How can a guest who cancelled, still leave a review?

[Aytekin1]

I had a guest in last february and he literally violated almost all the rules (inviting strangers to the place, walking around naked etc.). I had contact with help center and his reservation is cancelled in cooperation with the help center.  After he left the place, drop an evaluation mentioning "the place was dirty, it has no sunlight bla bla bla." I have proven that he was violating the rules and help center advised me to cancel his reservation. How is it still possible that he can manipulate my future potential guests by his feedback? How can Airbnb expect that this man would ever give an objective assessment?

[Ana1136]

@Aytekin1 even if he never enters your place he can still review it. I don't think Airbnb is going to change and they won't remove any review that doesn't violate their T&C. They never say that they expect objective reviews, they emphasize the fact that each guest has a right to leave a subjective one. It is unfair in many situations. 

[Aytekin1]

Dear Ana it means whoever does crazy things at the place we, airbnb hosts, shall never complain about them and never cancell a reservation. Otherwise guests have "right" to defame us 🙂

it is unfair and unacceptable.

[Robin4]

@Aytekin1 

You are right, it does seem unfair, but the rule is, once the day of the scheduled stay begins both host and guest have the opportunity to leave a review.

I have even had 'guests' who were not in my state....... never got with 1,700 Kms of my listing, they were still able to leave a review because they cancelled on the day the stay was to commence! They realised they had booked a listing for that evening in the wrong state!

You could say this is not fair and does not reflect the quality of the stay, it is not a true experience ....how can someone give a star rating on something they have not experienced?

But the reason for having a review system is to advise others of the quality of, not just the property, but the host and guest.

It does work the other way too though Aytekin.

I received a really nice review from another guest who never stayed and I also gave that guest a good review, and public response.

Now it is quite obvious from that review that the stay did not take place, but I wanted to let the community know that this guest had communicated well and I am sure would have been a good guest! He wanted to stay, had paid his money, done everything right, but his employer altered his work schedule and wanted him back in his home state. And he wanted to let the community know that I had been as helpful as I could to him. 

Although the stay did not eventuate, a lot of good came out of the fact that we were able to review each other. In fact both he and his wife have subsequently returned and stayed with us so, in actual fact we were both winners.

Aytekin, the revenge review can be a problem but remember neither we as hosts or guests will look at one review in isolation, we look at a users past. You have some great reviews! Who do you think we are going to believe, Gon from Korea or all your other really complimentary reviews?

The review system is not perfect, but sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, that's life, in the end it all averages out!

Cheers......Rob

[Debra300]

I just read this in the Host Q&A section.  Apparently, Airbnb had been providing us incorrect information about the ability to leave reviews for canceled reservations, and they don't say why they allow this.

The review system can feel unfair sometimes. What are you planning to do to improve it?

We’re going to look into how one-off ratings affect your overall rating and impact your status in programs like Superhost. But it’s important for Airbnb to be a neutral platform for both guests and hosts, so we won’t remove reviews unless they violate our Content Policy. We want to give guests the chance to share their feedback— and for you to respond, too. You can always publicly respond to reviews.

Regarding reviews of your location, we understand that your location isn’t something you can change. But it is something that helps guests decide if it’s the right spot for them to book. Guests are asked to rate how convenient they think the location is, and that’s subjective, since preferences vary. This rating doesn’t say anything about the quality of your hosting or your listing and it does not affect your search ranking, overall experience rating, or eligibility for special programs like Superhost or Plus.

Correction: Previously we stated that guests who cancel before check-in, without seeing or visiting the space, shouldn't be able to leave a review, and that if hosts contacted us, we would remove reviews left by these guests. But it’s not always that simple. We only remove reviews which violate our content guidelines. We apologize for any confusion we may have caused in the Host Q&A. We take this seriously, and moving forward, we’re committed to being more clear.

[Ana309]

It is preposterous that guests that cancel their reservation and never saw the property is allowed to leave a review. How objective and honest can a review from a cancellation be? And even if the guest don't write a review, it goes against host as it contribute to lower the review percentage rate.  The whole Airbnb review system is ridiculous.