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Well, he might have been fine on his own for a one or two night booking, but with a group of what seems to have been 5 people, not. Also, I don’t know if you ever cross-check to see what kind of reviews a host leaves for their other guests, but you sometimes find that some hosts leave the same generic review for all their guests. Or they leave a completely false review. I just read a post on another forum where the host was asking advice about a bad guest they had, and another host then questioned why that host had left a written review that said “It was our pleasure hosting you. Hoping to host you again on your future travels.”
Then there are the hosts who cowardly leave a good or non-committal review and low star ratings because the guests can’t see their ratings, only the written review. (Although I read that guests can now see the star ratings they are given, but don’t know if that is true. Maybe someone here who has been a guest recently can speak to that)
It was destructive. This wasn’t like removing a plug in a bath. This is the actual drain that a plumber would put an electric eel into to clear it out. They had removed then dropped the fitted metal cover deep into the drain, then looks like they tried to fish it out as they had pulled out disposable gloves out of the cleaning cupboard. Then they covered over the drain hole with masking tape and put a bath mat on top and didn’t tell me. I didn’t know what was going on with the drain, luckily I have a handy partner. Otherwise it would have been a costly call out to a emergency plumber over the New Year holiday period.
That’s quite the feat, managing to get the drain cover down in the pipe. My shower drain cover wouldn’t be able to fit down in there, as it sits on a lip on the top of the drain piping. I’m picturing someone quite heavy standing right on it and it getting pushed in, then they managed to push it in even further when trying to remove it.
I’m confused… the drain cover would have been bigger than the hole, correct? Did they crush it? Would love an explanation (I’m a handyman-nerd lol) or even better - a photo.
I see. The cover would have had to slide in on its edge exactly where the cut-outs are on the opposing sides of the lip the cover sits on. My drain cover is a bit different (doesn’t have the square part around it) but works the same- there are protrusions on the cover that fit in those cut-outs, then you twist the cover and it locks in place.
Yeah, it seems quite bizarre and a hard thing to do to even drop it in. My partner said he had to reach in to almost his elbow length to retrieve the cover and kind of twist it on its side to allow the angle to bring it to the surface. Not the most fun job.
Verifying whether the house rule that the Host claims was violated existed would seem like a simple thing for Airbnb to determine.
But, in support of your statement, the ‘if’ statement stating the conditions under which a review might be removed does not include anything about the honesty of the review.
Still, if I were a guest and accused of violating a non-existent House rule I would seek its removal based on the ‘reviews do need to be honest’ language.
Even if you are right I do think it’s unfair for a Host to complain of a guest violating a House rule when that’s not true.
In fact, we’ve seen examples here where a guest’s behavior did not violate House Rules but did violate something stated in a check-in or check-out letter. The advice we give these Hosts is to incorporate statements in communications that are ‘requirements’ into their House Rules.
That’s only fair.
That’s also beneficial to the Host to discourage unsuitable guests, later complaints and unwanted behavior which is a lose/lose for Host and Guest. Of course, many Guests don’t read. But we need to give Guests the chance to read before booking.
I doubt you disagree. If you are correct that Airbnb will not remove a review by a Host that cites violations of non-existent rules I hope Hosts here will be aware of the distinction between House Rules and Host post-booking communications and limit their critical reviews to violations of House Rules, Terms of Service, and Airbnb’s ‘Ground Rules for Guests.’ [Ground rules for guests - Airbnb Help Center]. Did I miss anything?
I know the review policy. And I can assure you that there are tons of hosts and guests disappointed everyday about not being able to have even an overtly dishonest review removed. The disappointment is so great and so frequent that I only ask that you not perpetuate the myth that a host or a guest can have a review removed merely because it’s not honest.
The most important part of the review policy, to avoid future disappointment, is this blurb:
While we expect all community members to post reviews that represent their genuine experience and contain accurate information, we do not generally mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews. Instead, we allow individuals to post responses to reviews within 30 days.
Because that is what the CS is going to send you when you contact them and ask to have a review removed because “it’s not true”.
Regardless, house rules were indeed broken in the OPs situation, we already know that it’s not theoretical. There’s no reason not to mention that house rules were broken because they were.
However, I’ve never heard of a host including “house rules broken” in a review and then being interrogated about which ones exactly were broken or even whether or not it was actually a house rule. But I would like to know if that has happened.
@Rolf spoke as if he was referencing a specific situation that he has either personally experienced or was told about. I am just curious if it is something he experienced, read about or is surmising.
