Review Extortion: How Vacation Rental Hosts Can Fight Back

"I'm unhappy with the cleanliness" is a complaint. "Give me a refund or I'll leave a 1-star review" is extortion. The difference is the conditional: when a guest ties a threat to a demand, they've crossed a legal line. Patterns to recognize: direct refund-for-review threats, social media leverage ("my 50,000 followers will hear about this"), fabricated safety claims ("I found bedbugs" or "there's a hidden camera") paired with money demands, and legal threats tied to refund requests. The common thread: the guest makes their review conditional on getting something from you. That's not feedback. That's leverage.

Your gut says respond. Fight back. Defend yourself. Don't. The first 10 minutes determine whether you win or lose this fight. DO: Screenshot everything immediately. Respond with one professional sentence: "I take all concerns seriously and am happy to discuss a resolution through the platform's resolution center." Report through the platform's official channel. DO NOT: Respond emotionally — anything you type becomes evidence they can use. Agree to a refund under pressure — this validates the tactic and guarantees they'll do it again. Threaten the guest back — now you're both in violation. Delete any messages — you're destroying your own evidence. The host who stays calm and documents wins. Every time.

Airbnb: Officially prohibits extortion under Community Standards. You can report by flagging the message. In practice, enforcement is inconsistent — they require clear evidence that the review was tied to a financial demand. Without documentation, it's your word against theirs. VRBO: "Review Integrity" policy exists but enforcement mirrors Airbnb — inconsistent at best. Your leverage is documented evidence, not their goodwill. Booking.com: Hosts can flag reviews that violate guidelines, but removal requires clear proof. The pattern across every platform: the host with documented, timestamped evidence of the extortion attempt gets the review removed. The host with just their word gets told "we're unable to verify your claim."

A strong extortion case isn't a screenshot. It's a timeline: (1) The guest's original complaint — with timestamp. (2) Your professional response — with timestamp. (3) The moment the guest tied their review to a financial demand — this is the extortion event, and its timestamp is the most important piece of evidence you have. (4) Your response to the threat — calm, professional, documented. (5) Everything after. The critical distinction: was the evidence captured as it happened, or reconstructed from memory after? Platforms know the difference. Courts know the difference. Evidence that was automatically documented in real-time — that was sealed before the review was even posted — is categorically stronger than screenshots you gathered after the fact.

Platform says they can't verify extortion. Review stays up. Now what? Option 1: Respond publicly to the review. Keep it professional, factual, and brief. Future guests read host responses — a calm, measured reply to an obviously vindictive review actually builds trust. Option 2: Small claims court. In many states, tying a threat to a demand meets the legal definition of extortion. A documented evidence timeline is your case file. Option 3: Prevent the next one. The hosts who rarely deal with extortion aren't lucky — they have systems that detect extortion patterns in real-time across 25+ languages. Not keyword matching, but pattern recognition trained on real extortion data from host communities. The threat is documented before you even see it.