Reviewing guest

[Jason469]

New host here!  For my very first booking I had a terrible experience.  The couple arrived a full night ahead of schedule, and at 1 am in the morning (this is a shared space not a full house/apartment).  They then told me that because they attempted to call me about their early arrival, that was sufficient reason to arrive anyway even though I never gave them permission.  They then requested I cancel the reservation and demanded full refund since I couldn't accomodate them.   I'd like to give this person a negative review since I'd like to caution future hosts, but if I do so would they have the ability to give me a negative review in return? 

[Marzena4]

They will not be able to see your review until they post theirs, @Jason469. Or yours will get posted after 14 days have passed. Feel encouraged to warn other hosts about those guests - there is no other way to eliminate such guess. Just make sure you word your review properly so that the guest had no reason to get it removed. 

[Matthew285]

@Jason469 from your story, it is hard to be sure if either of you will be able to leave a review. However, one thing is certain: if one of you can leave a review, then both of you can leave a review.

[Jason469]

Odd that it's allowing me to leave a review even though the booking was cancelled before it even started.  So, I'm going to assume they'll leave a negative review.  Does airbnb allow you to open a new account with another email?  Since I'm just starting to host, I'm sure that negative review will be detrimental to any future bookings so my only option would be to start a new account if possible.

[Matthew285 · Accepted solution]

@Jason469 Airbnb added the ability to leave a review as long as the cancellation was done on the day of arrival or later.

This was added to handle the situation where a guest would arrive at a listing and find it wholly unacceptable. In the past, the guest would cancel and be relocated, but would be unable to leave a review to warn other guests.

Airbnb therefore added the ability to leave a review if the cancellation was day of arrival, just so that people could leave reviews when things did not work out.

Hopefully this guest will restrict their review to the issues of communication, as they did not experience any other part of the listing. (Going further than that might be grounds for removal of the guest's review.)

For your own review, it is always good to keep host reviews as factual, accurate, and brief as possible, much like a newspaper story. For example, in this case one might write:

"The guest arrived one night earlier than the beginning of their reservation at 1 am. The guest claimed they attempted to call the host about the early arrival, but did not speak to the host about the early arrival and did not receive permission for an early check-in. The reservation was cancelled by the guest with an accompanying request for a full refund."

This recitation of the facts of the event leaves off speculation as to the guest's motivations, state of mind, and moral character. This helps protect the review from being removed, as it strictly reports verifiable facts.

[PaulaAndBob0]

Hi Matthew,

we are new to hosting and everyone loves our place thus far, it is a newly renovated apartment with all the amenities.  Our 3rd guests have managed in 2 nights to break our bathroom marble stone window ledge in 2 places and our stain our brand new "Tiger Skin" marble counters with acidic foods, despite our kind request that guests use the supplied cutting boards - didn't even say anything about it - and to top it off, smoked in our home and left without paying for the tourist occupancy tax our local township requires. 

Am I expecting too much from our guests? I expect some normal wear and tear to happen but this goes beyond it and a little common courtesy would be appreciated. 

Matthew, you seem to have a good handle on reviews, what would you suggest in our case?  we don't want to jeopardize our reviews but neither do we want something like this to happen to anyone else.

Best

Paula

[Ange2]

@Jason469   Click on this link to contact Airbnb,  from what you say it appears the guest is at fault, showing up a night early!  You may be able to get Airbnb to disallow a review and rating. If they rate one (1) star it is a killer and it takes forever to see your rating rise however many five stars you may get after this one.   It is a crazy system when people who don't even stay can write reviews!  As for deleting and starting all over, I think it may be possible but Airbnb changes rules all the time, maybe best to write another post with that as subject line so others who may be more certain than I am can respond.

[Beulah1]

I find that by speaking to the Airbnb team I understand my options better.  They were most helpful recently when I had a negative experience, and they encouraged me to be honest about the thumbs up or down, would I have the guest back?  In fact Airbnb is trying to eliminate bad guests who waste everyones time and money, but the only way they can do so is by our thumbs down.  This guest has been a member for two years with only one review which made me wonder.  Upon their leaving I ascertained that they had stayed in many places which means most hosts withheld their most-likely negative reviews.  I would have declined their request in the beginning had I known and maybe AIrbnb would have already kicked them off.  We rarely have negative experiences, and our reviews are kept hidden until both our posts, nonetheless, you could write your review on the 11th hour and submit it to feel even more protected.  Let's please help each other and Airbnb by honest, negative reviews when they are warrented.