Fake Airbnb Reviews: How to Deal with Them [FULL GUIDE]

Key Takeaways

• Fake Airbnb reviews mislead users and damage trust.
• They affect visibility, bookings, and overall credibility.
• Report them calmly and respond with professionalism.

Intro

You’ve likely come across a listing with reviews that just don’t feel right. Some sound too good to be true, while others seem unfairly harsh.

It’s frustrating when feedback doesn’t match reality, especially if it affects your bookings or trust in a stay.

Fake Airbnb reviews can do real damage — they mislead guests, hurt honest hosts, and make it harder for everyone to know who to trust.

This guide will help you understand what fake reviews look like, how they spread, and what you can do to handle them the right way.

What Are Fake Airbnb Reviews?

Fake Airbnb reviews are posts that don’t reflect a real guest experience.

They’re written to manipulate public perception, either to harm a host’s reputation or to make a listing appear better than it really is.

At their core, these reviews are no different from fake feedback on Google, Facebook, or any other platform. They distort trust, mislead readers, and can directly affect a business’s income and credibility.

This is why platforms such as Airbnb, Google, and Yelp enforce strict policies against fake reviews, and why we help our clients detect and handle them before they escalate.

Types

Not all fake reviews look the same. Some are easy to spot, while others sound convincing enough to fool even experienced travelers. Generally, they fall into two main categories depending on who’s affected: hosts or guests.

For Hosts: Negative Fake Airbnb Reviews

These are reviews written to damage a host’s reputation rather than share genuine feedback.

They often come from:

• Disgruntled guests exaggerating or fabricating claims after being denied refunds
• Competitors creating burner accounts to post false complaints
• Personal disputes where someone weaponizes the review system out of spite

What makes them harmful is their long-term visibility. Even a single fake one star review can lower your overall rating, reduce your listing’s visibility, and create doubt in potential guests.

We’ve seen similar issues in local businesses: one false Google Review or Facebook comment can instantly make new customers question your trustworthiness.

That’s why it’s crucial to know how to spot patterns of fake negativity early, gather proof, and respond calmly.

For Guests: Positive Fake Airbnb Reviews

These are the flip side, fake positives designed to deceive potential renters.

They’re often written or purchased by hosts trying to boost a poor listing’s appeal. The language is typically over-the-top (“Best stay ever!” “Absolutely perfect!”) or suspiciously vague. When several five-star reviews appear within days, all sounding similar, that’s usually a red flag.

Guests rely on reviews to choose safe and accurate listings, so fake positives can waste money, time, and trust. The same pattern appears across other platforms: fake praise inflates expectations and eventually backfires once real customers experience something different.

How Can Fake Reviews Affect Airbnb?

Fake reviews don’t just hurt one listing. They weaken trust across the entire platform and make both hosts and guests question the honesty of what they read.

When enough of them slip through, they can distort bookings, reward dishonest listings, and damage Airbnb’s overall credibility.

• They erode trust among users who rely on genuine feedback when choosing where to stay
• They create unfair competition by pushing down honest listings while boosting fake ones
• They expose Airbnb and users to policy and legal risks from fake or incentivized content
• They cause poor guest experiences when expectations are built on misleading praise

Over time, fake reviews turn genuine feedback into noise.

The same pattern happens across Google, Facebook, and other platforms, showing why protecting review authenticity is essential to maintaining real trust and consistent growth.

How to Spot Fake Airbnb Reviews

Just like fake Google or Facebook reviews, fake Airbnb reviews tend to follow repeatable patterns: emotional tone, sudden bursts of activity, and vague or exaggerated language.

Below are ways to identify them based on whether they’re negative or positive.

Negative Fake Airbnb Reviews

Negative fakes usually aim to damage a host’s reputation — whether out of frustration, competition, or revenge. They tend to exaggerate minor issues or invent situations that never happened.

Check the Reviewer’s Profile

Start by clicking the reviewer’s name. If they’ve only left one or two reviews or recently created the account, that’s a red flag. Competitors or angry guests often use new or alternate profiles to hide their identity.

Look for Contradictory Details

Fake negatives often include inconsistent or impossible claims — like complaining about amenities your listing doesn’t offer or describing locations inaccurately.

Keep screenshots and documentation handy to prove discrepancies if you decide to report the review.

Analyze Review Timing Patterns

Watch for suspicious timing, such as a sudden drop in your average rating after declining a refund or canceling a problematic booking. Fake negatives often appear immediately after conflict or within clusters, suggesting coordinated posting.

Compare Language Tone Across Reviews

Most fake negatives sound emotionally charged and less descriptive.

You’ll see lots of adjectives but little detail (“awful stay,” “worst host ever,” “don’t book here”) without specific examples.

Authentic guests usually describe concrete experiences (“check-in was late by 20 minutes,” “wifi dropped during the second night”).

Positive Fake Airbnb Reviews

Fake positives are usually written to inflate a listing’s reputation and mislead potential guests. They sound flattering but lack personal detail or depth.

