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Airbnb removed my negative review

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Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#41

Post by _Algernon_ »

danuker wrote: post #20
elmerfud wrote: post #8

Airbnb removed my positive review and accused me of being in cahoots with the host to leave positive feedback. They said they have found an existing relationship between me and the host. Mind you have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb, I'm from USA and this was in Medellin Colombia, I usually stay at Marriott hotels and I only went with Airbnb because the girl I traveled with suggested usi…

[flagged]

Considering how often Americans write "could of" instead of "could have" I believe there is a correlation between poor grammar and being from the US.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#42

Post by _gabe_ »

I had something similar happen on Amazon. I bought a pair of winter gloves then got a letter a week later in the mail offering me $30 (twice what I paid) if I left a 5 star reviews. The letter even left a message at the bottom saying not to post a review with a picture of the letter! That annoyed me, so of course I posted a review with a picture of the letter, then Amazon rejected the review since it didn't review the product.

I'm never trusting online reviews anymore. Especially when the companies pull BS like this.

Edit: I just revisited the original email that I got from Amazon. They rejected my review because I left feedback about the seller, so I went to their seller feedback portal and left a message and never got a response. I still feel like this is a dark practice though, a review highlighting the fact the seller is farming 5 star reviews should still be posted, even though it's about the seller and not the product.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#43

Post by brookst »

cdbyr wrote: post #21
raincom wrote: post #2

Any platform that extracts money from X has the incentive to get rid of any negative reviews about X. Reviewers are not the revenue source. That's why AirBnB, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc will get rid of bad reviews for the right price. Read all bad stuff about AirBnB on reddit, you see where airbnb is heading. People should stop using that platform, whenever you find an alternative.

There was a line from Jeff Bezos, ""One of the early examples of this is customer reviews. Someone wrote to me and said, 'You don't understand your business. You make money when you sell things. Why do you allow these negative customer reviews?' "And when I read that letter, I thought, we don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions." The incentives are different…

That Bezos quote is insightful. For companies that just help people pick which product to buy, steering customers away from bad products will increase satisfaction and repeat business.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#44

Post by oliwarner »

elmerfud wrote: post #8

Airbnb removed my positive review and accused me of being in cahoots with the host to leave positive feedback. They said they have found an existing relationship between me and the host. Mind you have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb, I'm from USA and this was in Medellin Colombia, I usually stay at Marriott hotels and I only went with Airbnb because the girl I traveled with suggested usi…

> have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb

See what happens if you ask a bank for a loan with no credit history.

Of course these are only tangentially alike, but public history is an important way to distinguish organic reviews from AstroTurf.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#45

Post by kzrdude »

cdbyr wrote: post #21
raincom wrote: post #2

Any platform that extracts money from X has the incentive to get rid of any negative reviews about X. Reviewers are not the revenue source. That's why AirBnB, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc will get rid of bad reviews for the right price. Read all bad stuff about AirBnB on reddit, you see where airbnb is heading. People should stop using that platform, whenever you find an alternative.

There was a line from Jeff Bezos, ""One of the early examples of this is customer reviews. Someone wrote to me and said, 'You don't understand your business. You make money when you sell things. Why do you allow these negative customer reviews?' "And when I read that letter, I thought, we don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions." The incentives are different…

Bezos apparently thinks Amazon makes money when they let consumers buy knockoff and fake products, too.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#46

Post by wantsanagent »

medellin wrote: post #9

Airbnb most recently has continued to ignore requests to remove houses that violate the building’s HOA where i live. People have been turned away when they show up by security as it’s not allowed but the people just try to sneak them in. When reporting this to airbnb they refuse to do anything. I’m getting fairly sick of the laissez faire stances these companies are taking. It’s not just that we don’t want airbnb its…

Frankly I'll back AirBnB over an HOA any day. HOAs are a societal cancer.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#47

Post by mgkimsal »

LegitShady wrote: post #4

Now you know for sure you can't trust AirBNB to make ethical decisions on reviews, so you know for sure you can't use AirBNB without opening yourself to these problems. That something was against their rules but the operator is still a "super host" is further evidence any AirBNB designated statuss is worthless. So take your money elsewhere.

I wish more people would. Without sharing more public stories like this, there's nothing more some of us can do. My wife used abnb twice: once OK/meh experience, one horrible/abusive. Never again. But that was... 8 years ago. How can I 'take my money elsewhere' when... I'm not giving it to them anyway? I already did "take my money elsewhere" 8 years ago. And I know others who have too, but we're small individual voices that can't be heard over the advertising (and... negative review deletions) of the last decade.

10 years ago (or more) the "hey, we're getting a neat little off-the-beaten path house experience for a great deal!"... probably was a selling point. Today, abnb/vrbo/etc is just a corporatized juggernaut.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#48

Post by vandyswa »

irrational wrote: post #22
bjarneh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any real alternatives? In my opinion reviews on booking.com seem even stranger...

We used to stay at airbnb places all the time, but no more. The fees have reached a ridiculous level (hint: set your location as Australia, but your currency as USD to see the true cost). The alternative we have switched to is… hotels.

I converted a van to an RV, and now we stay in RV sites. Never going back to AirBNB/VRBO/Hotels! I know, useless for international travel, but within the USA it has become--by far--the most congenial option.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#49

Post by mgkimsal »

geoduck14 wrote: post #12
raydiatian wrote: post #6

I had the same experience with VRBO. My "hosts" decided to come home at midnight and fuck loudly in the room next to me while I was trying to sleep, so I left. VRBO first told me I couldn't get my money back, but that I could leave a negative review if I was unsatisfied. The host denied everything, even though it was pretty obviously coming from inside the house, I even had to walk right past the window where they we…

That's odd. Last night I saw a VRBO commercial saying all of their listing were "rent the while house"

I've seen those ads too, and it seems like it's a fairly recent thing? Maybe it was optional before, but now is standard?

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#50

Post by dazc »

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #34

Heh... I recently made a Booking.com review that started with... "Reviews were stunning, the location was great, the price was reasonable". Then, I went on explaining that I landed in front of a closed door, the host was not reachable, Booking.com support was not helpful, so I just drove on through the night and over mountains until I reached home 11 hours later. After I made the review, Booking.com only kept the fir…

Bookingdotcom is a great place to find all the available options on one page, that's all.
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