Tag Archives: airbnb review system

Ghost Airbnb Hosts and Gaming the System

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I first used Airbnb in 2014 and have used it 15-20 times since with good results most times. As a journalist, I even wrote a favorable article on the subject. However, in last three years I have noticed five troubling trends.

One: ghost hosts. The person or couple pictured is allowing use of their photo and bio by a third party. On a trip to Florida, a young woman was ghosting for her elderly grandparents who spoke broken English and did not know how to host. In Tennessee, a woman switched her listings to hide bad reviews. Also in Tennessee, a young couple with young children fronted for several properties in an apartment building and resented being contacted by phone for instructions to get into the place.

Two: Fake reviews. In Montana, a host buried a bad review that carefully and credibly listed problems under several one sentence reviews that looked fake. Tip-off in Tennessee: overuse of the word “amazing” in reviews of the host. The Airbnb rating scale is badly designed. “Met expectations”, for example, could be very good, but is only three stars.

Three: Increasingly impersonal. The founding principle was person to person. Now that is rare. Four: Customer service is awful. Impersonal, manufactured, and ignores constructive thoughtful critics. Five: Pricing is deceptive. Cleaning fees of $50 to $75 or more added to a list price of, say, $48, which can change as suddenly as airline ticket fares.

Cancelled our booking within 24 hours of check in

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We booked an Airbnb months ago in NYC, very close to where my husband was to be a groomsman in a wedding. With less than 24 hours to check-in, we received a cancellation notice without any explanation from the host. After a frantic, stressful search, we found another property on HomeAway (a competitor). When we called Airbnb, they basically shrugged their shoulders, gave us a refund, offered us a $60 credit if we booked within the next month… and deleted all of our communication with the host.

What is that about? We wanted to write a negative review of the host to keep people away from them, but Airbnb would not allow us to. It makes me wonder if this is common practice by Airbnb in order to limit the number of negative reviews to keep people using the site. We won’t use them again.

Hookers right outside the door of my Airbnb

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I rented a place. I was there for just a few minutes before contacting the host and telling him we need to talk. There were hookers outside the door and the people upstairs sounded like they were a stomp dance group. The host told me if I went on my app and just hit cancel he would return all the money if I left. I canceled and left as fast as I could. He lied and kept well over two nights’ worth of payment when I was there for five minutes total.

I opened a case about it and when I started asking how he was getting away with this, the conversation quickly ended. I left an honest review about “hooker hell” and it was pulled down because of the “refund motive”. So now other people, possibly with their child or children like I was, are being put in a bad situation. I have asked repeatedly for a link for my honest review and have been ignored.

High-Risk Area Absent from Airbnb Reviews

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I recently traveled to New Orleans with three other couples. I did not properly investigate the neighborhood and when we got there we discovered we were in a high-risk crime neighborhood. While we were there we had to run to the local Dollar General store and witnessed an assault of a homeless man right before our eyes.

There were no negative reviews mentioning anything about the neighborhood. I asked the host and her words were “it is a perfect neighborhood”. We went into the local chamber of commerce and Tripadvisor offices for things to do on our first day and both places stated we were in a very scary neighborhood.

I reached out to the host to ask her in the future to tell the truth about the neighborhood. I even tried to post a negative comment but they did not post it. Trulia is a great resource to see crime stats for neighborhoods instead of believing the reviews. Airbnb obviously does not post bad reviews. Has anyone else had this problem?

Airbnb Reviews are to Serve the Business

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When you look at a host’s review, you might not see the whole story. Our host wrote that people shouldn’t give her one-star reviews if they didn’t read her booking and know what to expect. Fair enough, right?

The host had hundreds of review, but if you scroll down, you can’t find any guests that did not recommend staying there. I wish I knew why someone would give this host a one-star review, and I figured out the hard way.

When I had to do an emergency change to the reservation, the host declined my request to change any dates. I ended up paying more than double the original price because it was a special weekend and $40 in Airbnb fees for two nights. Why do the booking and service fees cost so much for just two days?

