Has anyone else had airbnb allow reviews from guests that never stayed?

Has anyone else had airbnb allow reviews from guests that never stayed?

Hi Has anyone else had guests book and request cancellation (peak period) the week prior then review you with low star ratings? I have recently and 6 emails to airbnb support they say they will not take the review and star ratings down despite it going against their own policy of "dishonest and malicious". Anyone else had this problem? ...I would love to hear as I think we need to take this further...how can sites like this go against their own policies?

5 Replies 5
Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Natalie-And-Brett0 do a search here in the CC, you will find several posts about the 'didn't stay/but can review' problem

there is a rationale to the system, not a great one, but it does exist

if you feel a particular review is against policy you can try various methods to find a CS who is willing to agree with you

@Kelly149, are there additional cases where a guest who did not stay can leave a review other than the case where the guest cancels on the day of check in?

 

What are these situations? I may be mis-reading the original question, but it sounded like the guest requested cancellation a week before check-in? This doesn't sound like the situation I am familiar with.

 

The guest wanted to cancel the week before and wnated her money back (peak season too). I said if i got another guest in I would give her some money back but she refused to cancel the booking so I couldnt re-book and return some money to her. So she just left it and then gave me bad stars - I have tried asking airbnb staff now 6 times...what can I do??

@Natalie-And-Brett0 your review of her (I’m guessing) seems to indicate that you allowed someone to stay? But not her??

in that case, her review should be removed since it doesn’t reflect her actual experience 

and in that case, you should have not allowed this other part of her party to stay. 

Either way, your review of her is worse than her review of you. And FYI abb considers EVERYTHING other than a 5 equally bad, so whether she gave you one star or 4 it’s all the same. 

I’d quit with the emails, get on the phone & ask CS to explain to you why this review should stay. It literally says nothing!

Also for all hosts to file away:

i had a guest who LOVED everything about us (documented in message thread) but after leaving got hit with a damage claim bc someone in their group twisted the shower handle off such that I had to have a plumber come repair it. 

Abb CS removed his obviously angry nonsense review from public view BUT told me that it was still visible to them & his stars stayed in my SH average. 

So.....