Notice Overly Generic Praise

If multiple reviews say things like “perfect stay,” “amazing host,” “best Airbnb ever” without mentioning what made it great, that’s often a giveaway. Real guests usually describe small, personal details — like check-in smoothness, decor, or host communication.

Spot Repetitive Wording and Timing

Several five-star reviews posted within a few days, using similar phrasing or tone, can signal a review-exchange group or purchased feedback. Airbnb’s algorithms can detect this pattern, but many slip through temporarily.

Check Reviewer Histories

A burst of new profiles all leaving glowing feedback on the same listing? That’s suspicious. You can click through each profile to see if they’ve reviewed other properties. If not, they might be dummy accounts.

Watch for Imbalanced Ratios

If a listing has dozens of five-star reviews and only one or two lower ones — and all the positives sound vague — the rating pattern itself can indicate manipulation. Genuine hosts get a natural mix of feedback.

How to Deal with Fake Airbnb Reviews

Spotting a fake review is only half the battle — the real challenge is knowing how to respond without making things worse. Airbnb has systems in place for reporting, disputing, and managing fake feedback, but how you handle it publicly and emotionally matters just as much.

The approach depends on the type of fake review you’re facing — whether it’s overly positive or unfairly negative.

Positive Fake Airbnb Reviews

Positive fake reviews might seem harmless, but they can actually backfire. If Airbnb’s system detects that you’re inflating your own ratings — or if guests feel misled — it can lead to penalties, refund disputes, and long-term trust issues.

Don’t Engage in or Encourage Fake Positives

Even if your competitors are buying fake praise, never follow suit. Airbnb’s detection tools and the FTC’s fake-review rule make this risky. Authenticity lasts longer than any artificial boost.

If you’ve already noticed fake positives that weren’t your doing (say, from a third party or review exchange), report them proactively. Doing so shows integrity and keeps your profile compliant.

Use Airbnb’s Reporting Tools

Airbnb lets you report suspicious reviews directly through the Help Center. Provide a clear explanation — for example: “This account reviewed my listing without a stay” or “The review is inconsistent with verified bookings.”

Be polite, factual, and include screenshots of booking records to support your case.

Acknowledge Genuine Feedback Publicly

If a positive review is real, reply with gratitude and specifics. But if you’re unsure, avoid engaging. Over-thanking a fake review can look staged. When in doubt, keep responses short, professional, and focused on transparency.

Monitor Review Patterns Regularly

Set time aside each month to review your review history. Spotting unusual spikes in five-star ratings helps you identify potential manipulation early — just as we advise our clients to audit their business reviews for irregular patterns or tone shifts.

Negative Fake Airbnb Reviews

Fake negatives are emotionally harder to deal with because they attack credibility. The key is to stay calm, document everything, and act within Airbnb’s policies.

Gather Evidence Before You Respond

Don’t rush to reply publicly. Instead, take screenshots, collect communication logs, and verify guest details. If the reviewer never stayed or violated house rules, you’ll need proof to request removal.

Request a Review Removal

Go through Airbnb’s Help Center and select “Review violates content policy.” Explain clearly and attach evidence — like chat history or booking confirmations — that proves the review isn’t based on a real stay.

The more objective and structured your submission, the higher the chance Airbnb will act quickly.

Craft a Calm, Professional Public Response

If Airbnb doesn’t remove the review, respond publicly — not emotionally. Keep it factual and composed:

“We’re sorry to hear this feedback doesn’t reflect your experience. Our records show that you didn’t stay at this property, but we’ve reached out to Airbnb for clarification.”

That kind of measured tone helps future guests see that you take feedback seriously without getting defensive — a principle we also apply when guiding business owners on Google or Facebook reviews.

Use It as a Reputation Opportunity

A negative review, even if fake, can demonstrate professionalism. When future guests (or customers) see you responding politely and offering solutions, it signals credibility. Consistency in tone and transparency is what builds long-term trust — online and offline.

Conclusion

Dealing with fake Airbnb reviews can feel draining, especially when your reputation and hard work are put into question.

If you want to keep improving how people see your business online, we share practical insights regularly on our reputation management blog.

You can also explore our post on how long Google reviews last to learn how review visibility affects your credibility over time, or read our quick guide on how long a testimonial should be for tips on writing impactful customer stories.

For business owners who want to turn honest feedback into growth, we recommend checking out our guide to reputation marketing strategies, which breaks down how to attract loyal customers by showcasing authentic experiences.

If you’re ready to take the next step, our platform offers tools to help you manage every part of your reputation — from collecting customer reviews, generating client referrals, uncovering customer insights, to encouraging repeat business.

We also help professionals across industries strengthen their online presence, including law firms, dental offices, medical offices, med spas, plumbing services, and landscaping companies.

You can learn more about what we do on our homepage, or reach out to us directly at info@thesurgepoint.com.

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