Very weird situation - guest seems to have thought he could cancel reservation after showing up?

[Michael739]

Hi everyone,

Thanks in advance for your help! I had a last minute booking earlier this week for 2 nights (3/29 and 3/30, for reference) that felt a bit off from the beginning, but I try to be as welcoming as possible so I didn't think much of it. After giving him the details (I was out of town), here's the conversation:

http://imgur.com/a/y2y2g

http://imgur.com/a/yeDmC

Basically it seems he thought he could leave after 1-2 hours there because he just didn't like the place? I felt kind of bad but he's an adult and if he doesn't want to stay that's fine. I was a bit sketched out and had a friend check on the place, the key was put back in its hiding place and everything looked ok (nothing stolen, etc) so I chalked it up to the guy being eccentric.

Then a few hours ago I got this review:

“I tried to like the place but it was just too depressing. I left after two hours and was not given a refund. In fact i was overcharged by one night. The air was stale and the floors were quite ugly. The fridge was filled with beer and a jar of pickles.”

I'm not especially excited that that review is there and I'd imagine he dragged my star rating down a bit, but this is obviously a misunderstanding, right? (also, is it not OK to have beer and pickles?)

I'd like to request that AirBnB take the review down, or at least remove his star rating, because it might confuse potential guests or otherwise impact my bookings. I'm certainly going to post a public reply, and I refunded his cleaning fee since he didn't actually stay at the place, but I'm wondering if anyone here has any advice on how to proceed in terms of getting AirBnB to potentially remove the review? It strikes me as a special case, since the guest 1) didn't stay at my home and 2) misunderstood and criticized a clearly-stated cancellation and refund policy (I use moderate, the 5 day notice setting). Thanks again for your help!

Cheers,

Michael

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

You should contact Airbnb.  They may take it down but only because the guest cancelled their reservation after not staying, not because anything he said was "inaccurate".  They may take it down for that reason, but you will have to talk to them directly.  

[Michael739]

That makes sense, thanks! What's the best way to do that?

[David-and-Fiona0]

Beer and pickles?????? Where do I book!!!!!!  

[David126]

I would call them, others prefer Twitter.

Yes you will get weird situations, just the way it goes.

[Deborah132]

The same thing has just happened to me : /  The guest arrived and said they did not want to stay because there were flies in the house.  It's spring in Australia!!  It is pretty much impossible to keep them out.  Everytime you go in or out the door they slip in with you!  There is fly spray and swatters for those who don't like sprays. I don't.   I was also unable to do the clean as it was a last minute booking and I was working today.  Normally I do a lap of the house before I lock up and herd them all out, but, as soon as the guests unpack their stuff into the house they all jsut migrate straight back in : /  I have a strict cancelation policy but have agreed to refund minus the fee I had to pay for a clean today, I was going down tomorrow to clean for the booking on the weekend.  It's really distressing when this sort of thing happens especially before the summer season here, as yes, Micheal it defintly impacts bookings 😞