Guest can "hold you hostage" for refund.

Andrea610
Level 1
Fažana, Croatia

Guest can "hold you hostage" for refund.

Immagine this scenario:

You have strict terms.
Guest books months in advance.
Guest cancels reservation on the day of check in and never shows up.
This gives the guest the RIGHT TO REVIEW.

Guest can easily say: My money back or 1 star and bad review.

Would you be prepared to loose your super host status over this or would you refund the guest?
Lets say we are talking about a 3.000€ single reservation.

8 Replies 8
Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

If you have a message from the guest with such a threat, @Andrea610, contact Air BNB about it as such a threat is against Air BNB terms and Content policy.  The review will be pulled and the rating won't count.  

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

You would be most fortunate to have a guest say: "My money back or 1 star and bad review." In writing, via the Airbnb message board. Yes, some are that stupid. Why is best to keep ALL communications via Airbnb message board; for that reason, I never get into private texts or phone calls with guests, ever.

This is just an immaginary scenario.

l was keeping it simple and somewhat silly for the ease of the conversation. 

 

What if the guest sais: 

 

“I would greatly appreciate a total refund! I will give you a 5* review!”

 

You say: sorry terms conditions yada yada.

 

”This kind of answer does not comply with my views of a 5* service.”

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, when 'talking' with guests, It is best to make believe you didn't even 'hear' certain insinuations. Refund and review should be two separate conversations; if they are both mentioned in conjunction, address one and ignore the other. 

David126
Level 10
Como, CO

@Andrea610

I agree with @Fred13, I am sure there are some people out there stupid enough to bluntly ay that in a mesage thread but I would expect that to very unusual.

 

The simple option is to cancel citing extenuating circumstances but if someone wants to go this way easy enough to infer that the quality of the review is at risk.

 

On a more postive note SuperHost means very little and with the new system effectively has become random, so ignore the Superhost issue and the problem goes away.

David

@David126 There is another thread ongoing on the frstration of maintaning Superhost, and I wanted to suggest that maybe there are really two things Airbnb should drop: Host Guarantee and Superhost. Place hosts as a function of their overall 'quality' of their reviews ~for the past year~. 

  

  

 

David126
Level 10
Como, CO

@Fred13

 

Agree both should go but I think they like them for marketing and work on the basis that many people do not see the issues. Short term they are no doubt right.

David

HOST HOSTAGED by GUEST:

A girl booked for herself - she arrived with another person and we asked her to register it - she got very angry and she planned her revenge.

She stayed one night and put dirt everywhere, she broke a curtain, scratch a wall that we had to repaint, I threw garbage in the toilet and I took photos of each thing and asked for the full refund of the 3 days arguing the unit was dirty - and the review was snowy. She gave us a horrible review.

After she was there came a guy, no problem. After the guy another girl, er recorded a video before showing how the unit was cleaned. This girl saw a neighbor's cat through the window and freak out with an uncontrolled behavior screaming sending pictures to us from inside the unit showing the cat in the yard. The same, she called saying that the unit was dirty and were cats inside - the unit does not allow pets - no pets can be inside - in the end, she got her refund and we got a horrible review. The unit's day is too cheap, we believe this is a point that has to change. We will remodeling and put a higher price and see if the people want to play games risking their money.