Issue with guest

[Susan740]

This booking had so many problems from day one, just try to stick with me.  It's pretty hard to explain.  On Sunday night I recieved notice of a booking for one guest for Friday night.  He asked a question about checkin  which I promptly answered.  Days went by with no communication from him.  In the meantime I had to turn down a whole house booking because he had one room rented.  Finally at 4:00 on the day of check in as I was typing a message to him he sent a message telling me there would be 4 or 5 people coming and he wasn't sure when they would arrive.  Well, this was a problem.  I had prepared breakfast for one, but told him it would be OK they would just have to do breakfast on their own.  Also, the room only sleeps 4 and he would need to pay for additional guests.     My other room was rented but the guests cancelled suddenly.  So I contacted him to let him the know the other room was available if he wanted to rent it for his additional guests.  At this point he informed me everyone had backed out on him and he wouldn't be coming either.  I informed him he had already paid, and unless I could rent the room (which was pretty much impossible seeing as it was 5:00 at this point) I would have to retain all of his payment because I had missed a booking AND had already bought and prepped breakfast.  His reaction was pretty much NO REACTION.  So, instead of a full house, I had an empty house because of him.  

I have only been hosting for about 6 months.  I have a few questions about this situation.  1.  I am worried about him somehow contacting AirBnB and getting a refund.  (I have a full refund 1 day in advance policy).  I have not received any notice of him cancelling though.  AirBnB still says the payment is pending.  What are the chances of him getting a refund somehow?

2.  He did mention to me that this was his first time to use AirBnB.  I have received a request from AirBnB to review him as a guest.  I do not feel bad about retaining the entrie booking fee because he not only cost me money but time.  BUT, I do feel guilty about giving him a bad review even though he certainly deserves it.  BUT I also want to warn other hosts of this behavior.  I would like to leave an honest but not harsh review.  The teacher in me wants him to learn from this but not be forever branded as a bad guest.  What to do?

[David126]

@Susan740 With AirBnB you can never know if a Guest will be refunded, just a cost of doing business through the site, nothing you can do about it whatever your Policy is.

I would look at is a no show but at least you were notified, the ones I do not like are the ones that do not turn up and never tell you.

[Susan740]

David, Thanks for the response.  I am learning from several threads that payment is not always a guarantee.  😞

  I don't care if they show up or not............as long as I get paid.  My husband and I enjoyed his breakfast this morning.   LOL                      

[David126]

My guess is that you will get paid without issue, my favourite last minute back out was the Guy with the new girl friend who balked, always wondered at what point he mentioned the night away to her.

[Fred13]

May I suggest @Susan0,  in the future it is best to not be the 'Bearer of Bad News', meaning best not to inform him he won't get refunded. He is in essence, as David pointed out - a no show. This guest sounds like a flake, best let Airbnb deal with him, IF he even contacts them about a refund.

[Susan740]

Thank you for the suggestion.  I think you are probably right.  I just try to be as honest about things as I would want someone to be with me if I was the guest.  Of course I would NEVER behave in this fashion.  To my knowledge, he has not tried to cancel and I will receive the payment in full.  If that is the case, I will probably not give him a review at all.  Hopefully by losing money he will learn how the ABNB system works.