BE AWARE HOSTS - Unjustified Negative Review and Request for 30% Refund

Tania937
Level 2
México D.F., Mexico

BE AWARE HOSTS - Unjustified Negative Review and Request for 30% Refund

I just had a terrible experience with a guest and the support from Airbnb. Since before arriving to my house, the guests asked for an early check in, which I agreed upon paying an extra fee. They got mad and did not accepted. 

 

They arrived to my house, completed their stay and left. I thought everything went okay as I did not receive any message from them. To my surprise they left a terrible review - one star to most of things (from which was totally unjustified). I am a superhost and I have maintained this status for 5 years now.

 

I contacted the guest on private message to express my surprise to her review as I didnt hear anything from them during their stay. They replied terribly rude and with full of lies. I requested support from the Superhost Airbnb service to see what could be done about the bad review, and nothing could be done as this did not violated their policy, so I have to keep the bad review full of lies.

 

Later I received a separate message from Airbnb community as this guest had raised a complaint towards me, saying I did not offer private parking (which I did not but it was no offered as part of my announcement), that the house was dirty (again lies, I have photos of how the house is delivered clean), and that that they couldnt use the TV (which we have printed instructions in the living room, and even if they didnt see those, they never contacted me about this issue). 

 

The resolution of this is that Im going to get discounted 30% of this booking without justification! I asked about the policy and supporting information about how this 30% is calculated as I think is not proportional at all to what I offered but AIRBNB said that this was an internal policy and wont be share with me. 

 

So at the end, just because I did not offer them the early check in, they invented a terrible review and they are going to get 30% back from my pocket. 

 

This suffice to say that AIRBNB will always be on the side of the guests and not on their hosts, even if they are superhosts. Definitely Im reconsidering staying on the platform. If this happened with one person, no clue how many more are willing to create such lies on their benefit just to get free accommodations and solely affecting the hosts!!

 

 

2 Replies 2
Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I would go back to customer services and dispute the charge. Point out that the guest did not raise any issues with you during their stay about any missing amenities or issues with cleanliness. @Tania937 

 

That you do not say in the listing that you offer parking, there were no missing amenities and your photos evidence the listing was clean on arrival.

 

Say that there is no reason for them to refund the guest as issues were not raised during their stay in accordance with their policy and there were no missing amenities which would lead to a discount being offered.

Hi Helen, 

Many thanks for your reply. After a three day constant process with Airbnb, this got escalated - I think this is a different department from Airbnb customer service, and fortunately Im not going to get charged and they deleted the review based on the "relevance" guidelines.

 

Must say was not easy, and unfortunately I read many other hosts have gone through same troubles. 

 

Thanks again for your reply, 

Best