The room was okay but the floor was like concrete: no rugs, tiles, or carpeting. There were spiders in the room and the bathroom, and the yard looked unkempt: dirt yard, wooden boards. You could see how the neighbor’s yard at least looked neat and had plants. It was a basic home and room that cost the same as staying in a hotel for one night.

When you have this happen, don’t bother calling Airbnb. After staying there, Airbnb predicted that my review might be too honest for them and actually blocked me from writing reviews. It’s a business, they said, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t appeal to them. They don’t even tell you that you can’t write reviews.

They force you to only have two choices: lose your money and don’t stay there, or have no choice but to stay there because after you’ve reserved on a strict reservation, there’s no cancelling. You end up losing your money anyway and paying 15% in fees.

Next time, book a hostel or a hotel where they don’t charge a high booking fee and let you change your reservation. Hostel and hotel reviews on Yelp aren’t monitored by the hostel and hotel themselves. You get more honest feedback that way. When reviews are monitored by the business and chosen by the business, you’ll know the reviews are to serve the business.

Airbnb Customer Disservice Leads to Threats

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I actually have never had any problems with Airbnb. I’ve been a host for a couple of years, and thus far, I’ve had great guests, and great experiences. I just had a guest who wrecked something so I mentioned it in the review. She was shocked and went above and beyond to remedy the situation (her husband had used our white towels to clean his muddy shoes, but she ordered a new towel set from Amazon and had it sent to us).

Because she did this, I wanted to go and either delete the review or mention that she fixed the problem… just to be fair. So this is all great, but then I landed on a customer service guy who was the antithesis of anything customer service oriented. Here is our conversation. Remember, this is a customer service / resolution representative.

“It appears what I have told you so far hasn’t made it to you. So here it is again – shorthand. I’d like to change a review I made of a guest, as they left a significant mess but they remedied the situation and I don’t think it’s fair to leave that review up about them without also sharing the actual outcome, as she went above and beyond expectations to fix the problem.”

“Unfortunately, I’m unable to resolve your case so I’m forwarding you to a team that can better assist you. While response times may vary, we do our best to respond within 24 hours. Thank you for your patience.”

“Will they call me or how does it work? I’m not waiting on here for 24 hours am I? Are you still there? Hello? Anybody out there?”

“Relax, my colleague said within 24 hours and it’s been three minutes. I’m from Airbnb’s resolutions team, please let me have a look right now.”

“I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to wait here for 24 hours or what. Thank you for your kind communication and your efforts to help.”

“Wow. FYI the difference between 9:34 and 9:40 is six minutes, not three.”

“Relax? This communication is definitely going to head office.”

“So you are already threatening me? That’s not very nice of you.”

“I have just been assigned to your case. It’s not a threat. I’m telling you about accountability. I’m trying to do a good thing on here, and you’re telling me to relax? That’s very resolutiony of you. You were assigned to my case and came on and told me to relax? For real? You’re acting like you’re an anonymous Twitter user, and you’re not. You’re representing a company that is global, and makes a lot of money. I will absolutely be sending this communication for accountability. You hold your hosts and your guests accountable for their behaviour, so I think it’s only fair to do the same with the so called ‘customer service’ representatives.”

I particularly like how he says “You’re already threatening me?” showing us all that he perceives that gets threatened regularly and it’s just a matter of time. I’m guessing if one pulls up his other communications, there will be a lot of anger and animosity. This is not a guy who should be representing any company in a customer service way, and he might want to go back to his Twitter troll ways.

The great thing is that he’s not anonymous, and we do know where he works and who he’s representing with his toxic aggression. I will also be sending a hard copy of this communication to the address Airbnb Hell has supplied. Just because. If we’re all held accountable for our behaviour, so too should the jerks representing Airbnb.

Guests can Extort because Airbnb doesn’t Enforce its Policies

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The Airbnb Extortion Policy prohibits “guests threatening to use reviews or ratings in an attempt to force a host to provide refunds.” However, Airbnb doesn’t appear serious about enforcing this policy, so guests can happily extort hosts to provide refunds for any frivolous concocted reason. Hosts have little recourse because the guest can always state their frivolous reason as their “personal experience” in their review and leave a one-star review in retaliation if their unreasonable demands are not met.

