What happens if I don't leave a review for my guest? Can the still leave a review for me?

Maggie22
Level 2
Saco, ME

What happens if I don't leave a review for my guest? Can the still leave a review for me?

I can't seem to find the answer to this question anywhere on airbnb.  I have had about several guests so far - all except for one have been wonderful.  I have decided not to leave a bad review for this guest, even though I think other hosts should know that the guest was a 'bust' as guests go.  Not anything major, but at the same time, I would not recommend this guest to other hosts.   The guest had nothing but good reviews, mind you, and I am left to wonder if other hosts who were unhappy and tempted to leave a bad review decided against it, because there was just no match between what the guest's reviews were, and the guest's behavior and attitude at my place.

 

Meanwhile, I keep getting the come on from airbnb reminding me I have only so many days to leave a review.  The guest has not apparently left a review for me, which is fine. 

 

My question is - what happens if I DON'T leave a review?  Can the guest still leave one for me?  Or is the guest prevented from leaving a review unless I leave one also? 

 

Thank you.

97 Replies 97

This has been very helpful for me. I’m new to this so I’m still trying to figure out what I should and shouldn’t say. So far many of the guests have been very polite and from out of country so I don’t want to offend them. My last guest however left the room like a boys dorm room.  Toe nail clippings on top of the desk, wet trash in the can with no bag(there was a trash bag and he took it out and put it next to the trash can) empty cookie wrappers on the bed, and his wet towels on the floor(in two days he used all 6 of the towels). He even took all the toothpaste, shampoos, conditioners, and body washed I put for other guests. I need to write his review now and I got an alert that he already did mine. I want to be candid like the advice says but I don’t want to come off as being petty. Also I’m thinking I should charge more for cleaning because I currently only charge 15 to wash the linens and towels.

@Naomi149  Raise you price to $45 a night until you get about 10+ reviews then go to $50 and raise your cleaning fee to $20 permanantly would be my advice. The review would be 1* all around and a thumbs down. It's a shared bathroom he knew better than to take the items he did. As for wording you can not accuse him of anything or he can have it pulled. I would put: XXXX (name) would be better suited to a hotel environment than a shared home. 

Kadey0
Level 2
Bangkok, Thailand

I am having this issue at the moment with a guest in my house that i would love to remove immediately.

 

Being rated badly does worry me but I think leaving a "nicely worded" negative review is better as i hope another host is never burdened like i have been.

Leaving a negative review will have no barring  on what the person says about you. Even if you say the nicest things in the world the person can still say something unkind about you because they don’t know what you said until after they have written theirs. Once both parties have reviewed each other they are both posted. If only one party reviews then it goes up after the 14 day period. They wait until after the 14 days because they have to allow that time to give the other party to review should they decide to in the allotted time.. 

If the guest is that bad, tell us EVERYTHING!   Lousy guests should not be tolerated.  Make sure other hosts don't suffer the same fate.  Be honest and blunt and keep our community in good standing.

I don't think you can be honest and blunt.  You have to be diplomatic and hypocritical.  It's up to us hosts to read between the lines if you say "Joe communicated very well with us and was a friendly guest.  We would suggest in the future that he leave the apartment at the agreed time with the trash emptied as per house rules and he should adhere better to community rules in order to not bother the neighbors at night"  - well, we should all understand what that means.

Marlon3
Level 2
Manila, Philippines

I have recently had a booking that just didn't turn up. I'm sure they had their reasons, but I don't feel I want to explore them in a review of people I never even got to meet. Having said that, I have Superhost status and am worried about getting demerit points for not leaving a review within the 14 days. Does anybody on this forum have experience of the outcome of not leaving a review? I too cannot find any reference to this on the AirBNB website (which is usually very good at explaining itself).

Hans20
Level 3
Sissach, Switzerland

No repercussion. You don't find any indication about that issue in AirBnB documents. I have never detected any

influence on my rating (I do only in about half of all cases). I have discussed this issue with another host who hosts on a purely

economic basis with a series of appartments: 30%.

Thanks for the advice Hans. You have put my mind at rest.

 

No "OFFICIAL" repercussions.

 

I would always leave a review.

 

Why on earth not?

 

Simply say the guests did not show up and did not communicate, you can't recommend them.  Period.

 

Wait until 13 days exactly so they don't have time to retaliate.

Hola! Me podran ayudar con una consulta relacionada a este caso?

Si no se presentan los invitados, la anfitrion cobra o recibe el dinero del mismo modo que si se hubieran presentado? Gracias! 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

 @Marlon3 - I would contact BNB and let them know your guest hasn't arrived so they won't be able to leave a review for you and visa versa.

That's a good idea, but when I looked on the website for how to contact AirBNB, I couldn't find anything. Do you know how to do notify them?

I have had to contact AirBnb and found that I could only do so by phone with minimum waits of 12 minutes and sometimes over 25 minutes.  The good news is that the help was good when I finally got a call through.

‭(855) 424-7262‬ That’s the Airbnb help line. They said when I became a Superhost I would get priority as the wait would not be as long, I didn’t not find this to be the case. Despite this, they are extremely helpful pleasant and patient and I find it’s well worth the wait.