Guest threatened me with a retaliatory Airbnb review after I left an honest review
I’m a relatively new Airbnb host and just had my worst experience so far.
The guests checked out late even after I gave them an extra 2 hours for free, left the apartment extremely dirty, and I spent hours cleaning afterward. I left them an honest but factual review.
After noticing I had submitted a review (before they could even see what I wrote), the guest contacted me privately on WhatsApp asking if I had “issues” with them. I replied politely that I simply left an honest review based on my hosting experience.
Then he sent this:
“Do you want to re-think the review you wrote before I submit yours?”
followed by:
“We can come to an understanding but first acknowledge what you wrote is inaccurate.”
Right after that, they left me a 1-star review claiming the apartment was dirty from arrival, even though:
- they never mentioned any cleanliness issue during the stay,
- they personally requested to extend their stay,
- and some complaints (like no Wi-Fi) were already clearly disclosed in the listing before booking.
I reported this to Airbnb as a retaliatory/coercive review and attached screenshots, but so far they refused to remove it.
Has anyone here successfully had a retaliatory review removed under Airbnb’s review policy? Any advice?