I hosted a guest for 1 night last week. Before her stay we had great communication in terms of questions she had and check in details. She left on Friday and my entire family and I came to the home for the weekend, first time we used our own airbnb all summer! As usual my husband inspects everything, this the case no matter where we stay as he once worked in a hotel and knows what to look for. He examined the beds, sofa, etc as he usually does. After the clean bill of health we made the beds and had a wonderful weekend without any problems.
Come Monday morning the guest who checked out 4 days prior left a review claiming the home had bed bugs! However, in her private review she stated that a bug was seen on her son’s pant leg. Well I responded right away and said I would get down the bottom of this situation. I stupidly assumed I would be able to follow up again on my response. I called an exterminator right away and he didn’t find bed bugs, droppings, or eggs. Being out in the country he found spiders, stink bugs, etc but no bed bugs. In fact I even tell my guests in the greeting to note that its a country home and that you will see bugs from time to time.
I got a clean bill of health from the exterminator and thus I contacted Airbnb in hopes that such a bad review could be removed. Mind you I have 62 positive reviews and this is my first bad one. I was told it could not be because it didn’t violate their policy and its not up to them to determine if the guest or host is lying or mistaken about something. I then asked if I could somehow follow up on my response because I had no idea I wouldn’t be able to and they also refused that. Just curious if anyone has any tips on how to survive a sabotaging review such as the dreaded BED BUGS (that’s how she wrote it) review.
Respond to the review and be objective and factual. She told you that she saw a bed bug on her son’s pant leg and that does not fit the behavior of bed bugs. You had a professional exterminator inspect the listing and there was no evidence of bed bugs. She is mistaken about the type of bug she saw.
Brian I would love be able to give another response. However, due to the fact the I responded right away I’m not longer able to follow up. At the very least I asked Airbnb if I could give another response and they wont allow me to do so. I even sent the guest a very nice message indicating that the home was checked and no evidence was found and she has yet to respond and I doubt she will.
Sorry, didn’t realize that meant you submitted a public response to the public review vs. responding to the private comments or to other platform messages.
Do you have a contract with your exterminator? Because we are in a buggy area our contract is for monthly visits and we have a copy of the monthly contract behind the door in both rentals.
Even if you don’t have a regular contract, I’d be inclined to post the exterminator’s receipt/report every time.
I would post the report made by the exterminator that clearly states “no bed bugs.” You can post it where you would post pictures of your listing.
@jaquo do not have a contract with the exterminator but posting this in the rental binder is a great idea and Ill be doing this!
@Ritz3 Thank you for that idea! Will do. I actually edited my listing to note that bad review was unfounded and proof would be provided. However posting the picture is also a great idea.