Guest cancels 2 hours after check-in

[Chili-and-Yves0]

Hi guys!

So we just had 2 guests arrive at our place (2 hours earlier than they said they would arrive, but luckily we were home and ready), the lady went to bed straight away as they had driven over 6 hours today. The man came to drink coffee with us and we chatted a bit. Overall we had a very pleasant impression from them. However, at some point he got up and said he and his girlfriend might go for a walk, so we gave them a key and they left the apartment at some point (we didn't hear them leave) a little over an hour after he left us there is a soft knock on the door and the keys open it. We get up to say hi, and the lady rushes to the room, grabs her suitcases, and is almost out the door. We ask what is wrong, and she told us that she didn't know people would be here (we rent out a private room in our home, and it says that on the listing). She then rushes downstairs, we never saw her boyfriend again, and she seemed upset... Anyways, long story aside: do I need to cancel this reservation now, or leave it as it is? If I cancel that has consequences for me, if I don't then they could give us an unfair bad review. I only give the refund if the booking is cancelled over 24 hours in advance and I am really clueless about what to do in this situation... THANK YOU for your help! 🙂

[Kim-and-Jen0]

Hi Chili,

I think you should contact airbnb (via twitter, it is very responsive). and please do not cancel you will get penalty.

If I were you, I will contact airbnb, and also message the guest request them to cancel from their side. 

hope it helps and good luck!

Jen

[Julia66]

@Chili-and-Yves0  I sorry to hear you had this rather unnerving experience.

DON'T cancel their reservation from your end, and DON'T agree to cancelling if Airbnb ask you to.

If the guests cancel, they will not be able to give a review (and you won't either). 

I don't know if the guests reservation was for longer than one night, but if it was for longer they will be refunded (or not) according to your cancellation policy. 

If they don't cancel, you will both be able to leave reviews.  Say something pleasant about the guests and just state the fact that they hadn't read the listing and left soon after their arrival because they didn't realise it was a Private Room and not an Entire Home.  If the guests leave an untruthful review, you can ask Airbnb to remove it; sometimes, too, Airbnb will remove a review if you contact them and tell them the guests didn't stay the night.  If the guest review stays put, you can put a brief, polite reply similar to your review.

If they ask for money from you, it is up to you whether you want to give them a refund through the Resolution Centre.  In this situation there is no obligation for you to do so, as the guests were at fault, and they had made use of the room.  Some hosts would only consider refunding if the quests had a problem outside their control, such as a health or transport problem.

They may contact Airbnb direct and invent a problem with their accommodation, and Airbnb may believe them and refund their money.

So, do nothing, BUT I suggest you message them now through Airbnb to put in writing the fact that they hadn't read the listing description etc. so that you have a record of the guests' issue.  Airbnb may check the message history before refunding the guests, but may refund them without consulting you.

Let us know how it went!

[Jack70]

Chili, we have had a couple of simular experiences, where the guests do not read the listng thouroughly, that was a few yrs. ago, I would refund them 50% of thier money, not one cent more. After that I made sure I have comunication record with the guest explaining every detail, like my wife and I live in the 1st floor, and they get the 2nd floor, once you have all your communications on record on the ABB app, their is no way the guests can worm their way out.

[Linda108]

@Chili-and-Yves0  You have been given great feedback from @Julia66 and @Kim-and-Jen0 regarding how to deal with the guest cancellation.  

When guests are not happy with a space it is easy to blame them for not reading the description (which is often true) or being too picky, but it is also an opportunity to review what you are offering and how you are marketing the listing.  With that in mind, I notice that while your description is very clear about the shared space, the pictures are not.  Of your 14 pictures, only 2 relate to your space and the rest are wonderful pictures of your area.  Your two pictures are a bed and half a living room.  Add to your pictures with more interior shots with captions that reinforce what is available for the guest to use.  I also have a shared space and you are welcome to see how I provide a pretty clear picture of what the guest can expect.

[Amy305]

I just had 2 guests leave 2 hours after checking in. They did message me and say that they were leaving because my space was not up to their expectations. They did not cancel the reservations or ask for a refund. I feel that my listing accurately represents my space, so I am unsure what to do about this situation. I did message them asking if there was anything I could do to make it up to their expectations and with no response, went to the apartment 20 minutes later. The bed was unmade and it looked like someone had gotten ready to go out (makeup in the garbage, etc.). Does anyone have any insight about what I should do? Do I offer to refund these guests (I have a strict cancellation policy), or reccommend that they cancel their reservation in their end? Help!

