Defamation by a host

[Anonymous]

I recently stayed in an appartment in Vienna with a friend, we are both medical doctors, educated and quiet guests. We had a lot of problems in the appartment and when we tried to notice it to the owner he reacted in a rude way responding that nobody ever had problems in his appartment and blaming us for the problems. One of it was the door keylock, which was very hard to open and malfunctioning. The host was disrespectful in the communication, but at the end that 4 days passed and I got back home. When writing the review I did not want to be too harsh and harm with my review, so I kept things very short, minimizing the problem and I wrote a neutral review. After that I got a very distressing discovery that this person wrote a very defamatory review, that was ful of lies and very disrespectful and low- level. I am totaly angry about this. What can I do to report this host? Arbnb doesnt want to do anything. I am not so worried about my future trips, I just want to do something about this guys horrible behaviour. Please help. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous   What you're really asking is how you can retaliate against a negative review.  If the host's behavior was "horrible" enough to warrant some kind of disciplinary action, your best opportunity to communicate this was in your review. 

Your other recourse upon receiving an unflattering review is to post a response, which you've already done.

I can understand that you feel the intensity of the host's account was unwarranted, but this does not mean it qualifies as defamation. His review does not expose you to risk of unjust prosecution, or tangible damage or loss of income. It was his honest opinion that you were a lousy guest, and he had every right to convey this in the review. Best you can do is move on, and perhaps begin future requests by assuring hosts that you know how to use keys.

[Anonymous]

The problem is that the review is not only a subjevtive point of view, but is objectively untrue. This person wrote that I called him in strange hours for no reason, but I called him only in the ocasion when we could not open the door, I was arriving in Vienna at 10 pm and I let him now that. We objectivly had issues in opening the doors, and he wrote in the review in a very rude way that everbody knows hoe to open the door but only I am not able to do so ( it doesnt take a genious to open a door). Besides lying, his way of takling is just upsetting as being in my opinion very disrespectful. This kind of system opens the possibility to anybody to just say whatever they want. Saying lies about a person that portaits her or him in a bad way is defamation. I want to be able to do something about it. It seems imposible that there is nothing that can be done when a host act this badly.

[Alex-and-Vaughan0]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This kind of system opens the possibility to anybody to just say whatever they want. 

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 Welcome to the internet.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  If you can't bear the thought of the review being publicly associated with your identity, you are free to delete your Airbnb profile or remove your picture from it. But by posting in a public forum, you've exposed your profile to a far larger audience than would have seen it otherwise. So now, the number of people seeing you being portrayed as inconsiderate, entitled, and dumb has multiplied exponentially. Ever heard of the Streisand Effect? 

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  Hosts deal with this all the time. Many guests write reviews that are full of lies as retaliation for being called out on sneaking in more people, being asked to pay for damages they caused, etc. Apparently Airbnb is fine with reviews full of lies, as long as you don't break one of their review non-nos like making some discriminatory comment referring to guest's race or sexual persuation. Hosts can get a review stating that the place was filthy, and even when they point out to Airbnb that they have 200 5* cleanliness ratings and tons of reviews saying the place was immaculate, Airbnb tells the host they can't remove it, because it's a "reflection of the guest's experience".

So I'm afraid you're outta luck here. Just try to forget about it and move on. Your review and your response were fine. Let it go. Not worth letting someone like this get under your skin- life is full of unpleasant encounters, we shouldn't give them more energy than they have already consumed.

[J-Renato0]

@Anonymous  @Anonymous  @Sarah977 

Hey, have a look on this!

IF a guest says that he/she can not open the door, the host has to see what is going on.
It is not because 70 o 1000 guests have done it before that an issue will never happen.

I thought the host was somewhat rude when writting a review. I would not stay in that listing.If everything is OK, that host is friendly.
If there is an issue, the host is rude.
It seems to me it is not very professional behaviour.

There are other reviews where issue with the lock/checkin is mentioned.

There is a review from July 2019 where another guest says - "The communication & instructions (e.g., check-in) can be improved to avoid confusion."

Another guest June 2019 said: "We had an issue with the main entrance door and had to ring the neighbors to get in the building, as the host reverted two days after my message and missed calls."

The response of this host to another a review in June 2019 it was too long and agressive. He also denied that there was a problem with the curtains. Another guest had mentioned the problem with the curtains before.
See also what he said about the guest. He alleged that the guest was kind of "disfunctional", "not capable of distinguishing direction"

@Anonymous  I think you have some chance to revert your review! It is not only you who had an issue there! 

I wish you good luck! 

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your kind responses. I was really feeling awful after what happened. I didnt worry so much about my future travelling, but I was havily offended by his way of communication and lies, even reverting the situation and portraiting us as a problem. His communication is really disturbing. Unfortualtely so far airbnb didnt do anything- I cannot understand that they allow such a level of language that is besides lies insulting. I will try to insist but if nothing happens I will delete myself from arbnb and never use it again.