Here is what happened in my case. The guest knew at check-in that there was another concurrent guest’s dog on the property in the shared apartment listing but she claims she did not know that at the time of booking and that my not telling her that explicitly was unacceptable. She knew within moments of check-in that there was a dog locked in the other guest’s private space.

I offered to have the dog moved to a downstairs room on a different floor and she simply said “It’s fine. I just feel bad for the [locked up] dog.” It remained locked on a room on her floor. At nearly midnight of her last night’s stay, she messaged saying she was unhappy because of the dog’s crying (probably wanting to be taken out) and that she was allergic to dogs (surprise).

I immediately apologized and sought to address the situation but within moments of my response, she sent me another message saying she moved to a hotel and asked me to refund that last night’s stay with what was clearly a veiled threat, “I am keenly aware of review issues and I have no intention of leaving a bad review… I have left and moved to a hotel. I realize it is late and you cannot book someone for this night. However, I would appreciate a refund of tonight’s fee.”

I politely reminded her that her booking was on a strict cancellation policy, so I could not refund her. She went to write several long messages about why she deserved to be refunded, threatened escalating it to Airbnb or a credit card chargeback, tried all the escalations, and lost because her case had no merit. She retaliated by leaving a one-star review as was clearly implicit in her earlier threatening message (quoted above).

Airbnb seemingly considers her review to not violate its Content Policy because it allows a guest to state whatever they want as their “personal experience” and doesn’t seem to care to stand by its extortion policy. A guest can simply blackmail hosts by asking them for refunds on frivolous grounds, and even if they don’t explicitly threaten a bad review like in my case, the host knows the implicit threat exists.

There is little the host can do about a bad review. A guest could literally say, “I felt cheated because the place’s location felt like it was on the moon, so the listed location felt inaccurate” and leave a one-star review and Airbnb won’t do anything about it.

A reasonable customer service rep might help get it removed but that is rare and their policy is such that it explicitly allows guests to report obviously verifiable lies as their personal experience (as long as it doesn’t violate other parts of the Content Policy, like no discrimination, hate speech, etc.). Seems like a poorly worded Content Policy or at least a poorly enforced one.

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Horrible Landlord Now a Airbnb host

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Technically I’m not an Airbnb guest, but I’ve rented a room that just started advertising in Ventura in August on Airbnb. This is just a warning to potential guests. The ad is misleading; it’s for a long term month-to-month rental, it’s high pressure to lease, the host is very talkative, the house isn’t well maintained, and it’s been cited by code enforcement for multiple health and safety violations.

I’m on Airbnb as a guest, but since I leased a room before this property was advertised on Airbnb, I can’t post a review on Airbnb, since I have a lease. Airbnb does a good job protecting hosts and not policing its properties. This property only rents 30 days or longer. I’ve heard it’s impossible to get a refund, so my review is as follows.

I’ve been a guest at this property for over a year. I can honestly say it’s not bad. When the host is not here, it’s generally quiet. The host is the property owner and lives on site, but you’d never guess she cared about the property; it’s generally in neglect, the yard is just dirt and dusty, there’s peeling paint, and there’s no care about it’s upkeep. They’re willing to rent for $30 a night – a 30-night minimum – up front.

The ad is not being honest with expectations and is misleading, not showing two common areas, the garage and small living room (now advertised on Airbnb). Those two common areas were infested with vermin. One common area, the garage, is still cluttered. The second, a small living room, is now being advertised on Airbnb; it’s partly filled with clutter.

As a matter of warning, the host is not exactly a clean person; dirty clothes are lying around in common areas, piles of dishes are left in the sink, the house is dusty and musty, and there was a serous vermin infestation. It’s just matter of time before they return. What the ad doesn’t tell you is that the beds are futons; one bed is a old sofa bed in a living room surrounded by clutter.

