Covid catastrophe.

[Roger684]

I’ve just had my first bad experience as a host. A guest messaged me 4 days before a reservation commencement stating she wanted to change the booking date. I advised her that the date was already booked. She then said she wanted a full refund as Covid border restrictions had caused postponement of her event. (The Guest was still able to travel but her event date changed due to Covid) I had a ‘strict’ cancellation policy (as provided by A BnB) to enable consistent low rates to guests and provide some security for my bookings. .The guest was not entitled to any refund as less than 7 days notice given. Guest then claimed they had sent a message more than 7 days ago but there was no record of this, I asked BnB to check this for her. Guest then became abusive via BnB messenger as no refund offered but did not cancel.  I advised A BnB and they advised I could cancel but would lose payment. Guest continued abuse but I could not block her as reservation was not cancelled. Guest then threatened to come anyway! I advised her that due to her behaviour she was not welcome ( I live in my listing while guests stay in self contained apartment) guest did not attend but has now left a defamatory ‘review’ visible to others. I contacted Air BnB who said they would investigate the review and ‘Might’ remove it within 48 hours if it breaches review policy. In my opinion A BnB should have the ability to ‘hide’ reviews immediately and until investigation is finalised. They say they can’t do that. Very frustrating and potentially damaging to my listing and bookings. Any advice? 

[Melissa1564]

It’s very sad to hear this, I completely understand I thought by now they would be more understanding to hosts . They mentioned that they recently started removing reviews  that are unjustifiable if it can be proven and your story certainly falls in this category.. I hope you can contact them via phone once more and  request them to look into the case with some understanding that you are the one being penalized unjustly 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Roger684 I am not sure why you feel the review is defamatory. It seems to pretty much confirm the situation as per your post to the community centre. Perhaps you should add a comment to the review?

Furthermore as you actually refused to host the guest (albeit due to her behaviour) I suspect you would be forced to refund her if she decides to take the issue further.

[Colleen253]

The written review is not going to hurt, but she obviously lambasted him with 1 stars all over the place.

[Anonymous]

@Roger684  My view has always been that if the stay was not completed or was subject to a dispute, Airbnb should allow the host's and guest's written reviews to stand, but disable the star ratings. Your case makes an easy argument for that:  both of you wrote accurate and relevant accounts of you experiences, which don't merit censorship, but star ratings in categories like Cleanliness are not applicable when the stay didn't occur.

Anyway, this is not a change Airbnb has ever hinted at implementing, so that's where we're stuck. The review doesn't seem to contain any obvious violations of the Content Policy, so I'd be surprised if it got removed. It's possible to post a Public Response to the review, but these often do as much or more harm than the reviews themselves. It might be best to just leave it there as a reminder for guests to take note of your cancellation policy when booking and buy travel insurance if needed.

Moving forward, the big gamble you take with the Strict policy is that guests who are flat-out denied a refund in that 7-day window have no incentive to cancel, leaving you vulnerable to revenge ratings. So if you want to stick to this policy, it's crucial that you get the guest to push the cancellation through before the check-in date. One way you can do this is to offer a partial refund at a later time in the event that the dates are successfully re-booked.

[Robin4]

@Roger684 

Roger, in this time of pandemic restrictions there is no such thing as 'security of our bookings'! It's a world where we live on a day to day basis. 

Here in Australia we have been lucky to keep Covid largely at bay, although you have suffered more than your fare share of Covid restrictions in Victoria, and for that Roger, I am sorry for you.

But we do have to realise that plans do change on a moments notice! We never know when an active case is going to escape into the community and I think it is up to us as hosts to be a bit creative in how we handle our hosting on a day to day basis.

I have a flexible cancellation policy, and I have set that because I have never expected to be paid for a service I did not provide....I don't want something for nothing. I have had a guest cancel 2 hours before arrival because the Mt Barker they thought they were booking was in Western Australia, not 1,700 Kms away in South Australia. It wasn't the guests fault, it was Airbnb's....my listing showed on the WA search page. Roger I still gave them a full refund, these things are going to happen on odd occasions!

April last year and again in November saw me potentially lose a large percentage of my bookings, but I found by offering to defer the scheduled stay to another date and offer a small discount for the inconvenience many of my reservations remained intact. And for those who did opt for a cancellation and a refund some of those nights were re-booked by unaffected locals. 

Roger I lost very little, I understand why you set your cancellation policy the way you do but, I do feel by doing that you are to a certain extent shooting yourself in the foot. Try to firstly offer the guest an alternative solution before you shut the door on a refund. If you are conciliatory towards the guest, in many instances they will respond.

Cheers........Rob

[John5097]

@Roger684 

@Anonymous and @Robin4 offered some good advice moving forward. Try and get guest to cancel first. If not then consider the risk of review if reservation isn't canceled.  

I think you have two options. 

