Guest Cancelled Reservation, Still Asked to Review

[Alexandra316]

I had a guest book for last night about 2 months ago. There is a big wine festival on in my town, and rooms are hard to come by. Yesterday, they canceled at about 10 am, in advance of their 3 pm checkin, due to not wanting to drive in the winter weather. I had not intended to provide a refund, because of the late cancelation and because we were not able to find another guest. The guest didn't request a refund either. 

Today, I got a request to review the guest, even though they never checked in. I don't get that. They never checked in, so why should they be able to review? Is this normal? 

[Marzena4]

From what I remember, @Alexandra316, same-day (as check-in) cancellations allow to post reviews.

[Alexandra316]

@Marzena4 thanks. I couldn't find any info on this anywhere.

[Kelly149]

@Alexandra316 There are several posts about this here in the cc. The rationale is convoluted but it does exist. 

[Lawrene0]

What you can do if you like, @Alexandra316, is send a note to the guest explaining how things work. Here is how things work: The system is prompting for a review, but the guest can just ignore it (as will you) because the Help Centre says a review must reflect the author's experience. It is not possible to be truthful about cleanliness, check-in, etc., if it was not experienced.

The possiblity to review after a cancellation was put in place for those cases in which a guest arrives and finds an unacceptable listing. It is not for cases in which a guest never arrives at all, but the system does not know how to differentiate, so it is up to the guest and host to do so. 

[Alexandra316]

Thanks @Lawrene0, that's a good idea. 

It makes sense that people who leave right after arrival should be able to review in the case of unacceptable conditions. Too bad the system can't differentiate. 

[Mary758]

I've had my first cancellation yesterday, the day the guests were due to book in. I have a strict, no-refund cancellation policy. The guest understood that (he only booked 3 days before he cancelled!) but asked if I could cancel the booking. I said no, so this forced the guest to cancel. However, in the comments after he'd cancelled, because he lost 2 nights booking ($AU220), I've offered him 50% off his next 2-night booking if taken within this financial year. We'll see what he does. But I've been sent a request to review him which I can't do, so here I am on this thread looking for an answer. My guess is that I just let the review process lapse as there isn't an option for 'not applicable' in the review.