8 More Tips for Responding to Negative Airbnb Reviews

Even the most excellent hosts receive negative Airbnb reviews occasionally from their guests. Even though you can’t change the review you can control your response and the way you do this will showcase how great of a host you are. Here are some tips to consider when you have to answer to a negative review.

bad reviews airbnb

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #1. Remain professional

You might be offended or hurt by a bad review, but it’s important to not take it personally. Keep your response short, professional and to the point. Avoid traits like defensiveness and shifting blame as they will only make you look bad. You want everyone to see that you are a professional, mature host that they can be comfortable approaching with questions or concerns. Explain your side, if applicable, in a neutral tone without placing any blame on the guest. If you feel the criticism is unjustified, recognizing that the negativity is the problem of the guest goes a long way.

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #2. Take the time to write a well-thought out response

It might be tempting to reply negatively or try to contest the review with your side of an argument, but instead, take a deep breath and a step back. There are a few tools you can use to help you craft professional responses, located at Big assignments and Ox essays.

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #3. Reach out to the guest directly

It may be a good idea to communicate with the guest directly to apologize and offer any assistance you can to make things right. It’s possible the bad review is a case of miscommunication and would be resolved through a quick conversation.

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #4. Don’t be afraid to apologize

You should always offer a genuine apology both when posting a public response and when communicating directly with the guest. Even if you think the complaint wasn’t your fault or the guest is out of line and you disagree on the situation, a true host’s job is to make your guests happy and offer to fix any problem they may have.

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #5. Wait before replying

Airbnb waits for both the guest and the host to submit their reviews before publishing them. It gives you 2 weeks to submit your review, but it also pauses the potentially negative review from being posted on your site for 2 weeks. A tip from Lucy Harrison, a marketing manager at Academized and Paper Fellows, is that “since Airbnb reviews are published in the order of the stays and not when they go live, you can hopefully receive some good reviews during those 2 weeks and when the bad review goes live, it will be buried a few reviews down the list.”

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #6. Contest reviews if you need to

Unfortunately, it’s quite difficult to get Airbnb to take down a bad review. This is one of the reasons the site does so well because the users trust the system to be transparent. However, there are some rare cases in which the site will take down a review. If you think you’re the victim of review extortion (threatening a bad review to extort a user), or if you think a review is incentivized by a promise of discount or payment, you can reach out to Airbnb, but there are no guarantees it will be removed.

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #7. Don’t respond to all reviews

You don’t need to respond to all reviews – sometimes responding will simply draw attention to a complaint. Larry Goldstein, a communication manager at Australian help and State of writing, recommends that “it’s best to only respond to those which mention something that has been resolved so guests can see it’s no longer applicable.”

Negative Airbnb Reviews Tip #8. Move past it

Once you’ve done everything you can, it’s time to move past it and let it go. These negative reviews will be outnumbered by the positive ones in the long run, and most guests can tell when negative reviews seem unreasonable or not a big deal.

Negative Airbnb reviews can affect your reputation and bookings in the future as a host on Airbnb. Try to keep an eye out for signs that a customer may complain to avoid it in the first place, and if you do receive a negative review, simply follow these tips to respond in a kind, professional and courteous manner.


Nora Mork is a communication manager and business writer at UK Writings and Essay Roo. She enjoys learning marketing best practices and sharing her opinion at blogs, such as Boom Essays.

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One Response

  1. Natalie
    January 20, 2020

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