I agree with all of you. If a guest cancels and never experience the stay, then they should not be permitted to leave a review. A couple of things I did in my earlier days, I changed my policy to strict and although I recieve emails to downgrade it to flexible policy....uh heck to the naw!!! The guests has up to three weeks to cancel with no penalty and recieves a full refund;however, when they decide to cancel 1-2 weeks prior to arrival, I will still recieve 50% of the refund for a two week cancellation and 100% of the refund for a one week cancellation. Now grant you, there are certain circustances in which a person may have to cancel...and I understand but I let the guest contact Airbnb and get cancellation of the reservation so there is a third party involved. Secondly, in my listing as stated that I do not accept alterations in reservations. When I first started Airbnb as a host 4 years ago, I was new and running into these same type of issues, I had folks wanting to pay for the days that they actually stayed and get reimburse for the days they decided not to stay for they made other accommodations somewhere else. I refunded their money and found I owed Airbnb due to performing alterations in reservations. So I had to have people come and stay for free to clear up the negative balance in my Airbnb account. With the advice of a really fantastic Airbnb personnel who provided great training and tips back in the day, I have not had these issues since then.
Two Tips:
Upgrade your hosting policy from flexible /moderate to strict- Weeds out riff-raff and you get folks who actually serious about staying with you.
Do not perform "Alterations in Reservations" and put it in your listing- Reduces the scammers...trying to get over. Now keep in mind if someone's parent died or an event occurs that is extremely traumatic, have the guest contact Airbnb immeditatelt to have the reservation cancel. As a host, and I do not mean to sound insensitive at all, please refrain from involving yourself directly. Please provide the direct number or call Airbnb perhaps for them, but after that, let the guests take it from there. So it shows that your are being helpful but not super involve. I mean be caring and genuine. In other words, do not perform an alteration requests or cancel the reservation as the host. Wait, and recieve guidance from Airbnb directly before taking action into your own hands. (This protects your review and it provides a win for the guests). I want the guest to be happy at least on this realm in spite of what may be going on in their world. In the end the guest will cancel and Airbnb will refund their money without you losing anything on the reservation and your stats will not be affected for your strict policy states 100% of the reservation if it is cancel by guest or and in many cases the Airbnb admin will refund them their money without the money coming out of your pocket. I cannot guarantee it, but it has work the couple of times when there was a crazy circumstance by a couple of guests. I still recieved raving reviews due to my assistance with the matter. All I did was care, make them a cup of tea and dialed Airbnb phone number for them and followed up with the guests to ensure that they were okay or at least better 🙂
Ensure that all communication is transmitted through the Airbnb app as much as possible. Sometimes our U.S. guests and on rare occassions international guests will transmit messages through regular texting, please ask them to use the Airbnb app or put this in your listing that all communication and correspondence must go through the Airbnb app. This is your recordkeeping system or archive of messages between the guest and you. Airbnb will review these records, it has saved my butt with confused guests not undertanding how Airbnb operates such as performing an alteration in reservation.
Lastly, I place in my instant booking section, please contact me first if there are any further questions before booking. In addition, I ask my guests through if they are not instant booking, if they read all of my rules and understand, if not please seek clarity. In addition, Airbnb will ask the same thing... if the guest says yes in both cases. Then it is understood they have no further questions prior to booking. So if something goes down, the guest cannot state that they did not know.
Now there will be general questions, of things to do in the city....etc.... and other questions similar in nature. However, regarding the listing and booking....this portion of the program is done.
Listen guys, I am still evolving and learning and please do not mistaken me like I have this Airbnb thingy figured out, just been around a little while and wanted to share what works for me. I understand everyone's situation is different. So by no means...am I trying to share what you ought to do or vice versa. I am sure you all are handling things in the manner of what is best for you. I just did not want to sit on information which may be helpful to others possibly. Thank you for reading.
Dee