Guest who left house obviously used (beds slept in, towels used) claims they never stayed, cancelled AFTER the stay, want $ back

[Lorraine368]

We had a guest who booked a night, stayed at the house, left it a mess, cancelled at 6:00 a.m. the morning after they stayed, and then they filed a claim with AirBnb claiming that they hadn't stayed and wanted their $ back.  AirBnb contacted me a week after the stay and it was the first time I'd heard about it (except I thought it really odd that I received notification that they were cancelling their visit after they had already spent the night.)  Since they "cancelled," I am prevented from leaving a review on their profile! which protects them!  But they threatened me that if I don't refund their $ in full, they will leave a 1 star review to retaliate.  HOWEVER!  Even if I DO refund their $ in full, nothing prevents them from retaliating with a 1 star review anyway!  What a quandary!  

[Colleen253]

@Lorraine368 There should be nothing preventing you from leaving these scammers a review. I would also report them to Airbnb. Do not give them any money back, because you’re correct that they will leave you a one star review no matter what you do. Hopefully they made the bad review threat on the Airbnb platform, as that will aid you in having it removed as a violation of the review policy.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lorraine368 Unfortunately they are not alone, it became very popular fraud on Airbnb. If you accept to refund them they will do it again and teach others to do it as well. 

Something similar happened to us recently and we declined. The guest left a review before we even answered his refund claim but no way we would refund these fraudsters anyway, we would rather stop hosting on Airbnb than accept their extortion