Guest review after cancellation

[Laura-Jane3]

Hi Everyone. Im just posting this on here as im not getting much luck with Airbnb host support at the moment with getting a reply (I know they have limited staff). Has anyone experienced the following and if so what happened? My concerns lie within the policy/discrepancy involving guests being able to leave a review on your property after cancelling without actually leaving their home, seeing the area, experiencing the hospitality and witnessing any sort of cleaning protocols. We recently had a guest cancel on the morning of their check in after I sent them all the check in details.  They had asked about cancelling a few days before but they did not fit into Airbnbs Extenuating circumstances, so our strict cancellations policy was applicable of no refund. A day later we see that the guest had left us a review which has not been published by Airbnb yet as we have not left a review back as this would be innacurate/dishonest as we dont know how the guests would have treated the home or the house rules. We believe in fairness and transparency so this goes against our morals. I believe this should be removed as it will be an innacurate dishonest revenge review as the guest did not receive a full refund. How can the guest have the right to give us a star rating review if they have never set foot in the property or been anywhere near us, seen the house or location? As a superhost we work really hard to maintain a 5* rating and been really fair giving many full refunds this year due to the current circumstances for guests that are unable to visit so this is really upsetting for us. How can we leave a review for the guest? How can we possibly rate them on cleanliness/observance of houserules etc.. This would also be an innacurate and dishonest review as we simply do not know. Airbnb should not have the right to publish this. I think something needs to be done about this especially when the host has done nothing wrong but abide by their cancellation policy in order to survive and make a living.

Any help would be much appreciated @Catherine-Powell

Thank you so much 🙂

[Helen3]

Hello @Laura-Jane3 

If a host or guest cancels within 24 hours of their check in time you are both allowed to leave a review.

Neither of you need to leave a review. If you feel these guests are going to leave a negative review it’s probably worth you leaving one.

Something like . ‘Unfortunately xx. notified us XX hours before their planned check in that they would  no longer be able to stay with us because Xxxxx. ‘

You can also reply to their review.

If their review goes against Airbnb’s review T&C’s you can ask for it to be removed. 

[Anonymous]

@Laura-Jane3   I agree that it's absurd that guests can submit star ratings for qualities of your home that they couldn't possibly observe. But since 2017 it has been a confirmed policy of Airbnb that cancellations made on the check-in date are eligible for reviews - and actually, it was your own country that initially forced them to allow this - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/airbnb-agrees-reviews-loophole-intervention-cma-r...

Of course there are all kinds of ways Airbnb could refine this policy to achieve the intended results without allowing for listings like yours to be tarnished by revenge reviews. But that discussion has been hashed out here already in lengthy threads such as this one: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/To-Clara-Liang-Product-Director-Last-min-cancellation-be... 

Your question is more about the best course of action within a deeply flawed circumstance. I agree with @Helen3  that a factual review is in order. I wouldn't compromise the guests' privacy by revealing the cause of the cancellation; it's enough to state that you were notified x hours before check-in that they would not be arriving and the guests did not experience your home. You can make an honest assessment of their communication, so there's no reason not to rate and review them based on this. Doing so also flags future hosts considering their request to cross-reference the review they left on your listing - and they'll probably decline if it's a vengeful one.

This won't be possible if you don't review the guest, so please consider that in your moral algebra. 

[Paige182]

Why is airbnb letting people who canceled and never staying in our homes to write reviews?!?!?! This is there first time I’ve seen this with a cancellation. They change the extenuating circumstances policy but more allow them to stir a review. I can guarantee it will not be good as I have a strict cancellation policy in places as this is my livelihood. So now we can get the money but our review score suffers?!?!?!

Catherine, did you get any help from airbnb? 

[Shruti-and-Ganesh0]

I had a similar situation where the stay hat to be cancelled within 24 hours but the guest left 1 star review for everything including cleanliness and accuracy when they never stepped inside to even see it. This is such a flawed rating system. Now the perfect rating of 5 went to 4.3 for every sub category. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Laura-Jane3 perhaps next time ask the guest to cancel and tell them you will refund if you are able to re-let the dates. That way they don't get to leave a review and you are being entirely fair with them