Guest requests refund and leaving malicious reviews

Guest requests refund and leaving malicious reviews

Dear hosts around the world,

 

Three weeks ago I had a guest who fully confirmed to book at my place. This guest acknowledged all the necessary details, cancellation policies and house rules just like every other guest does before staying. Keep in mind that airbnb has a strict 24-48 hour cancellation policy and I also CLEARLY stated it in my house rules and on the listing website. This was also a very busy summer weekend, so I take this policy very seriously. Just after only an HOUR he responded with the following:

 

"Hi , I am sorry I will need to cancel this as I realized my daughters passport has expired"

 

"So won’t be able to cross the border"

 

So he wanted to cancel the booking, which violates Airbnb's strict cancellation policy, as it was well within 24 hours.

 

At that time I didn't know what to do because I've never had been in this situation, but my first reaction is to do nothing and just follow airbnb's clear terms. So I did not respond to this guest. However after a few minutes he requested a complete FULL REFUND. Now, I understand things can happen for guests. But if he asked for partial refund or just simply understood that he was making it difficult for me and apologized I would have given him the refund. He even knew and verified the cancellation policy before booking with me. However I felt that his statement was just an excuse.

 

Then one of the airbnb case managers immediately gave me a phone call. I assume that this guest was appealing to airbnb about this case. They tried to negotiate with me about the refund and said if I could just be empathetic and give him the full refund as his situation was an "accident" and do this guest a favor. Then I said this was a very simple case to deal with.

First - He completely violated my cancellation policy, and on a fully booked summer, with no seems of him doing anything wrong.

Second - I have the ability to either accept or deny his request, as the case violated the policies.

 

So the case manager investigated and agreed with me, and no amount was refunded to this guest. Case closed.

 

Nope. A few days later this guest posted a 1 star review on my listing, and commented on my unethical behavior in my business, as revenge for not getting his refund. How immature! His behavior of leaving the review without even staying at my place violated airbnb's terms and policies. So I contacted airbnb customer service again about this review. Once again, after finding evidence of violating review policies, which is "all reviews must be fair, honest, and relevant to your travel and experiences." They removed his 1 star review from my listing. Case closed.

 

Nope.  A week later a new case manager contacted me about this situation once again. I assume this guest just kept appealing to airbnb to keep his 1 star review on my listing. The case manager said everything my previous colleagues made was incorrect and the review should be posted. WHAT? To put it to perspective, here is the case manager's unbelievable exact words/response:

 

"You have been great at hosting as per my complete review of your account. One of the best hosts Airbnb have and can rely on. A small act of kindness and generosity towards your guest will be appreciated by Airbnb and the guest. I'm not forcing you to provide the refund but just a request. If you decide not to provide the refund to the guest I assure you that we will respect your cancellation policy. Airbnb always go beyond and provide great experience and service to our users and the hosts are the one who do make a difference by going an extra mile for their guests. Trust me a small act of kindness from you will help you a lot in the future. This is just a request we as Airbnb are making and would really appreciate if you can accept it."

 

So this case manager basically wanted me to give the refund to this guest as an act of kindness, to resolve the problem. What kind of BS is this? This is the guest's problem, not mine. His refund problem should NOT be affiliated with my listing reviews. What this case manager responded with is unprofessional and rude; it seems like they'd rather not help me. I tried contacting airbnb again after this; some phone calls exceed 2 hours. Even though I present these absolute clear facts and evidence they seem to be ignoring me, to the point where the customer service won't even mention their own names to stay anonymous. Recently when I tried getting the customer service's attention they give me the same line:

 

"Thanks for reaching out to us regarding this issue. I've forwarded your inquiry to a member of my team who can better assist you. They'll be getting in touch with you soon."

 

So I am stuck at this point where posting a community conversation might help. This 1 star review removed me from the "superhost status," and seems to be having a negative impact on my listing. If you have any tips to handle this please help me! I am seeking a more ethical and truthful solution to this.

 

 

Furthermore. to the airbnb customer service team, please read what you wrote to me, again:

 

"Reviews are the backbone of Airbnb’s community. In order to maintain this structure, we have guidelines in place that ensure that all reviews are fair, honest, and relevant to your travel and experiences."

 

The customer service team is literally contradicting themselves with this statement.

 

The review was not fair and honest. This guest did not even followed the policies that were CLEARLY set up by airbnb and he is still allowed to post random malicious reviews? 

 

Why are hosts and guests expected to give reviews when it has no integrity and not based on actual experiences or the truth, which contradicts your team's statements?

35 Replies 35
Jen-And-Mike0
Level 2
Plympton, MA

I am dealing with a similar issue now - only my guest was having a huge party.  I actually offered to reimburse him entire amount if he left.  Airbnb told me to keep the amount and they cancelled the reservation and yet he was still allowed to leave a malicious review.  I am dealing with it now but I think hosts should be supported.  This seems like a huge liability if someone is clearly not following a house policy whether it is cancellation or other rules.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I’m sorry you had to deal with that guest. Guests at least should respect basic rules and not use Airbnb for some sort of “cheap” motel and do whatever they want. Airbnb must support hosts in this kind of situation as it is a huge liability like you said, but right now they don’t seem to care at all. Their customer service doesn’t seem like they exist.

Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

@Echo7 

Hoping for a refund from a cancellation within one hour is reasonable. 