The Airbnb bedroom currently advertised is occupied and full of clothes. If the room gets rented, that tenant has to move to the living room and the shared bathroom is with another tenant. If you rent the lovely living room – privacy by curtain – you get to share the bathroom with the host.

The ad states that it has smoke detectors, which it does, but only because I turned the landlord into code enforcement for not having them. She hadn’t handled other issues. She’ll ask you to vacate rather than do simple maintenance. It was easier to have code enforcement deal with her; their deadlines got her to move.

The house is fairly dirty. If you have to share the host’s bathroom, it’s a mess. My bedroom was next to it. I closed the door so I couldn’t see in. The toilet isn’t cleaned but once a month by a cleaning service, and the light in the bathroom doesn’t work; in fact, they don’t work in either bathroom. She’ll tell you that they are going to be fixed, but they’ve been broken for over five months.

The host never cleans – never. She had a friend crashing there. Her friend is the domestic help; when her friend moves out, the house goes back to full neglect. Something that was omitted in the travel brochure: the property is less than a mile from Ventura County Jail which discharges prisoners at all hours and the property is on a common path for foot travel.

There aren’t locks on some windows, there have been homeless people camped nearby. I pointed out to the host that just outside her wall is a bedding area, which doesn’t bother me, but it might someone else The bathroom is small, very small and shared with full time tenant. Typically the house rule is all showering must be done by 11:00 PM and none in the early morning.

One good thing: the house is 420 friendly. Despite what the host says, she smokes weed on occasion. Still, it’s not a well-kept property. The tenant and guest refrigerator and washer and dryer are in the garage and the garage is a nightmare zone; it’s dirty, has had serious vermin infestation, been cited for contamination and still has piles of papers, boxes and clutter next to the tenant refrigerator.

The place is loud. The host is a loud talker. She had a female friend crashing there, who was loud. Together they were exceptionally loud, talking on speaker phones.

The place is dirty with poor ventilation. The beds are thin, old, and had been used for years. Your clothes go into plastic bins or you have to keep them in your suitcase. It’s not a short-term rental; it’s leased month to month for a minimum of 30 days. The house was cited for lack of maintenance and it remains the same.

During my tenancy here, every tenant has said the host lied to him or her, denied any issues, even denied vermin despite catching three in a day, lied about repairs, and harassed long term tenants when complaints were made.

My Bad Airbnb Review was Disappeared

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I wrote a very clear, factual, but damning review of a room in Bolinas, California, and Airbnb did not post the review. When I called to see where that review went, they claimed they do not spike bad reviews, but that is pure BS. The room was almost $300 with add-on fees, and it consisted of a bed and a folding chair. That’s it: no table; no soap; no instructions on how to work the door lock; no parking (in spite of the fact the listing claimed there was parking for guests).

They’re an exploitative rental, and Airbnb is exploitative for protecting bad hosts. I could say more but just realize that Airbnb is not an honest mediator. Guests reviews, very factual but negative, are not shared with you, the consumer public. I’m done with them. You should try another platform and avoid places that they falsely list.

Airbnb Review System Heavily Censored

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My gripe is with Airbnb itself. My family (four adults + one child) booked a house in Aptos, California for seven days. It wasn’t cheap, but that is not the problem. The property didn’t live up to expectations and our review reflected the shortcomings we found. We also praised the good aspects of the property as we are trying to give a balanced picture for future guests.

Some of our more negative comments included the incident on our second night when police were called to the house opposite ours and shouts of “I have a gun” were heard – not very neighbourly. Other review comments related to the kitchen cleaning; we had to wash nearly every utensil in the kitchen before use, despite being charged a very hefty cleaning charge.

The problem is that the review was heavily censored and probably 2/3rds of the review was missing. Contacting Airbnb customer service was the usual trail of BS and deadends with the only contact being someone who couldn’t find my review. What kind of data storage do they have? The last I heard they were “closing this ticket, have a nice day.”

This attitude reeks of modern day big business i.e., Microsoft, Facebook, et al becoming too self important and losing track of the fundamentals. Would like to hear if other Airbnbers have had similar censorship issues?