Airbnb Support Sided With Us—Review Team Didn’t. Anyone Else Experience This?

Question

A cautionary tale for anyone hosting on Airbnb or thinking about getting into the STR business.

A guest checked into one of my lakefront properties and left within one hour, claiming mold, strong odor, and attic moisture issues. I responded the same night. My team, the property owner, and I were all on-site within hours. We used a moisture meter at every spot she pointed to. Every reading came back at 0%. The attic was dry. No one on our team could detect any odor. Camera footage showed the guest spent most of her time outside during the hour she was there.

Airbnb Support reviewed the full case, including all of our documentation, and found our evidence to be valid. A senior case manager told us our case ID would serve as valid evidence to have the review removed.

The review dispute team denied us twice anyway. No real explanation. Just that the review follows their Reviews Policy.

So a guest can leave a 1-star review with claims that have been objectively disproven with timestamped video, moisture meter readings, and an Airbnb support case resolved in the host's favor, and Airbnb will still let it stand.

If you are a host, know what you are getting into. Document everything. Always. And understand that when it comes to reviews, Airbnb's system currently offers hosts very little protection even when the evidence is overwhelming.

Laura Winters · Answer

This is super tricky one. Did you refund the guest? Airbnb review validate guest’s experience over facts. You need to understand the review is not a stage to argue who is right or wrong but expressing how they felt about the experience. If the guest left the property in an hour and didn't get a refund, that is an experience.

Lauren Kormylo · Answer

Here's what you need to know as of now - the Airbnb review dispute team is now all AI, there are no real people taking care of this.  So for any chance of justice, you have to have AI write your submissions to them, so that it's AI reasoning with AI.  It has come to that.  And you need to quote the exact policy the guest is breaking in their review. And even then, the chances now of reviews being removed are way more slim than before.

Andrew Steffens · Answer

Airbnb CS in general is spotty.  Both on guest and host side, most people know if at first you do not succeed, try and try again.  I had a guest get denied 3 times and kept trying for a refund and succeeded on the 4th attempt.