I lost super host status because guest gave 1star review, but never came to apartment

I lost super host status because guest gave 1star review, but never came to apartment

I was a super host, but i lost it, because guest gave 1star review, but never came to the apartment. Airbnb allows the guest to make a review also if a guest hasn't arrived or if the guest cancels the reservation. It happens to me already 2 times. 1st. guest hasnt came at all and inform me about it only after official arrival time. Means she has to arrive until 22hours, but she inform me after this time. A guest first wrote to me nicely, as she knows we dont need to give any money at all back, but eventually when she sow she will not get money back she gave 1 star review to all points. Not to mention i was very polite, explain her all how it works and gave her all support and beyond... So, I spoke with Airbnb help many times, for several moths, eventually no result from Airbnb. Even more, i got another guest recently, she cancelled a trip, but still, we both got a request to write a review for each other and to give stars even for how to clean apartment it was, and how clean apartment she left......So it seems to be extremely unfair that Airbnb gives me the option to review a guest which hasnt step in my apartment-and contrary too....how can guest give me a review how to clean apartment was and all other points which Airbnb wants to make a starred review. To my opinion, this is extremely unfair and i would suggest making some actions to change this. It is not to mention how much effort my wife and I did to be super hosts and to become again, but with this kind of system we are not motivated:(((

9 Replies 9
Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

I just looked at your two listings and over 360 reviews so I am confused how one or two low rated reviews could have such an impact for you to lose SH status.  While your point about the ability for guests that do not stay at a listing to be able to review is a good one, I am not sure that is what happened to you.  Perhaps this is a mistake in the system.  

Dear Linda, we were close to the limit, so the 1-star rating made us not to be superhost anymore. But, even bigger problem is because we wrote to Airbnb support several times, took us several months to get a final reply about it-negative-they just don't want to do anything about it. i am asking the community, will we support in the future that sistem force us to write something we havent experience at all, to give stars  will we become liers, just to earn some money? 

Alice595
Level 10
Concord, CA

@Linda108 @TomasandAlenka0  A 1 star rating does pull down the rating a lot. One 1 star review needs to have Nineteen 5 stars in order for the average to be up to 4.8 which is a Superhost minimum rating requirement. 

 

A rating should be revoked from both host and guest when there are conflicts/confrontation between a host and a guest. A cancellation always cause the interest conflict between a host and a guest. Other things like guests breaking rules or damaging property or guests during their stay will all cause potential retaliatory reviews.

 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@TomasandAlenka0 

I agree it is ABSURD. I thought Airbnb will remove the review written by guests who never arrived and stayed, but obviously, I was wrong.. or you had a misfortune to get an incompetent CS rep.

 

@Linda108  you know we can have thousands of reviews but only those left in the last 12 month period counts. And if the host's rating is close to 4,8* then just 1* review can push him to bellow the superhost rating requirement.

 

 

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Linda108 @TomasandAlenka0 Yes. Only review in the last 12 months are counted for Superhost evaluation. If you don’t have many reviews in the last  12 months, one 1 star review could be a big hit toward the Superhost.

Sean433
Level 10
Toronto, Canada

@TomasandAlenka0 

 

Hi Tomas, yes I agree this is very unfair but there are some ways to prevent this from happening in the future.


If a guest wants to cancel even as soon as they check in (it is very rare but happens), I let them and I open my calendar up and usually I get it booked at a lower price. At the end of the day, you don't want someone who really does not want to stay in your place to stay because they will be resentful and it will lead to this or maybe worse such as them reporting false issues with your home which will lead to issues with airbnb. I know that providing them a full refund is not fair but the system is not fair and so you have to manage that.

 

I recently had a guest for a $2000 booking request to cancel at 9pm on the day of check in. She was not happy with the place. I let her go penalty free and she did not leave a review. I was very nice about it. I ended up re booking the place at $1700. So I lost $300 but I saved myself from a 1 star rating. It was worth it. Not only that, by I saved myself aggravation and her complaining to airbnb which does not help our status.

 

The general rule of thumb is about 2-5% of guests are problematic as in any business I operate in, I find 2-5% of customers are problematic. As such, I usually factor this in when I operate my business and I would rather let those 2-5% of guests out of our deal drama free then deal with the issues they come with. At the end of the day, you can always open your calendar up at a lower price and get it booked. Yes you may lose a few hundred dollars but you have to ask yourself, it is worth receiving a 1 star review for the difference which may be a few hundred dollars?

 

Another way you can go about this is ask the guest to kindly ask Airbnb to remove the review. If you also left this guest a bad review, you can suggest in a subtle way that you would request your review of them to be removed as well.

@Sean433 Either you are lucky or your guest is still somewhat reasonable in your case. I refunded a guest unused night after he claimed that the house temperature was too high at 71 F by calling Airbnb without letting me know. He still left me one star ratings across all categories.

 

My experience tells me that for those fussy guests, don't lose financially while lose your ratings.

Sean433
Level 10
Toronto, Canada

@Alice595 

 

That sucks, I hope you left him 1 star ratings too?

 

Hospitality is very tough, probably the toughest business out there.

@Sean433 I did leave 1 star rating for him too because he was very abusive after he knew that I only agreed to refund him the unused nights but not the first night. In addition, he used the bathroom and left the bath tub and toilet dirty. There was white substance left in the toilet unflushed. I suspected that he used drugs.