How do I respond to a bad Airbnb review?

Who your reply is really for

The guest who wrote the review has already left and is unlikely to come back. The people who read your reply are future guests scrolling your listing, deciding whether you are someone they want to stay with. Your reply will sit next to the review on your listing page for as long as the review is there.

So the reply has one job: show a future guest that you take problems seriously and that the issue, if it was real, won't happen to them. Winning the argument with the reviewer is not the job. A calm, specific reply often reads better than the review it answers.

How Airbnb reviews work

• •Guests and hosts have 14 days after checkout to write a review. A review publishes once both of you have submitted one, or when the 14 days end, whichever comes first.
• •The overall star rating is public. The category ratings are seen only by you and Airbnb, so read them: they often show what actually went wrong.
• •You can post a public response to a review left for you. It posts as soon as you submit it, so write it carefully the first time.
• •You can't delete a review. Airbnb removes one only if it breaks the Reviews Policy, and you request that through the review removal flow.
• •A guest can remove their own review in the 30 days after it publishes.

To reply on desktop, go to your profile, open Reviews, then Reviews about you, select the review and choose Leave public response. You can also reply from the reviews list in Insights. Menu names change, so check Airbnb's help page on responding to reviews if yours looks different.

Before you write: fair, partly fair or false

Reread the review the next day and sort each complaint into one of three groups. Check your messages with the guest, your cleaner's photos from that turnover and your listing description before you decide.

• •Fair: something went wrong. Say so plainly and say what you changed.
• •Partly fair: the issue was real but the review leaves out context, such as a problem the guest never reported during the stay. Acknowledge it and add the missing fact without blaming.
• •False or outside the stay: the review describes something that didn't happen, or a different stay. Correct the record in one sentence, then consider a removal request.

How to say it

Keep it to a few sentences. Thank, address the specific point, state the fix or the fact, close. No guest names, no private details, no sarcasm, and no offer of money in public. Adjust these examples to what actually happened:

When to request removal

Airbnb's Reviews Policy lists the reviews it can remove. The ones hosts meet most are reviews that aren't about the actual stay (for example, from a guest who never arrived), reviews used to extort, such as a guest threatening a bad review unless you pay, and reviews with discriminatory or harmful content. A review written in retaliation can qualify too, but only narrowly: when you reported the guest for a real violation, they were notified, and they then wrote a biased review because of it.

Airbnb doesn't remove reviews because you disagree with the star rating, because they mention something outside your control that is still relevant to future guests, or because they are a subjective opinion. If yours qualifies, use the removal request on desktop: select the review, choose the reason, explain briefly and attach evidence such as message screenshots. Airbnb says it usually emails a decision about 48 hours after you submit, and you can file up to two requests for the same review. Post your public response anyway; it protects you while you wait.

Mistakes to avoid

• •Replying in the first hour. Write the draft, sleep on it, then cut it in half.
• •Arguing line by line. Future guests skim, and a long defense reads as defensive.
• •Offering a refund or a discount in exchange for removing or changing a review. That breaks the Reviews Policy, and so does pressuring a guest about their review.
• •Pasting the same reply under every review. Answer what this guest said.
• •Fixing nothing. If two reviews mention the same problem, the problem is real.

If the bad review came with a refund demand, handle the money question on its own terms first; see what to do when a guest wants a refund after checking out.