affect.

I did get something removed within hours of it being posted and with full support of AirBNB, because it clearly violated AirBNB rules. I described it in this topic:

What you have to understand is that the response feature is best used only to correct misleading information in a review for the benefit of future guests. It’s not the right place to vent your annoyance or anger at a guest- the guest may very well never even see your response- it appears on your review page, not theirs, and is seen by potential future guests, who have no interest whatsoever in the fact that a former guest broke the law. So responses should be free of emotion and only state that which would be important for a future guest to know. Although I have read a few responses which were quite funny- the hosts were adept with words and managed to put the complaints of the guest in sarcastic perspective while still looking like a great, friendly host.

1 Like

No. Even after Air paid out on a deliberately damaged property they still left the 1* rating and my loss of superhost. Then the second 1* review, surrounded by 5* reviews, which was malicious and false (as evidenced through messages) they also left, with the loss of my second super host. So good luck with that!! Best wishes. Oh, and it may have affected my bookings but (with the exception of being closed for CV-19) am nearly always booked. So does it really matter? Cheers

Me too. I still have not got back my super host.

It may have…I had an unhappy review in January. Then we had closures. It took 2 months after reopening for it to move to second page of reviews. My neighbors booked June & July bookings faster/earlier than I did.

1 Like

I wish Airbnb at least applied some algorithm to weight reviews that are not consistent with the rest of the reviews given that a property has a sufficient sample size of reviews. If a guest/host wants to blow off steam by giving a lowball review at least they shouldn’t be treated the same as the majority of the community trying to write helpful reviews. I had a host do it to me last year and even though I have never received less than a 5 star review for my own property, I run the risk of losing bookings due to their posting showing up in my profile.

5 Likes

I just wanted to put this here, if there are potential renters who don’t like the way I respond to reviews, they can find someplace else to stay, that’s 100% fine with me. I state facts and if there is “snark” read by some people, they might just be cut from the same kind of cloth as the renters I was responding to, I have no trouble renting my home during my high seasons, and I am again, always being honest and factual.

I too have no trouble. I don’t reply to reviews, I don’t stress about star ratings and if I lost superhost status I wouldn’t care.

I’m wondering why getting these reviews removed means so much to you?

What is worth understanding is that a review response isn’t for the purpose of responding to the guests who wrote the review- those guests will likely never even see your response because it appears on your review page, not theirs. And even if they do read it, they won’t care what you write if they are the type of guests who would leave an uncalled-for type of review in the first place.

Things you have to say about the guests go in the review you write for them, not in the response to their review.

The only reason to leave a response to a lying or misleading review is to correct falsehoods, or confusing statements, for the benefit of future guests, or if the guest had a legitimate issue, like said the mattress was uncomfortable, when you knew that mattress really should be replaced soon anyway, indicating that you’re sorry that they were uncomfortable and that the mattress has now been replaced, so future guests will be aware of that.

1 Like