Guest canceled after check in date, I refused a refund, now he left a negative feedback

[Αικατερινη2]

So to make a long story short, this is what happened.

-Guests book my place for 2 nights.

-Guests's never show up, because of bad weather cancelling their boat.

-Guests ask for a full refund 1 day after check-in

-I decline, telling them to talk to Airbnb, and if Airbnb's rule make it an extenuating circumstance, they will refund him for me.

-Guests leaves semi-negative review, with a bad score.

-I talk to Airbnb about removing the review, they decline.

How is it possible that a review left because I declined to refund them, after the guest never even seeing the house is accepted? How was he allowed to review the place, the cleanliness, the accuracy and the value if he never showed up?

This is absurd from Airbnb's side

[Helen-And-Mario0]

unfortuantely if guests never cancelled the booking, they can still leave review even they have not stayed at the place. Have dealt with this for for few times, even now that guests cancelled, they can still leave reviews. 

[Linda108]

It is the overall experience that counts, @Αικατερινη2  on this platform, not the individual categories.  I agree that the system allows the guest to review because the automated system doesn't "know the guest did not stay in the listing.  For this guest, their experience was negative in that they thought they deserved a refund.  Apparently you got paid even though you did not provide the service, so perhaps it is a bit more even.  Your response to the review was factual and that will be helpful to potential guests.  When a guest asks for a refund, like you, I always refer to Air BNB and abide by whatever Air BNB determines.  I realize that sometimes their determination is illogical, but I don't sweat it.  When I respond to a negative review, I like to show some empathy for the guest experience rather than chastise them as that plays better for potential guests.  

[Αικατερινη2]

The day the guests were supposed to come, I contacted them and they didn't want to cancel yet, hoping to catch a next boat.

So the second day of their stay rolls in, and then they cancel the trip. How is it fair that I have to have this kind of experience as a host, when I did everything by the book? That's the part that bothers me.

Guidelines should be enforced. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Αικατερινη2  😞

I don't know how long you are hosting but I see you are new to this forum. After a while, you will realize that Airbnb review/rating system is not always fair, that it can hurt the host's business a lot and that it causes a LOT of frustrations to all of us.

You are absolutely right and I understand your frustration 😞 Try to contact Airbnb ones again through Twitter (Airbnb help) or Facebook, they seem to be the most competent. Maybe someone will be willing to remove this review and do the right thing.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Αικατερινη2 @Linda108 

Empathy is fine if the host is required to finance a guests holiday vacation but to have a host penalised because he/she won't roll over and pay back fees because a guest just doesn't turn up is simply wrong.

@Αικατερινη2 You must pursue this negative review as @Branka-and-Silvia0 mentioned. Only by persisting in this might you get the review removed. You can always reply to the negative review making your own case but this wouldn't remove any negative rating. I wouldn't reply to your guest until you've exhausted every possibility of having the whole review removed.