guest cancellation - cannot leave review

Ann204
Level 2
Bloomington, IN

guest cancellation - cannot leave review

We are superhosts in a college town, we take hosting seriously and maintain excellent reviews.  We had a young man book our suite for graduation weekend six months ago.  Once he booked the reservation he ignored my attempts at further communication, and finally cancelled the reservation one day before check-in, saying his parents weren't well enough to travel.  If this was true he actually would have know that prior to one day.  I think it would be helpful to let other hosts know that he does not respond appropriately and is a cancellation risk, but there is no way to do this since he never completed the reservation.  I understand that hosts who cancel have an automatic cancellation review posted against them.  Why isn't there an option to review guest cancellations?  I have had people cancel before, but they communicated clearly and I had no problem with the cancellation.  This individual booked us as a backup plan and never had any intention of completing the reservation.  However if I had cancelled due to his lack of communication I would have been dinged in the system.  

8 Replies 8
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ann204 and it happens more often since ABB introduced new 100% cancellation policy.

 

You could contact Airbnb few weeks prior and ask them to contact this guest or cancel his reservation due to lack of communication.

 

You can flag his profile

I am new to Airbnb and someone booked my place over a month ago for about 2 months months and failed to check in.  However a few minutes ago sent a message to say that they need to cancel and would like a refund as they were denied a visa for entry into the UK. what do  I do how do I get my calander restored?

 

Hello @Michelle433,

As I understand the check-in date for your guest already passed on, correct? You can just reply (through the Airbnb chat, always!) that you are sorry to read about this and that they can go ahead and cancel the booking (THEY have to do it, or you will be flagged!) and they will be refunded according to your cancellation policy.

Regards

Tania-and-Andrew0
Level 10
Cancún, Mexico

Hello @Ann204,

I'm sorry to read this, you will not be able to leave a review but you can (as suggested) flag the profile. Giving this person the benefit of the doubt maybe the guest didn't really didn't know until the last minute.

This can only help as a future reference for you to set up your cancellation policies. I have had guests who have no sorts of communication until they arrive and everything ended up being well. When asked about the lack of answer it is usually because they do not have the app with push notifications and opted out of e-mails/sms notifications.

As a superhost you probably have a great feel of when a booking is not going well, maybe you can trust your gut and if this happens again you will know what to do.

Thank you for trying to do anything to warn your fellow hosts about people like this.

Regards

@Tania-and-Andrew0 @Ann204 @Michelle433   

If I could add one more thing to Tania & Andrew's awesome post, please allow me to share what happened to me.

 

I had an Instant Booking, did not receive any greeting messaeg (as required per my House Rule #1) and couldn't get the person to respond to my ABB text messages on their account.  After waiting 24 hours, I contacted ABB to request that they help me reach the guests since I saw they were from another country and probably didn't have the ABB app on their phone (or WIFI) and didn't realize I was reaching out to them with important questions.  Turns out, I was right...they didn't have ABB on their phones and thought IB meant just that.....book a host home without pre-approval or communication.....thats where the guest is 100% wrong.  IB's are still required by Airbnb to READ a host house rules and follow the instructions as laid out in those House Rules at the time of booking.  Thankfully, ABB was able to reach the guests via phone call and email, and everything worked out.  My thought is.....if you are having trouble hearing back from the guests, have ABB reach out to them for you.  They have now done this 4xs for me and every time it helped resolved the communication issue. BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE in the world as fas I know.  And my beautiful Russian guests actually thanked me for calling ABB to get the communication issued resolved.  Now they have ABB app on their phone too 🙂

If you feel that me or another host have helped you, feel free to click on the "thumbs up" button at the end of any post. Thank you so much.

Aloha, Momi

Great way to contact Airbnb or via Twitter at AirbnbHelp / Facebook


yes, exactly right @Momi0 make use of CS and get them to reach out to guest. They are able to do so and they are also able to easily cancel if the guest will not communicate with them

Faye20
Level 2
Wonthaggi, Australia

A guest cancelled on her day of expected arrival at our home. She was a very good communicator but a medical reason prevented her from coming. She understands that she cannot be refunded and that's ok. However, there was no way for me to let Airbnb know (I don't Twitter and live in Australia) of the cancellation. They have been reminding me every day to review the guest. In the review process there is no way to let Airbnb know that as the guest did not arrive a review would be difficult.

This is my question as well. Guests arrived for a wedding then came back later in the day and said they wanted to stay with friends instead. They said that had no problem with me or the room but that it would just be more fun for them to be with friends. Unfortunately they didn't leave the key. I have messaged them but haven't heard anything back. I don't want to review them mostly because they didn't stay. How do I get this off my notification to review them?