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I’ve read a few of the threads here about retaliation reviews, and I am wondering if anyone has successfully had one removed since the policy change. I’ve got two now (after charging them for damage and also following an act of god that was out of my control) that mathematically prohibit me from getting my superhost badge back anytime soon, I have made many many calls and created support tickets about this over and over, and they refuse to remove them, or even escalate the issue. All the rest of my reviews (about 75) are positive…
Yes, we had a retaliatory review removed. Guest tried to cancel day of check in. Was miffed I didn’t refund full amount. Wrote terrible review, even though they didn’t stay.
It took a few phone calls, but they finally removed the review. It has to be demonstrably false
While you wait to have the reviews removed, you can reply to them stating the facts; out of your control due to bad weather and the other guest never checked in.
I’m not sure trying to get years old and months old reviews removed are worth my time. And superhost status should be regained soonish if you are continuing to host.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
