How to Remove an Airbnb Review

Read the review against Airbnb's policy on authentic and trustworthy reviews and note the category it breaks. Airbnb states that reviews may only be removed from its platform in limited circumstances, and that its policy is informed by the consumer laws that apply to online reviews. That is why the grounds are narrow and why the wording of a dispute decides the outcome.

Not grounds for removal. Airbnb publishes three examples that do not qualify. Disagreement with a star rating, and its own example is a review reading nice home and great stay attached to three stars. A review that mentions factors outside the host's control, because Airbnb treats something like a noisy neighborhood as information a future guest may want. Subjective opinion, and its example is a guest calling a kitchen small and cramped when the host considers it spacious.

Grounds for removal, in Airbnb's own categories. Reviews that are irrelevant, meaning not about the offering reviewed or not based on the reviewer's firsthand experience of the reservation. Reviews that are fake, meaning not based on a real reservation. Reviews involving bias, deception, extortion, incentivization or pressure. Reviews used to harm competition. Reviews that are retaliatory. Reviews that break the Content Policy.

If you would rather not build the case yourself, our Airbnb review removal service documents the exact policy breach and charges only when the review comes down.

Airbnb documents this on its remove or dispute a review page. The desktop path:

1. Click Profile
2. Click Show reviews I have written
3. Go to the review you want to remove
4. Click Remove Review and follow the prompts

The same option sits in the iOS app, the Android app and the mobile browser. Airbnb's policy page repeats the window in one line: you can remove a review you have written up to 30 days from the date it is published.

Hosts sometimes read this as a route to getting a guest to withdraw a bad review. Be careful with it. Airbnb prohibits coordinating with, manipulating, extorting, incentivizing or pressuring another person to influence a review, and prohibits reviews provided or withheld in exchange for something of value, including a discount, a refund or a reciprocal positive review. Asking a guest to pull a review in return for money puts your own account inside the policy you are trying to use.

What each ground actually covers, from Airbnb's Reviews Policy:

• Irrelevant. Reviews that are not about the offering reviewed, or that do not provide the participants' firsthand experience of the reservation. Airbnb names two cases directly: a guest who never arrived, and a guest who canceled for circumstances unrelated to what they booked.
• Fake. Reviews not based on a real reservation. Airbnb says reviews must be submitted by or on behalf of someone who participated in the reservation.
• Bias, deception, extortion, incentivization or pressure. Airbnb states that hosts and guests may not threaten a negative review as a means to obtain unwarranted compensation, a refund or other incentive. A message thread where a guest asks for money and names the rating they will leave is the cleanest evidence in this whole guide.
• Used to harm competition. Reviews of listings the reviewer is directly affiliated with or in direct competition with.
• Retaliatory. Airbnb applies a three part test. The reviewer committed a policy violation, was notified of that violation, and then left a biased review because their own violation was reported. Airbnb adds that a review discussing the facts or legitimacy of a Resolution Center or AirCover claim is not automatically retaliatory.
• Content Policy. The Content Policy prohibits content that is illegal, sexually explicit, violent, graphic, threatening, demeaning, insulting or harassing, content that breaches the Nondiscrimination Policy, impersonation, and content that publicly discloses another person's private information.

Retaliation is the ground hosts most often have and most often lose, and the reason is sequencing. The test requires that the guest was notified of their violation before the review was written. A host who absorbs a house rules breach quietly and raises it only after the one-star lands has no retaliation case left. Reporting the violation at the time is what creates the record.

The flow on desktop, from Airbnb's remove or dispute a review page:

1. Click Get started
2. Select the review you want removed
3. Select the reason you want it removed
4. Provide details about why
5. Upload any supporting documentation
6. Click Submit

Airbnb adds a search tip that saves time. When looking for the review, search words contained in the review itself, because searching the reviewer's name or other details may not work.

Attach the record rather than the argument. The reservation, the full message thread, the Resolution Center case, the policy violation report and its timestamp, and the clause of the Reviews Policy the review breaks. Airbnb says it generally does not mediate disputes concerning review accuracy, so a dispute built on the guest being a liar asks for a judgement Airbnb has published that it will not make.

Two limits worth knowing before you file. If the request button does not work, Airbnb says you or another eligible person may already have a request pending on that review. And you can submit a removal request for the same review up to two times, so the second attempt is the last one. Make the first one count.

From Airbnb's page on responding to a review, the desktop path is Profile, then Reviews, then Reviews about you, then Leave public response on the review. Airbnb notes that the response posts immediately and that future hosts and guests see it on your listing page alongside the original review.

Keep it short and factual. Correct the one thing that is wrong, state what you did, and stop. A defensive paragraph does more damage to a booking decision than the review did. Airbnb's own framing is that it generally does not mediate disputes about review accuracy and that users can post responses instead, so treat the response as the built-in remedy for everything that will not meet a removal ground.

The difference between a DIY dispute and a specialist case:

• DIY dispute: one request, usually arguing the guest was unreasonable, in a queue that declines exactly that argument.
• Specialist case: the named clause, the documented sequence Airbnb's retaliation test requires, and a filing written for a reviewer who decides dozens a day inside 48 hours.

Worth it when your first request was declined and you have one attempt left, when several reviews landed at once, or when Superhost status and search position are moving because of it. A specialist also keeps you clear of Airbnb's rules on pressuring reviewers, because the case argues from the policy rather than going near the guest. Repvive works on that model: no removal, no fee. Start with a free audit from our Airbnb review removal service and you will know which reviews match a published ground before you spend a second request.