1) Try and convince CS that the review is irrelevant because there were no border travel restrictions, and therefor be removed. (I'm not sure about exact wording for local snap lockdowns.)

2) Try and negotiate for CS to give full refund and have both reviews removed. That gives the CS rep an option to resolve the entire issue, and better situation than you have now. You could point out here that there were no border closings so the review was irrelevant. 

3) The guest also has a strong case to get a refund because host refused to accommodate them. In that case you would have needed to cancel them yourself or have CS cancel. Its not ok to be abusive but if host says guest can't stay then CS will likely refund them.  


Edit: Wanted to add that's based on my best understanding of ABB policy, and another host or CS rep might have a completely different assessment. I try and avoid CS as there is risk and uncertainty involved, and this is already not an ideal situation, where any options or actions by the host may not improve the situation. its understandable a new host may not fully understand the consequences, so hope you can resolve this as best you can.   

[Colleen253]

@Roger684 “She then said she wanted a full refund as Covid border restrictions had caused postponement of her event. (The Guest was still able to travel but her event date changed due to Covid)”.

None of those reasons for wanting to cancel entitled the guest to a refund, according to the Covid EC policy. Therefore, she would be  held to the cancellation policy she agreed to at booking.

In your shoes I would  have told the guest I would be more than happy to refund should I be able to rebook their dates. I would have also indicated that the chances of that happening were high, but only if they cancelled immediately, to release the dates. That gives hope, and motivation to follow through quickly.  

As to the review, it could fall under the ‘irrelevant’ category according to the review policy, since she’s only reiterating that she was going to be held to the cancellation policy she agreed to. I would press to have it removed on that count. You may need to try with several different reps before you find success. Definitely worth the effort to try. 

[Anonymous]

@Colleen253   What complicates the matter is that the guest's review acknowledges that what she was asking for was an exception to the policy. But then after refusing the refund, the host also refused to honor a booking that was still active. As @Mike-And-Jane0 and @John5097  pointed out, this is a relevant detail and probably a mistake on the host's part.

If the guest had been less blinded by rage, she could have gotten a full refund from Airbnb as soon as she received the message that she was "no longer welcome" to access the property. This is a pretty clear-cut Travel Issue under the Guest Refund Policy, and rocking the boat about the review would risk drawing attention to a more serious breach of contract, which could have consequences.

[Colleen253]

@Anonymous True, but telling someone they aren’t welcome and actually barring entry are two different things. The guest never showed up, so there is no actual proof that @Roger684 prevented the stay, in the end. I can’t imagine any Airbnb CS rep who would be on the ball enough to cause the OP difficulty on that tack anyway. And the guest hasn’t cottoned on, yet…. A risk for sure, but one I would take. Bad situation all around. 

[Anonymous]

@Colleen253   I share your doubts about the on-the-ballness of the CS reps. Good luck even getting them to understand a basic question, let alone make a reasoned judgment call on an ambiguous policy.

I do think, though, that the bar for successful claims on the Guest Refund Policy is pretty low if the guest follows the procedure and cancels in time. No reasonable person would travel long distance to check in to a property whose owner told them they were unwelcome, so had the guest known how to report this incident in time, there's no way the host could have kept the payout and also denied entry.

[Pete69]

I didn't know that guests could write reviews if they didn't even stay.  If so, that's really something to consider.

On a side note, if you live in an area with good demand for stays, you might want to do what I do and write your own less restrictive policy. Airbnb's "Moderate" cancelation policy is harsh on guests compared to hotels. I allow 48 hours to cancel (you can try 72 hours). After that, the first night + Airbnb's fee is non-refundable. I don't charge 50% of subsequent nights. I recently had someone cancel 3 1/2 days ahead of check-in. I RAISED my price and the dates were re-booked by someone 4 hours later! Generally, rates should go UP when people book closer to check-in.

Having a less restrictive cancelation policy has value and is in and of itself cause to raise your rates.

[John5097]

@Pete69 I think there was a recent announcement that a host could request to have a review removed if the guest didn't actually check in? But there have also been other post here for the same situation, where guest became demanding/irate, about not getting a refund, and host also said the guest couldn't stay, so customer support issued a refund. 

I also let guest know that Airbnb handles all the cancelations and refunds and that I would need to wait 2 weeks to avoid a reimbursement from host and refund by ABB. Host can agree to cancelation but apparently it also blocks off the dates from the calendar and the same as host canceling the guest, which puts host a disadvantage.  

I'm really enjoying reading all the comments though and hope the OP gets it sorted out. 

[Pete69]

The dates reopened back up as soon as the guest canceled. And, when I called Airbnb, they processed the refund to the guest immediately. I asked about whether there was a risk of giving a guest a double-refund if I were to issue the refund myself via Airbnb's portal. The rep gave me some convoluted answers that I didn't understand. So, in the future, I will just call to handle refunds or ask the guest to contact Airbnb.