CHANGES to Cleaning Fee Refunds and Guests Reviews now Allowed after cancellation!

[Amber1]

Hi all-

I've been at Strict Cancellation policy for over a year now after trying flexible and moderate. In the past, if a guest canceled within one week of check in, they were issued nothing back.

Now, I noticed that they are getting their cleaning fees back - which I suppose makes sense. However, for those of you who have seriously high cleaning fees, you may want to consider building it into the price moving forward.

SECONDLY...and this is huge. Had a guest cancel today about an hour before check in. I heard nothing from this guest for months and my "what time would you like to check in?" Messages went without responses. Then an hour before check in time period started, and after doing a TON of work (all nighters) getting this boat ready in time after the hurricane rolled through (they were the first to stay after the storm two months ago) the guest canceled. Now they want a full refund (they do get that cleaning fee back.) I told them no.

Today, I received a message from Airbnb "how did this guest do?" asking to leave a review. In turn,  they received the option to review us as well. Just to be clear, the guest canceled BEFORE the check in period. I contacted airbnb and the response I received is this:

"Because the cancellation was processed on the day of check-in, a review is able to be left by both parties."

So now, Airbnb just opened up a door to have guests leave nasty reviews about hosts even if they have never stayed! If your guest cancels the day of and you stick to your policy, get prepared for a bad review! 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Amber1 - sorry that you are just becoming aware of this.  The Review policy changed months ago so that guests who cancel on the day of check in or after can review the host.   This was to provide an opportunity for a guest who didn't feel like they could complete their reservation to provide feedback for why.  It sort of sucks, we get it, but inevitably this ALWAYS results in a poor review for the guest too, so it's bad all around. However, you have the opportunity to write a response to that review and you should.  You really need to read all the threads here in the forums on the best way to complete both the guest review and response so that you, as the host, do not look worse  than the review (there are some doozies out there!!!). 

Additionally, if you are getting no response from a guest, even with a strict cancellation policy, contact Airbnb.  They will try alternative methods for getting in touch with them that you do not have.  If the guest does not respond to them, they will cancel the guest on your behalf and not provide a chance to review.  

You should also realize that you can prevent a guest from rebooking with you too. Search the forums for how your review can block a guest.  

BTW, I can't remember a time since we've been hosts that a guest who cancels before checking in does not get their cleaning fees back.  Cleaning is not supposed to be for "before" a guest arrives, but for after a guest leaves.  We've been doing this for years and cleaning fees have always been refunded if the guest cancels in advance.  Now a guest can get their Airbnb fees back up to 3 times a year too.  They changed that policy this year as well.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 @Amber1

guests who gets cleaning fee back bc they never checked in shouldn't be able to leave a review. 

[Elena87]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

This changed from September of this year.

A guest who cancels/ or is cancelled on within 24 hours of check-in can now leave a review, even if they didn't set foot in the place.

It means reviews can highlight situations where the property wasn't as described, the property had issues or the hosts conduct caused concern.

Before a guest couldn't leave a review and some consumer groups raised this as an unfair issue.

The flip side is that a guest who cancels within the 24hr window before check-in time without triggering any of the three reasons above can still leave a review.

It's an irrational loophole but there it is. 

[Jennifer202]

I agree, I mean what are they reviewing?? Besides brief interaction with the host on making the reservation, they never experience what the host has to offer, the space!!

[Amber1]

We took a haitus from hosting because Hurricane Irma rolled through the Keys...so been out of the loop. 

I have past messages from payouts thay include the cleaning fee for cancellations from earlier this year. 

My experience with calling Airbnb hasn't been helpful. The case just gets passed to someone else.

I will check forum on others public responses. Definitely dont want to make it worse. 

[Nigel196]

If they never set foot inside the property and leave a review after they canceled just call Airbnb and have the review removed. Guests that do this usually leave a review as if they stayed in the property. How can the give you  2 stars for cleanliness if they never set foot in the property? I've had several reviews removed like this.

[Nanxing0]

The refund of the cleaning fee actually makes sense since cleaning is not needed. As far as I know there were some hosts who tried to attract guests and avoid tax by setting the room fee ridiculously low but cleaning fee very high. I guess this policy is to go against that at least partially. 

As for the review, it's a flaw in the Airbnb program but as long as you call the customer service they should be able to remove the review upon request. I have had one guest done this (he initially booked with non-refundable and alterated the date three times and I rejected his request the 4th time and then he became verbally abusive so I wrote a review about that) and the CS representative told me as long as the reservation didn't take place reviews should be removed.