No-show Guest Reviews

[Steve2743]

Hello! I'm fairly new to Airbnb, so I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

I recently had the boyfriend of an upcoming guest message me two days before their single night reservation, to say they won't be able to make it. They didn't actually cancel the reservation, and it was after my five day cancellation policy anyway, so I still get paid. However neither of them responded to requests to actually cancel their reservation (I couldn't cancel without penalties), meaning the listing was unavailable for any multu-night reservations for that same timeframe. Is it worth leaving any sort of review? On one hand, it's extremely irritating. On the other, they were first time Airbnbers, so I don't want to inadvertently have them blacklisted with their first review.

Thanks!
Steve

[Marit-Anne0]

If you wanted to free up the space and make them cancel, an offer of a refund would have been in order.  As it stands now, I cannot see they did anything wrong at all, rather to the contrary as they had the courtesy to inform you.

[Andrea9]

@Steve2743

This has nothing to do with having them blacklisted.

You got your money.

Contact Airbnb to explain the situation and they at least won't be able to leave a review.

[Sharon114]

I am afraid that I don't see your problem.  You have been paid even though they didn't stay so if they had stayed you would not have been able to accept a longer booking which clashed with their date.  As it is, you don't have to clean and get everything ready for the next guest, you are pretty much ready to go.

I see no reason why you cannot leave a review which simply states that unfortunately the guest was unable, at the last minute, to stay with you but had contacted you immediately to inform you of this fact.  Sometimes these things just happen.  I had a similar thing happen a while back, the guest couldn't make it, did not cancel but informed me straightaway.  I got paid and we both left reviews which stated what had happened.  The guest left a review for me which said I had been very understanding and they hoped to re-book at a later date.  Which they did and everything went fine this time.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Steve, 

Please leave a review for the guest.  Keep it to the facts:  example: "x " sent an email and verbally cancelled their reservation 3 days prior to arrival.  While I tried to contact them several times after that, they did not respond, properly cancel or show for their check in. Prior to this, they were good communicators.  I would not recommend this guest to future hosts based on my experience".  

Then give them a Thumbs Down.  I believe you can leave the stars blank.  

So many people are coming to the Airbnb platform and just do not get that it is not a cheap hotel service.  If I read this about him, I wouldn't want to book up my space if he were going to cancel a few days before and miss the chance on actually hosting someone instead.  And I'm going to speculate that once he realizes they were charged, he's going to ask for his money back.  

[Helen3]

I don't understand why others hosts are suggesting a review is left by the host. According to BnB hosts and guests can only leave reivews if the guest actually stays at the property.

You need to tell BnB the guest didn't actually stay.

@Alice-and-Jeff0 - I absolutely disagree with your advice above I am afraid. The guest did nothing wrong. People have to cancel for all sort of reason. This doesn't mean they are bad guests. They did absolutely the right thing by letting the host know. Why would you recommend a thumbs down and bad review 😞 The guest did nothing wrong yet you want them to be given a bad review.

They may not have responded because of the reason that made them cancel for example a death in the family.