Tricked a scammer into threatening me

1

I had a guest stay with me for one night recently.

Several days after the checkout, she made a long list of things that were not working. Yes, there were some minor issues, but she made up a few along the way. Nothing that warranted a significant refund.

I told her that she should have contacted us while she was staying so we could fix those issues. We cannot fix those issues now.

She contacted Airbnb and they shut her down as it was well beyond Aircover applicability (I believe 48 or 72 hours) .

So I figured I could push the compensation issue since ABB was on my side. I asked her what she would do if I did not provide her compensation for the issue. She promptly replied she would write a review that I will not like.

Then I wrote back saying I will give her appropriate compensation after the review period ends, as I don’t want the review to be positively impacted by my compensation. I wrote that so Airbnb could see I was not trying to incentivize a positive review.

After she wrote a two-star review, I contacted Airbnb and told them it was retaliatory. I sent them all the screenshots of relevant messages from the scammer and my message about not providing incentives for writing a review. Airbnb removed it in a day. It felt so good to beat a scammer at their game.

I kept my word and gave her a $15 compensation for the minor issue she had. It was lower than what she wanted but appropriate for the issue she faced.

I host for one night frequently to collect more reviews, but sometimes it doesn’t work. In this case, I did not get the review I wanted and wasted a lot of time with this scammer.

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2

Keep an eye on your review page. Several times I’ve read of Airbnb taking down a review, then when the guest complains about their review being removed, it suddenly appears again.

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3

Which give the host the difficult choice between resisting the option of drawing the guest’s attention to the fact the review was taken down (for the “lesser-angels” pleasure of rubbing scammer-guest’s nose in it) or foregoing that guilty pleasure in favour of a wise business decision to let sleeping dog’s lie and quietly accept the win.

What would YOU do, people?

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4

Great point. I will keep an eye. The guest could complain bring it back. I should prepare a positive response to her review that will help other guests select my listing.

I usually block scammers right after the reviews are published. I see no point in continuing any discussion with them.

5

Be happy I never had to see or engage with that person again and that the review got removed.

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6

I think you’ve already expended enough energy on this guest.

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