Hosts need a "No Show" Button for when a guest fails to arrive

[Chris232]

It would be good to have a "No Show" button when a guest does not arrive.

This would stop the guest from leaving a review and their profile would be marked as a "No Show".

[David-Erik0]

@Ange2 I'm surprised that AirBnB didn't hidden the review and so the rating of a guest that didn't show up. 

I can tell you this for two reasons, the first one it's because I know is happened, and the second one because this would be a little bit too much also for AirBnB. 

When it comes to reviews and ratings, Airbnb will be entrenched in the freedom of expression, which is basically law at least in the vast majority of Western countries.

In order to protect itself, AirBnB simply hides reviews with discriminatory and vulgar epithets, however the same law on the right to opinion is regulated, in essence, one cannot write everything he/she wants regardless of the presence of epithets or not. 

For example here in Germany but actually in Italy it's also pretty the same, in a review there can not be diffamation or slander and there's no really need to use bad words to trigger diffamation.

While Freedom of Expression and Authenticity of facts have a higher priorities when it's about to remove a review from a platform, this has its limits in the exceeding of existing law and disregard of internal AirBnB policies.
If the assessment is based on proven false facts, it constitutes a false allegation of fact. This is also not protected by freedom of expression and can be removed from any platform, not just Facebook, Tripadvisor or Google. AirBnB is included.

AirBnB is perfectly aware of this, but after a conversation with their legal department, the substance is that you have to send them a lawyer letter.

In the specific case, I say therefore that it is strange that AirBnB has not hidden the review, because if the guest has never show up, the review is false and the false reviews are punishable by law and in such particular case, hard to challenge with "no concrete evidence".

While AirBnB could make debatable situations like a guest that complains of a non-existent WiFi but never mentioned in the list, here it is assumed that the host has called AirBnB to notify the absence of the guest, in turn it is assumed that AirBnB has called the guest to confirm the absence...so...

[Ange2]

@David-Erik0     It is a huge mess and Airbnb have yet to sort it out, one correction has already been made to what they originally stated.  https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Q-A/idb-p/2018-q2-qanda-en

CORRECTION as stated by Airbnb:

"we stated that guests who cancel before check-in, without seeing or visiting the space, shouldn't be able to leave a review, and that if hosts contacted us, we would remove reviews left by these guests.

But it’s not always that simple. We only remove reviews which violate our content guidelines. "

Which makes absolutely no sense at all because  "Reviews that do not represent the author’s personal experience or that of their travel companions"  is listed as one of the violations of content guidelines.

If a guest is a "no-show" meaning that they never show up then their review doesn't represent their personal experience bar possibly communication.

[David-Erik0]

I have read it, basically it's under the question: 

The review system can feel unfair sometimes. What are you planning to do to improve it?

Correction: Previously we stated that guests who cancel before check-in, without seeing or visiting the space, shouldn't be able to leave a review, and that if hosts contacted us, we would remove reviews left by these guests. But it’s not always that simple. We only remove reviews which violate our content guidelines. We apologize for any confusion we may have caused in the Host Q&A. We take this seriously, and moving forward, we’re committed to being more clear.

The statement is correct and it is simply saying what said so far, that if the guest didn't stay and leave a review, the review can be hidden (technically they hide, not remove). 

However, I understand that it can be confusing because of the way in which is written. The author wanted to highlight that the remove of a review may not happen, in disregards of the specific scenario, but still according to the current AirBnB rules.

The following content is never allowed on AirBnB: 
[...]
- Reviews that do not represent the author’s personal experience or that of their travel companions
[...]

So if AirBnB should refuse to hide the review of a guest who never stayed in the host house, would be strange and would be interesting know why.

Said this, that page you have linked is interesting for other things, which I find funny, sad and controversial; the typical essence of AirBnB.

It is written:

But it’s important for Airbnb to be a neutral platform for both guests and hosts, so we won’t remove reviews unless they violate our Content Policy.

AirBnB is not a neutral platform for a host, for example because it's impossible enforce AirBnB contract rules or host rules of the house, without suffer some consequence. A typical example is the cancellation of a booking made by a guest that, black on white, has caused a breach in the contract.

There you will see your cancellation rating affected without reason as was the guest actions that triggered the cancellation, not you. Not really neutral.

When AirBnB says "our Content Policy" it makes laugh as AirBnB policy is not superior to the law of a country in which AirBnB operate, period.

When guest give you 2 stars and they add "soap was missing" but the soap was there, that is a false review/rating that can't stay there.

Between Google reviews, TripAdvisor and AirBnB, the last one is the only platform that did not comply with the local laws on this matter, they did not introduced neither a form for the specific request for the removal of a review. 

We want to give guests the chance to share their feedback— and for you to respond, too. You can always publicly respond to reviews.

The chance to share a feedback is noble, pity is that the feedback is useless if does not point out what actually the problem is. If I give you 2 in accuracy but I do not tell you why, this is not a feedback, it's a judgement which is different.

Guests are asked to rate how convenient they think the location is, and that’s subjective, since preferences vary.

It's correct but there are limits set by the law, and AirBnB does not represent a land of no one.

