Mysterious disappearing review!

Introduction
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Hi Everyone, I’d like to briefly introduce myself and then see if I can pick your brains for information.

My husband and myself live in the Tweed area of NSW, Australia and have been hosting for about 8 years, we started because we are frequent travellers and thought it would be interesting to put our travel stay experience into action and also finance more of our own trips.

We rent out 1/2 of our own home, guests have their own front & back entrances to their own private unit and the back outside area is shared with us and our beloved dogs. We’re lucky to live on a waterway and have a lot of international guests staying, which we love to host.

We have mainly 5 star reviews with a smattering of 4’s as some guests irrespective of how much they enjoyed their stay just can’t bring themselves to give a 5. We genuinely enjoy hosting, do our own cleaning and have made some good friends along the way.

Now down to the nitty gritty!! We’re currently on holiday in the pacific islands at an airbnb, it took as around 11 hours to travel here by car and plane, on arrival the host greeted us, rather effusively and did the usual showing us around etc, we were tired and just felt like relaxing, but what’s 10-15mins of our time? so we listened and smiled and nodded.

Then the host mentioned she was going into town the next day, the roads here are very potholed and bumpy, much worse than the last time we visited, anyway my husband joked “do you know a shortcut to town?” which went down like a lead balloon, the host then left abruptly. Within an hour she texted saying we were ungracious and rude which she wouldn’t tolerate and suggested we move to a noisy polluted resort in town, her words not mine.

We were shocked and a little dismayed, the bungalow is pretty isolated and only the host living next to us (which wasn’t stated in the airbnb listing, there was no mention of her living here or sharing the outside area.) I was concerned that she might have some sort of mental issues to react so excessively to something said in passing.

Soooo, I didn’t respond that night, I was too emotional and having written hundreds of reviews know sometimes it’s better to sleep on it. Next morning I spent time drafting up a reply, that I hoped would calm her but also let her know that we are also superhosts and that I found her message intimidating and not something I would ever do to one of my guests.

Bad move, she then replied with another nasty message, which I thought was best to not reply too. Hoping not to stoke the flames as we have 7 nights here! That afternoon the aircon turned off, I thought it must have been on a timer, this went on all late afternoon till around 9pm, perhaps 30 times the aircon was turned off, she was obviously turning it off and I was turning it back on, it was amusing for a couple of hours but then tedious.

The next morning she sent a text telling me to either have the windows open or the aircon on but not both, I replied thanking her for the message but saying there seemed to be some strange problem with the aircon, coming on and off and as it’s over 30c and 100% humidity, we needed to have both until we knew the aircon issue was resolved. No reply, no more aircon games.

But still I’m uncomfortable, she only has 5 star reviews which I find strange, I knew she had a back to back with us, so I checked to see what the last guest had said, it was a fairly short review, nice, enjoyed their stay , no complaints but 4 stars! Aha I thought so it’s not just us! Next day it was gone!!!

I’m gobsmacked, the 1st time she messaged me she made a point of her 5star only reviews and told me to read them lol, something is fishy, why would she have a 4 star review removed and why would airbnb do it! and how many others has she had removed, I have no understanding how this could be happening.

So has anyone else encountered this? If so whats the point and how do airbnb allow it?

Sorry this is such a long 1st post but I’m seating in my bungalow instead of enjoying the beautiful outdoors as the scary host is wandering around the grounds :laughing:

My final point is although the accommodation is lovely, and it’s a very beautiful place to visit, the listing was inaccurate for not stating she shared the property grounds, there is inadequate window coverings so at night she can wander around and look in, and obviously the intimidating messages would suggest I leave her a less than stellar review.

But if I do so how can I ensure it stays up? I’d love any advice or knowledge from the other hosts on here, I’ve spent a couple of hours browsing the site and laughing out loud as I read some of the comments, some guests might be difficult but it’s fun reading how hosts turn a bad situation into a fun quip. Better to laugh then cry, my mum used to say. Thanks for reading if you’ve got this far. cheers

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Welcome to this forum, @Coolie.

Wow, this host sounds like a really unpleasant person who shouldn’t even be hosting.

