Previous Hosts Gives Guest Bad Review

[Megan307]

I recently took a booking from a couple who had two good reviews and two bad reviews.

As I am on Instant Booking I had to accept the booking.

How many times does a guest get a bad review before they can no longer book?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Unfortunately, @Megan307 , this is unknown to hosts.  It seems random and arbitrary.  As an IB host, however, you have "unlimited" cancellations based on past bad reviews - the first 3 are "free", the next to unlimited you must justify.  If you don't like these guests based on their previous reviews, you can cancel without penality.  Please see the Help Center for the details and the steps to make this happen.  

[Megan307]

This is really helpful, thank you!

[Rachel177]

@Megan307 have you got 'recommendation from other hosts' switched on in your instant booking settings? If you do then guests who have been given a thumbs down/not recommended by previous hosts have to request to book with you.

[Megan307 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for that, I went and checked and I do have 'recommendation from other hosts', the problem with this one, was the guest had two good reviews and two bad!  Rang alarm bells but gave her the benefit of the doubt.  Now I know based on bad reviews I can cancel without penalty.

Appreciate your feedback

[Rachel177]

@Megan307 good to know you've got it on. It might be that hosts have given a bad written review but have recommended them (weird I know, but it happens). 

And be careful about cancelling bookings. I've had my instant booking revoked because I've contacted customer service to cancel third party bookings, it took about 3 weeks to come back on & happened in the middle of summer.

[Megan307]

Thank you for that, it is only by asking questions and talking to other hosts that you find out some of these pitfalls.  Hopefully I won't need to cancel as most people are reasonable and delightful and I am happy to pick up the slack in most cases, but these last guests really were unreasonable (and dirty) and I would rather not recommend them to others.