This rating doesn’t say anything about the quality of your hosting or your listing and it does not affect your search ranking [...]

Strange, because if someone check: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/39/what-factors-determine-how-my-listing-appears-in-search-resul...

Under the question "What factors determine how my listing appears in search results?" we can read: 

Listing details: We consider things like the number of five-star reviews

Ah-ha...

[David-Erik0]

@Lizzie 

would you count a 'No Show' as someone who doesn't arrive at your listing or would this also incorporate someone who arrives, but doesn't necessarily stay for a range of different reasons?

If the guest stay for one night, there's no reason to introduce the no show button

If the guest stay but do not sleep than there are two options: 

A. Guest notify AirBnB that he/she has left the house due to personal extraordinary reasons. Something is happened, like business program changes. In such cases a no show by mutual agreement would be possible.

B. Guest notify AirBnB that the house it's not like represented in the photo, or there was a dispute with the host or a discussion that affects the stay. 
In such case the "no show" may or may not be necessary, the problem here is that based on the current state of things, AirBnB would not introduce the option. 

For example the dispute or the discussion could be triggered not by the host, but by an unpleasant behavior of the guest, even an offensive one, and already now, the host is absolutely not protected.

At that point, there would be not logic reason to think that a host, especially a private one that have to share the same house, would stay with this person, and yet for such kind of situation already when the guest breach the AirBnB contract rules or the Host rules, and consequently a cancellation by host happen, the host is "punished" by the AirBnB system that allow the rating and the review, making substantially impossible for the Host enforce AirBnB T&C or his rules, without suffer the consequence, even when the situation can be objectively proven. 

For option B, perhaps would be admissible leave the possibility of a review, but not for the rating 'cause would be used for revenge purposes which btw should be in contrast with AirBnB policies as they require to leave objective reviews and so, ratings.

In order to limit the abuse of the button, for example you could simply use a 2FA process. 
Guest receive a personal code
Host receive a personal code
When they see each other in person, they share the code. 
Guest will type in the host code in a special field within his account confirming that he/she is there
Host will type in the guest code in a special field within his account confirming that the guest is there

As currently AirBnB does not allow to notify the platform with the check-in time agreed, such option should for example expire within 24h
It would be in the interest of both, do not share the code in advance.

[Sean433]

This is tough because if you say the NO SHOW button needs verification by airbnb, how would this be administered? This would require CS to check the messages between guest and host and see if guest showed up or not. It is too much work.

I think the real question of this thread is why should a guest be able to leave a bad review because they didn't show up.

I would think that the amount of inquiries for review removal airbnb gets is massive to the point where it probably merits its own department.

I think consistent training and strict parameters/guidelines need to be explained to such a department, if it exists, the requirements for a review to be removed. Vulgarity is one guideline. Defamation is another however defamation is a word that can be open to interpretation.

Breaking house rules should be a very good case for removing a review and if proven through the message platform or through pictures after the guest left that the home was trashed or common rules were broken, the review should be removed. But then you have to set up guidelines as to what rules would a guest have to break for this to qualify. Keeping the lights on when the guest is not at home probably would not be such a rule. Throwing a house party which is evidenced with video surveillance or better yet the guest admitting to having unregistered guests is definitely a rule that should qualify. Why it doesn't qualify is unknown to me and probably something that needs to be considered.

It is a complicated topic but one that needs consistent and established guidelines and most important, consistent training of their CS.

[Kevin1322]

we had two no-shows last week.  one  "thought she had cancelled" the other had cancelled but during check in time at last minute

It seems ridiculous that we are being asked to leave reviews for people we have never met and they can leave reviews for a place they have cancelled or never stayed at..

[Diana-And-Lando0]

I think that would be a really good feature for there to be a button for no shows.  That would be good data for Airbnb also.

For us we only had 2 guests that did not show and did not send an email.  I get worried about the guests in those situations.  The first one was a lady traveling alone and so we were worried that something could have happened to her.  We messaged her and then we called Aribnb and they also messaged her and then when she was able to send a message she did, that there had been a death and she had to leave the islands.  In this case we sent her a refund and this was a few years ago and so Airbnb did not penalize me for not doing a review and she did not do a review.

The second guest was recently and the guests never arrived or messaged and Airbnb never heard from them either.  When I contacted Airbnb about this in regards to the review and could they take off the review part from us and them and they said no and so I had to just do a review on someone that never stayed with us.  That makes things in accurate, but I did not want to risk my Super Host status.

[Ken454]

I agree. Air has a lot of corrections they need to implement in their software. A no show or a last minute cancellation should end the review communications. It is stupid for a host to leave a review for an unknown person whom they never met!!!! Or for a guest to do so. A last minute cancellation should automatically activate a "NO SHOW BUTTON" as well!!!!   GOOD IDEA!!! 

[Diana-And-Lando0]

Totally Agree!  When we had one, I noticed that the review thing came up and then I called them, because I was worried that I would lose my Super Host status, if I didn't do it.  One Airbnb Ambassador said that you could do it and would not lose my Super Host status but you still always worry!  We do need something!