No show - asking for refound - bad review?

[Therese-Angel0]

Hello everybody, 

I'm Tessa, I run a farm hosting on a fjord in Hardanger, Norway. This summer a friend of mine, Matteo, is helping me in this porpuse. 

That's the problem: a guest at 6.30 pm of the arrival day told me that she wouldn't come and, without deleting the reservation, she was asking for refound. We deny the request because we waited all the afternoon for her 'cause she didn't tell us her previsional arrival time and  moreover  wecouldn't resell the room so late in the evening. One hour later, she told she would arrive with her husband at 3 AM of the day after (even though she reservered only for one person and we have different prices according to the number of guests). Just to let you know, she communicate this  3 AM arrival time starting her sentence with "ok, then we will arrive at 3 am..."

There was an initial shock moment in which we told her that 3 AM  was far over the chek-in time,  but, as she suggested, we controlled again our check.in rules and they were set as "flexible". So, within 10 minutes,  we reply she was allowed to arrive even at that hour. After a couple of hours she replied that they wouldn't arrive at all due to our initial refusal of welcoming them at 3AM. 

My idea is that she wouldn't never arrive in any case and this 3 AM thing was only  a lie  to get refoud. Now, of course, we're worried about a revenge on review. Can you give us a suggestion, is it possibile to avoid it? 

Thank everyone for the help

Tessa & Matteo

[David-Erik0]

@Therese-Angel0 
"That's the problem: a guest at 6.30 pm of the arrival day told me that she wouldn't come and, without deleting the reservation, she was asking for refound. We deny the request because we waited all the afternoon for her 'cause she didn't tell us her previsional arrival time and  moreover  wecouldn't resell the room so late in the evening."

In such case, the only answer that you only have to provide, is a reference to your cancellation policy, anything else could end up to be used against you, moreover it just give you more room for querrels, arguments etc. 
ie: You deny the request because your refund policy does not allow a refund.

"One hour later, she told she would arrive with her husband at 3 AM of the day after (even though she reservered only for one person and we have different prices according to the number of guests)."

This is the experience after which many hosts in their rules of the house add "We do not accept unregistered guests". Unfortunately here AirBnB do not have a clear statement, the only reference is an assumption that come from the fact that AirBnB says that a booking contract says grant the guest access to the house from checkin to checkout, which means that only the guests on the contract can get in the house.

"There was an initial shock moment in which we told her that 3 AM  was far over the chek-in time,  but, as she suggested, we controlled again our check.in rules and they were set as "flexible". So, within 10 minutes,  we reply she was allowed to arrive even at that hour. After a couple of hours she replied that they wouldn't arrive at all due to our initial refusal of welcoming them at 3AM. "

Most likely if she has to write a negative review she will use this against you, no matter if then you aknowledge your mistake.

"My idea is that she wouldn't never arrive in any case and this 3 AM thing was only  a lie  to get refoud. Now, of course, we're worried about a revenge on review. Can you give us a suggestion, is it possibile to avoid it?"

You can avoid it for the next time. About it, give a check to my rules of the house, and copy/paste in yours what you think may works for you. When I've started I didn't have rules, now I have and each rule is the result of the behavior of a guest.
Airbnb review policy is dull, they barricade behind it even when the review go against the law of a country, ie the review depict facts that never happened and that can objectively proven they didn't happen. 
Free of opinion is a higher right in all EU countries, however when it's about online reviews, when they are objectively false, such right is overcome by the country laws if they establish that false statements can not be published in a review. However this will not be the case and anyway, most likely only a lawyer could help you in remove an AirBnB review, or eventually a merciful case manager which is the 0.1% of chances

[Therese-Angel0]

Hello @David-Erik0 , 

thanks for your precious suggestion and time you dedicated. 

I'll start with adding those rules you where suggesting about the unchecked guests. I also e-mailed the airbnb help center and they told me I had no obligation to check-in guests after midnight of the check-in day: do you have any experiece about it?

Thank you

[David-Erik0]

@Therese-Angel0 

Host have no obligation to checkin or checkout someone before or after the given times in the listing, this is also because such times (checking and checkout) represent the legit and only time in which a registered guest is allowed to stay on/in your property. 

Flexible checkin is not regulated by AirBnB, ie what the support told is irrelevant especially from a guest point of view, not becausea guest is bad but because when we read about a rule or a law we always have the tendency to interpret this rule in our favor. 

Instead flexible checkin should be interpretated as the willingness of a host to find a checkin time and checkout time according to the request of the guest, this however doesn't mean that this favor could always be granted.

There will always be some guest that will ask you to checkin early or later, so a flexible checkin is useless and most likely deleterious for the host. 

On this particular case, the guest is not entitled to the refund because your refund policy does not allow it in this particular situation, but for the rest, whatever AirBnB tell you, being the flx checkin not regulated and so interpretable will not avoid a possible bad review with a content that refer right to this topic. 

Personally, I nerver used the flexible checkin, mainly because I'm a private host, I work and I can't dedicate my time to AirBnB like if I was a business. 
It's obviously happened that guest checked after the allowed time and that point I would been able to refuse them, but I didn't. 

However a couple of time guests booked last minute ignoring my rules of the house that ask to get in contact with be before book, 'cause I may not be at home for their checkin. They didn't do it, I was not at home for their checkin, they didn't wanna wait around til after midnight, they lost the money.

[Therese-Angel0]

thank you @David-Erik0  for your experience... I hope I can have a honest and sensibile solution of this probem.

[Therese-Angel0]

Updates: the kind airbnb support team told me quickly that thi guest couldn't expect a check-in in the day after the one she booked and she cannot ask any money unless, and I will superavailable to refound in this case, she can provide some medical papers about the problems she said she had. Does anybody have experience about a similar situation? Is it possibile to avoid bad reviews, considering I am right on every point? Thank you

[Therese-Angel0]

Updates: now, after the check-out time, the guest deleted the reservation. Is it still possibile for the guest leave a review in this condition?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Therese-Angel0 

Nothing you can do will prevent your guest giving an untruthful review. Even giving her all your money, house and car will not prevent it! Despite her not arriving, and the fact the cancellation was not 24 hours before check-in the guest can leave a review.

You can hope she will be directly offensive allowing you to complain about her review and get it removed. Failing that, you will need to reply to her review to state your case for your future guests to see.

Since you have already contacted Airbnb support, you might try contacting them again to express your concern.

[Lisa723]

@Therese-Angel0Expect a bad review. When it posts try to get Airbnb to remove it and meanwhile respond *briefly and professionally* for benefit of future guests. (This guest will probably not see your response.) Some hosts post draft responses here for review and advice before posting on their listings. Please also review this guest honestly with a thumbs down for benefit of other hosts.

[Therese-Angel0]

Thank you @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  and @Lisa723  for the support and the suggestions. I will try the most I can. I will keep you updated.

[Yadira22]

Hi @Therese-Angel0 

Based on the fact that the guest did not enter the property at all the majority of their review should be considered false and goes against airbnb’s Content policy- most specifically « does not represent the authors personal experience... ». Argue that it is impossible to comment and rate on cleanliness if they were never in the property. This should technically make the review partially void and reason to have it taken down. 

Hope this helps and good luck to you.

if not then please respond briefly and professionally- answering to only the points made on the public review.  

yadira