A Negative Review After a Guest Pays for Damage? A Guide for Airbnb Hosts!

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For Airbnb hosts, guests damaging items and compensation claims are common problems. What is even more frustrating, however, is that guests may leave a negative review after compensation is settled.

This affects the host’s reputation and may also hurt future bookings. Can a guest still leave a negative review after paying compensation? Can hosts prevent or remove such reviews?

Today, we will answer these questions and share some practical strategies.

1. Can a Guest Leave a Negative Review After Paying Compensation?

Under Airbnb’s review policy, guests can still leave a review after compensation is settled. However, the platform’s rules on retaliatory reviews are very clear: if a negative review results from a compensation dispute, the host has the right to request its removal.

Basis in the rules: Airbnb’s Review Policy explicitly prohibits retaliatory reviews by guests over compensation or disputes. If a host provides evidence showing that a negative review is retaliation, they can appeal for its removal.

However, note that Airbnb’s recent policies increasingly favor guest protection, and the success rate for removing negative reviews is no longer 100%.

For example:

If a guest maliciously holds a party that damages the home, the related negative review will be successfully removed 100% of the time.

If a guest refuses to pay for a low-value damaged item and Airbnb intervenes directly to reimburse the host, the platform’s unwritten rule is: it pays compensation but will not help remove the negative review. Hosts usually have to choose between a negative review and compensation.

2. How Can You Effectively Prevent or Remove Negative Reviews?

Preventing Negative Reviews: Take Precautions

Keep communication professional: when handling compensation, communicate calmly and professionally with guests, avoid emotional language and minimize conflict.

Create a good experience: during compensation negotiations, let guests see that you take the issue seriously and are sincere, helping defuse potential disagreements.

A Guide to Removing Negative Reviews

When a negative review has already appeared, hosts can try the following steps:

(1) Determine whether the review violates policy: read it carefully and look for retaliatory language arising from compensation or a dispute.

(2) Submit evidence:

Take screenshots of communication showing that the guest’s motive for the review is connected with the compensation incident.

Provide photographs of damaged items and records of Airbnb’s compensation process to show that the host’s actions were justified.

(3) Contact Airbnb support: use the platform’s Report a Problem function to submit an appeal, explain the circumstances in detail and attach evidence.

(4) Persist and try again: if the initial appeal is refused, consider several attempts, adding new explanations and reasons each time and emphasizing the review’s negative effect on the business.

Note: if a guest submitted the review before the compensation claim, it generally cannot be considered retaliatory, so the success rate for removal is lower.

A Friendly Reminder for Hosts

Guest reviews are a host’s reputation card. Whether preventing or removing negative reviews, you must work within the rules. At the same time, improving service quality through professional management is fundamental to long-term development.

If you have more experience or insights in short- and mid-term rental management, send us a private message so we can exchange ideas!

If you:

Hope to increase rental income through short-term rentals;

Cannot spare a great deal of time to handle the small details;

Occasionally need to use the home yourself, making it unsuitable to empty out the furniture for a long-term rental;

Then:

Snowball Rentals’ management team is your best choice.

From pre-launch vacation-rental styling, big-data analysis and online marketing to tenant screening, dynamic pricing, customer service and sales, cleaning and repairs, Snowball Rentals provides everything

as one complete service for your home!

This Week’s Booking Results

Through long-standing relationships with insurers, assignment companies and technology companies, Snowball Rentals rents homes for medium- and long-term durations at short-term rates, then gives owners a rebate of 5% in management fees to maximize their income.

As the weather gets cooler, Seattle’s short-term rental low season is approaching again.

Short-term rentals in peak season and mid-term rentals in low season: this is the new strategy we have repeatedly emphasized and tried this year!

Some recent large bookings have been like a ray of sunshine. Homeowners, let us support one another and face the approaching low season with confidence.

For the following detached home in Kirkland, Zillow shows an estimated long-term monthly rent of about US$4,133.

With the owner’s trust and support, we carefully furnished the home and immediately began short-term rental operations. Fortunately, because the home’s condition and location are both good, short- and mid-term bookings have continued to come in.

