Guest Cancellation on Arrival

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Mark-and-Julie1
Level 3
United Kingdom

Guest Cancellation on Arrival

Hi all.. 

What an evening !

I had a guest book 2 days ago..  From his email he seemed ok. I sent our welcome email including a few questions and also the code for the keysafe. Didn't get a reply.. 

Anyway today he arrived.. we didn't know what time he was due as he hadn't replied to email. Unfortunately we had 3 missed calls from him. (We are on holiday and phone signal isn't very good so we missed the calls by about 30 mins )  so he left voice mails complaining he had no key code, telling us we were very unprofessional, that he would leave us a bad review and get us delisted.. Very very upsetting.. I tried ringing him, nothing so I then text explaining about the email. He then replied saying miscommunication, the email had gone to his spam. Sorry that he'd said all those things, they'd head over to the apartment and have a pleasant eve. Great we thought. So I replied and asked him to let me know when they checked in.. 

Next we know Airbnb has got in touch because the guest had reached out to them. That they were going to a hotel and wanted to cancel the reservation..  So what can we do ? I've explained the situation  to Airbnb but I'm  beginning to realise it doesn't get you anywhere.. 

I did message the guest to ask If they could confirm this but typically they and Airbnb  have been quiet the last few hours whilst myself and my husband  have been sat not knowing what to do... 

Thanks for letting me ramble. 

Julie

 

1 Best Answer
Mike-And-Helen0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Mark-and-Julie1 @Linda108 

Linda is right, if you get a review it will be bad since the silly twit is embarassed about his behaviour.

As she says, you may as well get paid.

Do you know what to do about responding to a review?

View Best Answer in original post

36 Replies 36
Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Mark-and-Julie1   You might not know what caused the guest to decide to cancel after arriving but you do not have to accept the cancellation and provide a refund.  Negative review will happen no matter what and you might as well get payment.

 

I hope you will not be reluctant to call the guest when you do not get response you need and expect.  There are many things that can go wrong with emails and texts.  I have called several times and except for one time when the guest had turned off their phone 2 weeks prior to arrival, I have avoided problems with check in.

You may be right there Linda.

This is our first checkin problem in the year we have been doing this. So perhaps we should contact the guest if we don't receive a reply to our email. 

As for the cancellation, would you refuse a refund. We're concerned on receiving a bad review ? 

Mike-And-Helen0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Mark-and-Julie1 @Linda108 

Linda is right, if you get a review it will be bad since the silly twit is embarassed about his behaviour.

As she says, you may as well get paid.

Do you know what to do about responding to a review?

No we've not had a bad review yet.. 

Moira21
Level 8
Bispham, United Kingdom

@Mark-and-Julie1  My guests arrived yesterday, left without saying anything. A couple of hours later I received Cancellation notification. I don't know why they cancelled and to be honest I don't care. I will receive full payment. The guest won't be able to leave a review because they cancelled.

@Moira21 The guest will receive the review request as usual after check-out if they cancel within the last day of check-in or during the stay. Just so you are aware.

Best, Sandra 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Airbnb should work on making this fairer for both guests and hosts.

A review should not be readily available unless there were legitimate issues for the cancellation which could also Happen. But if you cancel the reservation to stay with a friend etc then as a host you should be able to protest this! If a review is financially motivated then this privilege should be taken as to avoid it being abused- contents and review policies should both be respected by Airbnb as well as their users. I feel as sometimes Airbnb forgets this- at least from my experience. 

 

Moira21
Level 8
Bispham, United Kingdom

@Sandra856  Really? But would this apply if they cancel on the day of check-in and how can they review when they didn't stay?

Andreas530
Level 2
Panama City Beach, FL

I just had a similar issue, perhaps you have some insight for me.  I have a guest who booked my place less than 24 hours before check-in.  He arrived after check-in late in the evening,  and canceled his reservation after walking in the house, he claims it is an "unclean or inaccurate listing" and is asking for $700 (total booking was $867.18).   His exact words were "The place smells. I’m so sorry if this is your family’s home. I can not stay there, walked in and could not stay. At a hotel now."

 

First of all, his claims are unfounded and baseless, our place is clean and comfortable, no issues.  I have informed the guest of my disagreement with his statements.

 

Secondly, my question is, I have not received any funds from Airbnb, and the guest is requesting money, I do not agree with his claim and do not want to accept payment to the guest since I have not received any money.

 

Finally, I do not want him to be able to provide a review if he has not stayed in our place.  How do I prevent this from happening?

 

Any advice or insight you have would be greatly appreciated, I do not know what my next step should be?

Dear @Andreas530 🙂

I'm really sorry that you have to deal with that. This is unfortunately stories we read about often in this community. I really recommend to read and learn on how things work - all the little tricks etc. in this community. I have learned so much. 

What is your cancellation policy? The guest will be able to review you no matter what. If he has contacted airbnb they might be holding back your money until a solution has been found.

You can also contact airbnb. I would do that and tell what has happened. You can ask airbnb to give the guest a refund - some hosts do that in order to avoid a to bad review - but you won't know if he will leave you a bad review so I wouldn't refund. He is suppose to cancel from his side and he will get whatever money back according to the cancellation policy you chose when you put up the listing. 

I can't assure you that airbnb will be on your side but you can deny a refund and reach out to airbnb. You can write to them via the reservation - there is a help link. Make sure to be polite and firm when you communicate. I hope everything will work out for you. Please keep us updated 🙂 

 

 

Hi @Sandra856 , thank you for the quick reply.  Yes, I think it is best if I reach out to AirBnB for support.  I don't mind accepting to refund most of the money, I just don't want to accept a complaint that is not true, and I don't want a bad review.  I work hard for my guests and I can't afford in setbacks due to someones ill will.

 

I will keep everyone posted.

@Andreas530 If you want to refund the guest - write a very sweet message to the guest that you are sorry he didn't lule your listing and that you will gladly make a refund but when he booked he paid airbnb not you - so you haven't received the money yet. Tell him that you will contact airbnb asap so they can refund from their side.

Just be grossly kind in order to prevent a bad review 🙂 

@Andreas530 Tell him that you are quite new to hosting so you are not as familiar with the whole system yet - be so overly kind that it will make it harder for him to write a bad review of you. Unfortunately some guests are just so unfair that we have to play the game to avoid a bad review - because he will be able to leave a review of the experience. 

@Andreas530 I just realized you wrote that he did cancel. If you haven't received your money as usual - he has probably contacted airbnb and they are keeping the money as I wrote. Write to airbnb to find out.

Best, Sandra