It was an honest mistake.

We do them all the time.

If we hold all guests to a perfect standard and not allow for mistakes, guests will be slow to reserve. They may not  even make a reservation at all. Is that what we as hosts want? Do we want to be painted as vultures that say, "If you're too stupid to book with us, then all your money is ours."?

I hope not. I hope we as hosts can look at our true damages ( in this case negligible) and do business in good faith.

 

It is absolutely reasonable to make refunds for guests regarding cancellation policies.

 

However I have to strongly disagree with you in this case.

 

It is not an honest mistake. Read my post again. Do you really he would book with me within AN HOUR only to realize his passport has expired? No common sense! They should have all the documents ready before booking!

 

Not only that, but this guest did not even give any sort of apology, or at least acknowledged the fact that he/she was making it more difficult for me, as I had the preparations complete for this guest. The guest simply demanded his money back for his/her careless mistake. 

 

"If you're too stupid to book with us, then all your money is ours" is completely correct for this sort of guest: Not respectful, and rude. In all my years of hosting I've never encountered such behavior.

 

I am a host, at least I deserve BASIC respect. I'm not asking for much. My attitude in these refund situations is based on how you treat me. He/she deserved this.

I agree with @Paul154 .  Retaliating review is all the rude, stupid guest has, unfortunately.

I agree with Paul about the review part, however the way Airbnb responded to this situation is not acceptable, that’s my main message. 

 

Guests who did who did not stay should not be able to write reviews. All Airbnb’s fault.

What I do is offer to the guest to move the date to a future date when they are available to stay. That way you are not uncaringly denying their request,  but providing a reasonable solution. Airbnb support should  surely honor this decision.

I don’t dispute the terrible service by Airbnb in overturning their original support of your decision, but here are some ideas for future incidents.


I adopted a strict cancel policy after several last minute cancels during high season that I was not able to fully rebook, resulting in loss of income.  I’ve only had three incidents in which I reconsidered my strict policy since, based on demonstrated need.

 

Like others here, I offer a future rebook date, with the qualifier being that I confirm my strict policy and am offering it as a good faith courtesy with specified conditions in writing in Airbnb messaging.

 

Ive offered this in response to genuine health issues, family emergencies, and extreme weather.  

 

Terms include:

1- that I am able to rebook the dates and will offer credit for a future stay based on my ability to rebook at the published rate.

 

2- That the rebook be for the same length of time during a specific period, so it’s used within a prompt time frame (such as 2 weeks or a month)


3- In  exceedingly bad weather I’ve offered to reschedule without penalty for the booked amount because no one can control the weather and I’d feel terrible if there were an accident.

 

The situation you share was due to guest error, and your policy is clearly stated.  

 

Were you able to rebook the dates so there was no loss?

 

I don’t condone Airbnb’s contradictory behavior, but it’s not uncommon and many guests know that if they play the game of making enough noise and threaten negativity in social media they’ll get what they want.


So can you.  It’s called Twitter and other sites and groups critical of this one.

 

So, here’s another thought...

If there was no financial loss to you it will cost you nothing to make a deal in return by offering to refund the guest if Airbnb will remove the negative review because it’s no longer an issue.

 

And you have the right to refuse if they attempt to book with you again.

 

My main point here is that Airbnb shouldn’t allow people who didn’t even stay to write reviews. It’s like the guest using the review to hold “hostage” against the refund situation, after failing to appeal his/her refund.

 

the way customer service dealt with this was unacceptable.

Steven65
Level 10
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

You have every right to refuse the refund That is policy. Period. Should the guest be allowed to leave a review? I would say not but I don’t know the rules. 

Technically the guest cancelled within 24 hours so he/she should be registered. But this is still considered a no show. I can understand things can happen but this is ridiculous, guests are not allowed to do this. Check Airbnb’s reviews policy. Clearly violates these rules and they still don’t do anything about it. Thanks for the support!

I received a survey from Airbnb this morning and made a lengthy comment about Airbnb's encouragement allowing guests to blackmail/extort money from hosts they had cancelled with or were "no shows". This has yet to happen to me, but I have seen so many of the same complaints, I'm sure my time will come.

 

I think all hosts should back each other up on this issue. Airbnb is clearly not supportive of hosts on this issue and we need to stand together.

Thank you for your support! Hosts should  back each other up on this matter as no host should end up with things like bad reviews on something that was completely the guest’s problem. I hope this really doesn’t happen to you. Best of luck!

Lauris-and-Gene0
Level 3
Wilmington, NC

I don't understand what started this whole thing. If the guest cancelled within an hour of making the reservation, wouldn't it have been easy to simply allow him to cancel and refund his money? It's not like he had the host holding the space for him for weeks before cancelling. Even the strict cancellation policy states that a full refund will be made if the guest cancels within 48 hours of booking (if the reservation is for more than 14 days away) or a 50% refund if the cancellation is made within 48 hours and the reserved date is 7 days away. So if he cancelled within an hour, I don't really see what the problem was.

@Lauris-and-Gene0 The reservation was instantly made in 24hrs    before check-in time. He booked at 8:30 pm and was arriving at 3:00 in the afternoon. He canceled around 9:30pm, 1 hour after booking. We started preparing immediately. Then, he request to cancel—request full refund—customer service investigated and confirmed with no refund. 

 

Hope me this solves any misunderstanding in the post.