Please keep the option for reviews >Public Response<

[Andrea9]

Some hosts have reported that the option to respond to guest reviews has been removed.

This is terrible, because it is known that guests are prone to giving 'revenge' reviews because they were terrible guests and knew a bad review was coming to them, or because they were not successful in getting the whopping refund they had tried to get, or because of some other not-so-nice reason.

In some cases they ding hosts for things they as guests did wrong or because they didn't even bother reading or remembering the listing description and/or house rules.   

Please don't castrate hosts further by removing this one tool for us in case of unfair and even untrue guest remarks!

The damage to the host has been done anyway by such guests giving irreversible lower star ratings, which in some cases can actually ruin a host's status stats for a long time to come. And from reports on the Community it seems there are scam artists out there using such allegations to get free stays.

Using the option to respond publicly is our only way left to communicate to future guests the whole picture.

What I do suggest though, is shorten the number of characters allowed for public response to about half or a third of what is now the case. That should curb many ridiculously long-winded and unprofessionally hyper-detailled host responses.

[Dominic13]

Very true. Guests lie all the time. 

[Mary-Ann0]

Yes and guests are encouraged to state what they think hosts could do to "improve" and it most often ends up on the public review, which then might be concerning to the next potential guests.

[Johnny22]

The review system plays into the hands of the scammers and scammers are not the guests we want in our homes.

[Sue117]

One must be able to reply to the reviews. Of course they should be polite and to the point. Leaving a good review would mean that guest may feel it a waste of time and leaving a negative review would mean that one couldn't defend ones integrity or try to make a problem right. Other potential guest will then be able to make a proper decision. I alway read all the replied on review before deciding if it was just a "mother grundy" or a genuine mistake or problem.

[Lisa24]

I have not heard that Airbnb is getting rid of the opportunity for us to respond to a guests review of us but if that is the case I am DEFINITELY against it.  Being able to respond is a "no brainer".