My understanding is that neither AirBnB host or customer sees the other persons review until both have been filed with the parent company. This would seem to make a revenge review unlikely.
I have used AirBnb several times and not had what I consider a significant problem.
Same here. We have used AirBnb several times and not had any major issues. But I always read reviews and examine photos thoroughly, and sometimes even do a Google street or satellite view to confirm where a place is located.
We did stay at one place last year that hadn't been cleaned when we arrived. We stayed in a hotel that night, contacted the owner who apologized for the miscommunication with the cleaning crew, and he refunded the cost of our hotel stay (which was more than the cost of his rental). We stayed the rest of our vacation in his rental once it had been cleaned, and really enjoyed it. I described all of this in my review and I just checked to see that it was still posted on his property listing.
Personally, I'm not bothered by dinged up furniture or missing kitchen utensils, as long as the place is clean and safe. Some renters must really abuse the places they rent because owners frequently comment on how nicely we left their home when we check out. I usually leave a note for the owner when we discover issues (safety issues, missing dishes, toilet paper low, etc.), but I'm not sure if they fix anything I mention.
My only gripe with these types of rentals are the cancellation policies. I've only had to cancel a couple times but the loss can be significant, anywhere from one nights expense to the entire trip. This certainly isn't limited to AirBnb, as a big chain hotel refused to refund our reservation earlier this year when we couldn't make it due to mother-in-law's heart attack. Still, hotels usually have better refund policies than AirBnb owners. Some owners are stricter than others, so now I really pay attention to the refund policies when booking a property.
I like that we can stay in some really unique places through AirBnb that we would never find in a hotel. We've stayed on a tugboat, in a fire tower, in a cave, over a cannery above a river, in a tree house, and more...