As shown in the booking screenshot below, a guest recently rented this home from January 15 to April 15, a total of 90 nights, at an average monthly rent of about

US$6,600.

In summary, after Snowball Rentals operated this property, monthly rental income rose from US$4,133 to US$6,600, an increase of about 60%.

Securing such a large booking in low season is no easy feat!

As mentioned above, this 90-night booking from January 15 to April 15 covers 3 months of the short-term rental low season, which runs from September through March of the following year. We believe performance can be even better when peak season arrives!

For homeowners, combining short- and mid-term rentals in this way can earn more in peak season and help them get through low season smoothly. Even if the low-season rental figures look less dramatic, they still outperform long-term rentals and give homeowners a strong sense of financial security.

More importantly, the owner does not have to worry about maintenance or cleaning. When something needs to be discussed with guests, we also help with communication and oversight.

Here, we again thank the owner for placing trust in the Snowball Rentals team!

After nearly two years of Airbnb’s downturn, we at Snowball Rentals hope to help owners make steady progress in low season, navigate the challenges safely and lay a better foundation for next year’s peak season.

Once again, heartfelt thanks to our homeowners for their trust and support. Whether the market is strong or weak, Snowball Rentals will stand with you and look for ways to increase your income!

Some homeowners will surely ask the hard question: was a large booking like this just a stroke of luck? What if the home does not rent? A long-term rental is more stable—even earning less is better than earning nothing!

Our answer is: the outcome depends on what we do.

Vacation-Rental Styling

Competition on Airbnb is becoming increasingly intense. The days of piecing together secondhand furniture, taking phone photos and earning easy money on Airbnb are over. Airbnb hosts have moved toward professional operations.

Careful design and furnishing before launch, followed by professional short-term rental operations, will be the only choice for a rental that continues to generate high income.

Here is another of Snowball Rentals’ core services: vacation-rental styling!

Using the home above as an example, let us look together at its appearance after furnishing:

When choosing a short-term rental on Airbnb, would this home’s appearance attract you?

If you would also like to make your home more attractive and earn more rent, please contact us at any time!

This Week’s Short Videos

We regularly update short videos every week.

The content you need is all here.

👇🏻 Homeowners are welcome to follow us 👇🏻

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Snowball Rentals

Snowball Rentals

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Snowball Rentals

We also share practical vacation-rental styling plans and creative ideas to help you achieve more with less spending!

Keep rental income growing!

Xiao An’s Vacation-Rental Styling

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Referral Rewards

If you are already a Snowball Rentals homeowner, you receive a US$500 referral fee for each referral.

If you are not yet a Snowball Rentals homeowner, you receive a US$250 shopping voucher for each referral.

Snowball Rentals Management

1. Full service — We provide pre-launch rental design, furniture procurement, furnishing, professional photography, online marketing, copywriting, tenant service and sales, cleaning, supply purchasing and property repairs. You only need to be a hands-off owner; we handle the rest.

2. Multi-platform promotion — We promote the home on Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway and other mainstream platforms for maximum exposure.

3. Dynamic pricing — Using big data, we adjust prices every day according to seasonal demand, holidays, last-minute vacancy offers, weekends and local activities, maximizing the owner’s income.

4. Income-improvement SOP — We follow 44 secrets for maximizing short-term rental income, optimizing each property’s online marketing, on-site operations and other aspects to work toward maximum income.

5. Flexible owner stays — Owners can flexibly choose when to stay themselves. This is especially suitable for owners with multiple residences around the world.

6. Terminate at any time — Management does not require an annual commitment. The owner can end the agreement with one month’s advance notice.

7. Corporate housing — In addition to nightly rentals, we work with insurers and assignment companies to provide executives with hotel-style managed accommodation for stays longer than 30 days.

8. Transparent fees — For rentals longer than 30 days, we charge 15% of accommodation revenue. For nightly rentals under 30 days, we charge 20% of accommodation revenue.

Author’s tip: Personal views, for reference only.