Help! Guest is indirectly threatning me that she will write me a bad review if don't return her the cleaning fees

Hi Everyone, I had a guest stay and she messaged me the first night at 11:00 am saying I had roaches. I personally have not seen any Roaches myself gave her the benefit of doubt. Told her she could cancel. She dint want to as it’s peak season and she could not find the place atthe rate she booked my place. She decided to stay we apologize and got roach motel. Gave her pasteries as an apology and tried to keep her happy. She told us no issues and was happy with her stay. Now she is threatening us to give her the stay money back after everything ended including taxes and airbnb fees indirectly or shell write a bad review or take my livelihood by complain to airbnb about my listing that my listing has an cocroach infestation. Can someone advise me what to do. Shall I give her back the money or get a bad review? I have no faith that air bnb will help. They never do.

She’ll probably leave a bad review regardless! Call Air immediately and report her extortion attempt. Hopefully all communication was on the platform? Good luck!

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Absolutely do not give her any money. Do not reward the bad behavior. Hopefully she said this on Airbnb. Ignore her request, tell her no, then ghost her. Leave her a review warning us about this guest and if she leaves you a bad review, then you can have it removed.

I know Airbnb isn’t always supportive but several hosts here have reported success with getting reviews removed that were part of an extortion threat. This is explictly against Airbnb policy and as long as you have the proof you should be successful.

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I wouldn’t discuss this with her but the cleaning fee she pays covers cleaning up after her! If you have a history of strong cleaning ratings, Airbnb and future guests will doubt her credibility. I actually wonder if she saw something else. That said, the last guest might have brought you these unwelcome critters.

Building off what others have said, if she is not sending these threats on the Airbnb message thread, ask that she put her request in writing on the thread. If she is texting, take a screen shot to send to Airbnb. Documentation counts.

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What is this?

Cupcakes

…cupcakes…cupcakes

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Airbnb will remove reviews that can be proven as extortion. save all of the communication.

I hope all your messages were through the Airbnb platform so that there’s arecord of you offering to cancel her reservation and she declined.

Make sure you’re the first one to call Airbnb in regards to this issue. Also tell them that she threaten you with a bad review, which is against their policy.

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They’re like pastries made of pasta.

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They’re edible nipple coverings for strippers :rofl:

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Several hosts have right hoped that the comments were made on the Airbnb platform. In the future if a guest asks to communicate outside the platform say something like “Airbnb asks that we communicate on the platform and I try to adhere to their guidelines. Can you tell me what you’d like to discuss and do so here?”

I confess that I give them my text number for quick texts but at least those are documented. I avoid live calls because of the possibility for a ‘he said/she said’ situation.

Don’t be held hostage. Write her on the platform a fact-based message that is pleasant but firm, maybe something like:

"I’m responding to your [call,text] requesting full payment for your stay because you said – and you had told us this your first night – that you saw roaches. As I said/wrote/texted to you then, I was quite surprised to hear that as we’ve never had a problem before. You may recall that I offered you a cancellation, without penalty, but you decided to stay, peak season and all. I bought and gave you a roach motel, apologized and gave complimentary pastries. At she checkout you told me that you were happy with your stay, even said that there were ‘no issues.’ Now that the stay is completed I understand that you want your full money back, taxes and Airbnb fees as well.

You also suggested that the consequence for my not returning that money might be a bad review from you.

In response I want to thank you for selecting my property and I do hope that your stay was a good one, as you stated at checkout. I cannot have a policy of returning a guest’s payment after the effect – especially where I offered to cancel penalty free. I’m sorry that you saw a roach,-es; there have been none before; I see none now but I do thank you for bringing this to my attention as it’s possible that a guest can inadvertently bring any pest through luggage, and with your feedback I will be on the lookout and take up extermination efforts as needed!

I hope your review will be a fair one, and accurate, and reflect to the Airbnb community your experience at my home here. We work hard to create a clean, comfortable and enjoyable place for people to get away. If any part of your experience fell short of that, I am sorry. Best wishes to you!

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