Reviews for cancellations

[Jordan95]

I recently had a weird experience with some guests cancelling on me, I then was asked to leave a review about their stay. I have both called airbnb and submitted detailed feedback regarding my opinion on this. Where I do see the benefit in reviews for cancellations, I do not believe reviews of this kind should be subject to the same criteria as a review for a stay. Reviews for cancellation should have a different criteria and be a different kind of review, in the way that guest and host reviews are different. Its as impossible for them to judge the factors presented in their guest review as it is for me to judge factors presented in my host review as they never even entered my property much less to spend a night.
I also found the tactic these particluar guests used very weird and almost scam like. They initially requested 6 nights which I accepted. They had to send a request as 1 of these 6 nights was one of my preparation nights, this then made it possible for them to request to stay only on my preparation night and to cancel the other 5 nights. I had to google to see if it was some tactic from some blog to get hosts to make unavailable nights available ( I found no such thing). I was really put off by how he managed to put me in a position where I was almost obliged to host him in conditions I would not have agreed to. So I had to offer to refund him most of the cancellation fee's to avoid having to pay the penalty of performing a host cancel. Neither did I want to force them to stay in my place and have to welcome them here and have them stay when they would prefer to be elsewhere, then from that bad energy I may be subjected to bad ratings from them which would hurt my listing even more.
This is and has been my weirdest experience as a host, and even weirder especially being asked to review a guest I've never met, with completely irrelevant criteria.
Airbnb really need to do something about the way these reviews for cancellation are structured and the relevant criteria, I do hope where my situation is concerned I'll be fine, as I did all I could to find a reasonable solution for us both, but in a different situation this could be extremely damaging to any ratings hosts may have spend a very long time building up and encourages both hosts and guests to give dishonest feedback, as the criteria for a review of a stay can in no way reflect your experience of handling any form of dispute resolution.

[Christian65]

It could be done a lot smarter, I agree with you but it's been an issue and you can read more here

Airbnb agrees to close reviews loophole after ... - The Guardian

[Ward1]

Ok, but it's VERY different if someone cancels because they arrive and there are problems with the listing, and if someone cancels without ever stepping foot into the listing.

I had a guest experience that was awful:  I HAD TO stay the first night, but I was refunded for the rest, and I left a review that said, "This place is disgusting - do NOT book this lisitng.

But last week two people cancelled on me without even entering my home.  (See above - pne said she lost her wallet, the other was booking for someone else and she wanted to be here (a lot??) with the person she was booking for.  She and I agreed to mutually cancel that reservation. . .)

Why shojld people be allwed to leave a review if they have never stepped foot in the listing??

[Ward1]

I think the idea of leaving reviews for cancellations is a HORRIBLE idea.  It only allows the door to be open for angst, negativity, and bad reviews.  No one is gong to leave a review that says, "This was such a good cancelaltion!"  Even if someone could leave that review - I would not want the public to know that I am a good host on which to cancel.

Here is the message I sent to Airbnb on this topic.  I have changed the names of my guests, just to be sure no one says, "He used my real name!!!"

Hi:

I am writing to express my concern over the new policy of allowing people to leave each other reviews when a reservation has been cancelled. It is an incredibly bad idea. It only opens the door to bad reviews. No one is going to say, “This was such a great cancellation!”

I had two separate reservations cancel on me last Thursday (Donna and Bobbie):

Donna was booking a reservation FOR SOMEONE ELSE (her boyfriend). She booked my listing, which clearly states that if a second person is staying here it costs more money, but she booked it as a one-person stay. She then asked if it was ok for her to 'be here' while her boyfriend was here.

I was not comfortable with someone booking FOR SOMEONE ELSE, which I think should be an immediate disqualifies for bookings -- how is it fair to book someone on a different person's reviews?? -- and I also was not comfortable with her asking if she could 'be here with her boyfriend' when she booked it on a one-person' rate.

She of course felt that she was just asking if she could 'drop in a little' to visit with her boyfriend.

That is a huge gray area. Maybe she only would have been here a little bit, but maybe she would have been here all the time -- who knows.

So when I asked her to book it as a two-person booking, she said she didn't want to do that, and we agreed to (mutually) cancel.

But now she could write a review of me that says something like: "I only asked if I could be there an hour, and this guy wanted me to pay for myself for the entire stay -- DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS GUY!!!”

Or I could write her a review that says something like: "She was trying to 'scam' a two-person stay into a one-person pay, AND she wasn't even booking for herself."

If either of us did this, it would reflect very badly on our Airbnb profiles and we might lose guesting or hosting opportunities because of it.

The other cancellation - Bobbie -- she told me that she lost her wallet, so she had to cancel. There was something in her story that I just didn't believe was true, and I did not refund her money (because my listing has a strict cancellation policy). Now maybe her story WAS true, maybe it wasn’t. How do I know?

If she wanted to - she could leave me a review that says: "This guy didn't refund me at all for a two-day stay that I had to cancel because I had lost my wallet and was completely stranded. Do NOT book with this guy - he kept my money, and I never walked into his house!"

Or I could write her a review that says, “She made-up a big fat lie about losing her wallet at a coffee shop earlier in the day. . . .and also said she discovered the wallet was missing when she went to Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch a train to my place. You can’t take trains from Port Authority BUS TERMINAL, so clearly she was lying!”

Also, If I decide to do the right thing and NOT write a review for either of these cancellations, and then I find out later that they wrote me bad reviews -- what do I do????

The cancellation policy worked best when you could not leave reviews, and allowing people to review each other upon a cancellation only opens up a Pandora's box for negative reviews. It is a horrible idea, and it should be stopped immediately.

Sincerely,

-Ward

[Ward1]

Just to be clear - I mean that the idea of leaving reviews when the guest never steps foot in the host's home is a horrible idea.  If the guest enters and cancels because there is something wrong with the listing -- that's very different.  But the two different situations warrant different results!

[Ward1]

So I wnated to see what would be asked for me to review someone who cancelled BEFORE they even entered my home:

It' the same 'standard' review process:

1st Questions: "Do you recommend this person to others on Airbnb?"

NExt:

Rate thieir Cleanliness, Communicaiton, etc.

How can I comment on ANY of this when I never met them and they never stepped foot in my home??  Why should someone who has never been in my home (and cancelled becuase they wanted/needed to) be able to rate my listing's cleanliness, accuracy, etc??  THIS MAKES NO SENSE!

At most, there should only be allowed a 'comment' by guest and host when a reservation is cancelled without the guest stepping foot into the lsiting. . . 

[Mandi22]

I had a lady cancel yesterday 2 hours before check in. I messaged her to ask when roughly she would be here and she just said she was not coming now. I messaged back that it was a shame and I hoped all was well. She came back with too much to do and too far now!

how am I meant to review this?

help!!

[Paul1255]

@Mandi22  no need to review a guest who hasn't stayed with you- there's no point 🙂

[Mandi22]

Air bnb have sent me a message to so am really confused

[Paul1255]

@Mandi22 it's an automated message that is sent at the end of every booking- the system doesn't know the guest didn't check-in or stay.

You aren't obliged to review any of the guests you host if you don't want to.