[Jack70]

You should have called ABB immedietly, maybe took pictures of what they left, and no you should not give them a refund.

[Jack70]

We just had the same happen to us this past week, the group of six came in to the house to check in, I imediately asked the one who made the booking for his drivers license to make a copy. I took them upstairs to where they were going to staying, they acted kind of starnge, when I told them that my wife and I lived in the first floor. When he made the booking, I told him what I tell all my guests when making an inquiry, to please read the listing thoroughly so that there will be no surprises, he had told me he had, so I excepted the booking. Now they left, said they could not stay if we lived in the house also. They contacted ABB and told them that we were not home to recieve them, Abb posted an e-mail to me saying that all $ 526.00 was going to be deducted from my account. I immediately got on the phone with ABB and explained what had happened, they asked me if I could prove the guests did indeed come into the house,I told ABB, I had gotten a copy of his drivers license, so they asked me to please forward the copy to them, they then revised the amount that I was going to get, $409.00. A couple of hours latter, I get another email from ABBthat the guests is willing to only give me $100.00, I answered that I would settle for $209.00 payment which is what I settled for, even though I did not have to. I really want to thank ABB for the way they handled it, thank God I had a copy of the drivers license, otherwise it is your word against thiers that you were not home to recievem them.

[Linda108]

@Jack70  Were you able to give a negative thumbs down review for this guest or was it considered that he did not check in?  This is the type of guest that hosts need warning about.

[Jack70]

No we could not leave a review, since it was not considered a checkin, it was a cancelation on thier part at the last minute.

[Anne526]

this is interesting to me about not being able to leave a review since it was a cancellation after check-in. Several people on this thread have mentioned that if a guest cancels after check-in window opens, you won't be subject to/be asked to offer a review. I had my first experience with a guest cancelling about 90 minutes after my check-in window opened. I received a cancellation notice from AirBnB. The guest noted she no longer needed to stay at my place. (I had been waiting for her to arrive. She apparently rented an apartment instead and moved in earlier that day.) I thought that was that. Both she and I received a request to review each other. I avoided it for a week since I never hosted her and it seemed wrong to review someone I never even hosted. I eventually wrote a neutral review. Today, I just discovered she wrote a negative review and gave me a low rating (although we literally had only a few text exchanges and she never even showed up.) Her review of an experience she didn't even have dropped my overall 5-star rating 11 percentage points. Just an FYI -- I'm not sure it's true that if folks cancel day of that they can't review you anyway.

[Helen3]

Hi @Jack 

Did you call Airbnb when this happened to let them know your guests had left because they hadn't read the listing properly and didn't realise you lived upstairs?

Contacting Airbnb first is a useful way of making sure they are aware of what happened from your perspective.

You should have received whatever payment is due under the terms of your cancellation policy. It shouldn't be about what the guest decides to offer you.

[Jack70]

I know that, they just caught me in good mood, they even acused my wife  of being a racist, We get a lot of young people to stay with us and my wife has a habit of telling them that for the next few days she is going to be thier grandma, well they took it as offensive, we treat all these young kids as if they were ours.

[Andrea9]

Hey @Jack70, sounds like you just dodged a bullet - from what you described, these guests were planning a wild stay and thus didn't want anybody else in the house as witnesses to the party!

I fully second @Helen3's advice to pre-emptively call Airbnb in such cases to counter against how a guest would probably falsely explain why they were cancelling. Why do you think so many guests complain about bugs and the like to get around losing their money when cancelling!?

If you can't read ABB on time, then send a message on the site saying how sorry you were they hadn't properly read the listing  blabla to establish a record for ABB as to what was going on. They usually reference the conversation to evaluate a situation. With this in mind you can provide a water and air-tight paper trail. Also in the case of complaints, how you plan to solve them, or reiterating exchanges off site.

[Robin4]

@Jack70

Hi Jack, I would probably go further than @Linda108 and flag them. They deliberately lied to Airbnb to minimise the loss they would suffer for what was their mistake!

When someone just disputes an amount of money, that's one thing...when they deliberately lie and stick with that lie, then they do not desrve the right to remain on this platform. If they find mishandling the truth to be acceptable in this instance they would probably say anything they could dream up in another!

Flag them Jack!

Cheers.....Rob