Honestly, if it were me, I would have contacted Airbnb the first day after she sent that nasty message about moving to “a noisy polluted resort in town”, sharing that message with Airbnb and asking for them to cancel the booking with a full refund. Mentioning Privacy issues (that there are no window coverings and the host, who doesn’t say anywhere in her listing info that she lives on the property and outside space is shared, and she walks by and looks in the windows) is a keyword with Airbnb- they take invasion of privacy issues much more seriously than rudeness or less than accurate info.

I would also ask Airbnb why the less than good review you saw has disappeared, as it contained what you also found to be an accurate assessment and ask them if the host is going to be able to get the honest review you leave removed also.

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Thanks for your reply @muddy I did have a quick look for accommodation the first night and there’s very little available and I don’t fly out for another 4 days so thought it best to try and make the best of it.

I contacted airbnb by message, only about the removal of the review, I mentioned it was the previous guests review and their 1st names, and I don’t know if it’s just their response team that services Australia but it very hard to get much sense out of them. There was what appeared to be a automatic response about how removal process works then a message saying if I want to have a review removed heres the link! I also wondered if I specifically tell them about her behaviour if they would contact her and escalate the situation, so I didn’t mention anything else. But obviously it wasn’t read properly anyway.

Would it be best to contact them before I do the review? or at the same time? From what I’ve been reading on this site it seems a phone call is best, I’ve only ever had brief interactions with them, nothing that required action.

I also thought this morning I should take screen shots of her listing because if she’s heard us talking, she may change the wording to include saying that she is also on the property, so I will do that next.

Not really what you want to be doing on hols but we have little choice and I really appreciate your advice and confirmation that airbnb will actually take it seriously, I’ll also have to ensure my wording leaves no room for her to have my review removed, I’ll have to have a look at the policy statements for that I expect.

Thanks again.

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I can understand guests not wanting to cancel and leave a place where things aren’t right, as there is often no viable alternative.

Taking a screenshot of her listing info is a really good idea. She sounds like the type who could easily change the info and claim it was always there.

As a homeshare host myself, I am always surprised when looking at other listings, how many homeshare or onsite hosts don’t mention anywhere in their description who guests will be sharing the home with (just the host, is the host single, married, do they have kids, is it shared with other guests?). There’s plenty of guests who would book a homeshare if they are just sharing with the host, but wouldn’t want to share if there were noisy little kids running around, or found it was a hostel-type situation, with multiple rooms rented to unrelated guests.

Same goes for onsite hosts who live in another dwelling on the same property, next door, etc. It’s actually to the host’s advantage to make that clear, as it can ward off partiers or those who planned to sneak in pets or extra guests.

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I’ve been in this situation and Airbnb can see the listing as it was at the time of booking no matter how many times it’s been changed. It’s a common dispute saying I thought X, but the listing says why and they can see the moment you made your reservation what was in the listing.

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Aloha Coolie,
Sorry for the difficult stay. Sounds nightmarish.

We had a guest stay at my brother’s place (which we manage). We had a couple of issues during and after her stay. We had to visit the unit a couple of times while she was there. She was also a host in Alaska, so she should know how things “should” go.

After checkout, she had left the place a mess. She had 3 very young children and just let them do whatever their little hearts desired.

In the end, she left a review that was passive-aggressive, but left us 5 stars for everything. I think this is an interesting attempt on having a review NOT be able to be removed. You may want to try that. In the body of the review, tell ALL, then leave her 5 stars for everything. Perhaps that’s a way to ensure that Airbnb would not remove your review.

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I actually thought that might be the case, but wasn’t sure. Thx for info. But it still might be useful to be able to present a screenshot along with a “report” of inaccuracy, as it might hasten the Airbnb response, rather than waiting until they got around to checking.
I’ve found that making things as easy as possible for the CS reps can lead to more timely action.

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We’re homeshare hosts as well, the outdoor areas are shared, and it states clearly in my listing that this is what it is and if I even have the slightest hint that the guest might think otherwise, I let them know immediately.

Funnily enough we’ve had a lot of guests book because I make a point of the fact that we have a dog, either they love dogs or their kids can’t have dogs, and they get to interact with friendly pets and I agree there’s a lot of advantages about making it clear that you live on the property as well, so I’m not sure why people don’t.

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Thanks for that info Rolf, she has changed the listing info a couple of time since I booked which was about 8 months ago, I’m not sure if she mentioned it then, It wouldn’t worry me normally but it’s listed as a “private couples retreat” and her cabin is literally 12-15 feet from the side of ours, so we can even hear her on the phone.

