Guest didn't show up and is demanding a refund.

[Dan-And-Becky0]

We had a guest reserve our house and, after checkout time, he contacted us to tell us that he had reserved the wrong dates and wanted those dates for next month instead. The house is already booked for those dates next month and so he has requested his money back. We have a moderate cancellation policy, he ignored our messages to him, airbnb's emails and messages to him, and it was his mistake all the way around.

1) I understand that he is out a lot of money and I feel for him. However, our house was unavable to be rented those days because he had claimed it for those days. We will lose money if we refund him over a mistake that was not ours and we had no control over.

2) We confirmed with airbnb that he WILL be able to leave us negative feedback because the stay is considered complete. We are new to airbnb and only have about 10 reviews. A negative review would hurt us deeply. Right now we are set to make superhost in July. A 1 star review would prevent that from happening.

3) He is local to our house. He was reserving the house for family to stay in while visiting for his child's graduation. He now has the address and could retatilate against our house if he is that kind of person. We are not local to this house and live in another state.

We don't know what to do. We feel that we MUST refund him because of the negative it could do to us if we don't. We want to offer him half of a refund but I suspect that will not go over well either based on the phone conversation we had with him. We would appreciate any advice from more experienced hosts! Thank you!

[Cindi0]

Absolutely unconsiconable that Airbnb would allow a review to be left by someone who didn't stay. I have been a guest using Airbnb as well. They send out reminders to "Get ready for your trip" etc. To wait until *after* the check-OUT time to let you know it was booked in error is certainly not your responsibilty, and no, I would not offer a refund. The good news is that, if they do leave a negative review, you can counter with your comments. How can they rate you if they weren't there? What do they know about Cleanliness, or Value, or whatever the other categories are? SMH ...

[Ana1136]

@Cindi0 unfortunately they can rate us even if they never entered the house. @Dan-And-Becky0 always contact through the app and if they leave a negative review because you didn't give them a refund and that is documented that is extortion and Airbnb will remove a retaliatory review. 

[Linda-And-Richard0]

@Dan-And-Becky0  You stated you don't live near your listing,  Were you aware the guest never arrived for check-in?   Don't be bullied by this guest.  As hosts, we receive messages from Airbnb reminding us to get ready and reach out to an upcoming reservation.  Guests received similar messages.  This is his mistake, not yours.  Do not give him one cent of a refund.  Yes, he might leave a negative review but just reply that he never showed up for the reservation.

[Dan-And-Becky0]

Yes. We have a smart lock that showed that the door was never unlocked. We sent him a message through airbnb but he never replied. He said that he saw the message and thought it was weird, but didn't do anything about it. He must have also ignored all of the messages notifying him of his upcoming stay!

[Sheila274]

Offer another date. Its a bad situation, we have used this method before and it makes the guest happy and might make a return customer for you.

[Dan-And-Becky0]

The guest is local to the house and only needs the rental for an upcoming event because they have a significant amount of family coming into town. He will not need a rental house any other time in the foreseeable future and our house is already booked for the correct dates that he needs. This was also our first thought for a resolution.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Dan-And-Becky0 

In principle, I do not think you should refund and depending on your gut feeling, consider contacting Airbnb to get the future booking canceled penalty-free saying you are no longer comfortable with that guest. 

If someone booked theater tickets for the wrong date, ignored messages about the "upcoming show" then says after missing the show he booked the wrong dates and wants a refund.... no one will even entertain the idea of a refund once the dates are passed. 

The fact that he has the audacity to demad a refund says a lot about the type of person that guest is....... the type I'd run away from and avoid at all costs. 

[Susan17]

@Dan-And-Becky0 

This is a bit of a sneaky trick, and I haven't used it myself, but know of many who have had great success with it. Sometimes you've gotta fight fire with fire. 

Host tells guest to submit a refund request through the resolution centre. Host declines refund request. Guest is guaranteed to leave a nasty review, stating that host failed to refund them. Host has immediate grounds to have review removed for violating content policy, as it relates to details of a dispute that involved Airbnb (the one reason that Airbnb will always delete a review) Host keeps payment, nasty review taken down. Job done. 

Presumably, if you're remote hosting, you have exterior security cameras? If so, it's highly unlikely the guest will come back to do any damage to your home, unless he wants to get himself picked up by the police. 

[Cindi0]

@Susan17 Pro tip!