I’ve already done all the screen shots so if asked I have them, but I’m also going to make a video just before we leave showing we’ve left everything clean and in good order, don’t want her trying to imply otherwise

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Hi RomeoRetreat, I’m thinking if I post 5 stars browsing guests will just skim it thinking everythings great, so I’m going to give her 3 stars, start with review with the nice accommodation and beautiful area (we’re in Vanuatu, everywhere is beautiful) then go into the privacy and intimidating message areas, I don’t think I’ll mention the aircon games she played as if it didn’t happen to me I wouldn’t believe it :joy: If I put too much of the truth in there they might think it’s over the top, and my main wish is to make other people aware.

Thanks for your advice, I think I need all the help I can get!

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It would be a good idea to post your review here to get feedback before you post it on the site. Many of the people on this forum are good at wordsmithing reviews to help keep them precise, hitting the best points, and prevent them from being taken down.

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Thanks @Terryathome, that’s a great idea I’m going to write it over the weekend I will post it here after that, should I do so under a fresh heading that relates to help with a review? or just tag it onto this one?

I’ve contacted Airbnb help and they’ve given me a case no. to follow up with, I took photos and screenshots to back up my review so I’m thinking I’ll do both at the same time, they have already registered that we had some issues and that I will follow up with them when I sorted back at home.

Thanks for your suggestion, it’s very helpful

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Jeanette’s property is clean and as described except for the fact that the host lived directly alongside us. Whilst we had exclusive use of our own large internal space, we were really surprised to find that her accommodation was only 12-15 feet from the side of ours. Admittedly, there is a sort of fence between the cabins that somewhat obscures the patio of where we stayed, but it was only mesh and unless we kept our windows shut we could hear her speaking on the phone etc., Also some of the internal blinds only close half way so we had to keep the lights out at night to try and have privacy.

There is some lovely spaces in which you can sit back and relax but they are also all shared with the host, who was on the property for our entire 7 night stay except for one half day trip into town.

There is a nice hammock on the deck but from a safety point of view it has inadequate structural bolting so we preferred not to test it.

Unfortunately Jeanette seemed to take a dislike to us on arrival and sent us a rather unfortunate message within an hour of our arrival suggesting we were unwelcome and might be better suited to accommodation else where, obviously this made our stay quite uncomfortable.

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@Terryathome @muddy @RomeoRetreat Hi I’m wanting to put up the review not sure about the last paragraph, I have her messages but which I will send to airbnb with photos but I really want to make sure the 3 star stays up, don’t want any opportunity for her to take it down, so I’ve been very mild, I think, and not mentioned aircon etc., would love some help, not sure I should included the last paragraph

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I think I would not mention the host’s dislike of you as she could argue that. Simply state that you felt uncomfortable and unwelcome after receiving an email from the host shortly after your arrival suggesting that you should find alternative accommodation (or something along those lines).

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thanks I was thinking something like that as well, :slight_smile:

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You haven’t made it very clear that information regarding the shared spaces, the host living 12 ft away, and lack of privacy wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the host’s listing info. You really need to do that.

Because there are many guests who just don’t read through all the listing info thoroughly and are then “surprised” that it’s a shared accomodation, or that the host lives on the property.

Without you making it clear that you read through the description thoroughly, and went back and double checked the listing wording after you arrived, if I read your draft review, I might think you were one of those guests who were surprised to find something you assumed, because you just skimmed the description.

I also would reword the “hammock has inadequate structural bolting” to something like “didn’t seem to be hung in a safe manner”, as stating it as a fact is something she could challenge. As in “It’s perfectly safe- 50 guests have used that hammock without incident”.

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If I were to read this in a review, I would think 1. it is way too long. and 2. 12-15 feet apart doesn’t sound that bad.
I would be a lot more blunt.
Although the property was clean with the interior was as described, the listing failed to adequately mention the proximity of the hosts quarters and the pictured exterior spaces as being shared with the host. Privacy issues were compounded by the cabin’s internal blinds closing only halfway, necessitating a need keep the lights out at night to maintain privacy. The close quarters and the mesh fence between the cabins also did little to create a sense of privacy as we could overhear phone conversations as the hosts were often occupying the shared spaces throughout our entire stay.
I also agree with Lizardsinthekitchen about rewording that paragraph and Muddy’s comments.