cancelled reservation and review

[Miko--MichelAngelo-0]

last week i had some guests who cancelled their reservation and then were arguing about the refund of reservation...

they theatened me to write a bad report if i didnt refund some money.

(by the way, they left the city following a huge terroristic attack, and not any problem about the house)

i agreed on that, after being assured by airbnb staff that cancell,ng the reservation they would have not any right about wrtiting a report.

now... their bad report is published on the website, it abstructed me to have a super-host status. i was assured by airbnb.

in this way i have got all the price of the problems; i refunded the guests even if i didnt put the bombs in the airport and these guys are enjoying the bach holiday still in "dangerous" turkey, with my money.

what can i do?

[Helen3]

Merhaba Miko

I was sorry to hear about the devastating events in Istanbul last week.

This sounds like you have been treated appallingly.

Give BnB customer services a call. Normally if a guest doesn't stay in your property they can't review it.

And you normally only have to give a guest their money back if there is something wrong with your property - not for an act of war (as long as you don't have a flexible cancellation policy and then guests can cancel easily).

If you have something in writing from BnB or the name of the person you talked to there, then contact BnB straight away and ask them to remove your review.

Good luck

Helen

[Maria-Lurdes0]

I think that if there was extenuating circumstances which include terror threats, acts of war, flooding, freak electrical storms, etc, (don't know all of them) that Airbnb will automatically refund hte guests payment and the guest, since they did not stay, will not be able to leave a review. 

The easiest way to find out the answer is to contact airbnb directly, this community center is not a help desk for specific reservation issues.

[Shann1]

I have a similar situation, where he cancelled a 14 days reservation which they booked a couple of weeks ago, after check in and sleeping 9 hours in the apt, left early in the morning. 

1. They ripped out a poster of mine who has a professional women swimmer in swimming suit (not bikini or monokini, none showing cleavage) smiling. then, they paste it on the shoe closet, so they would not see it. His wife had hijab and maybe they got disturbed. 

2. My furniture had a cover for long term visitor with kids. They removed the covers, and removed the carpet, removed everythings place all over....in 8 hours after all the international travel they been through, i was suprised they had that energy. He later said in whatsapp that he didnt like the design of the covers, and i should have the pics with covers. Although i told them, that they can remove the covers if you would like since i would not be able to check it any ways. 

3. They called me at 12:21 at midnight saying they dont have hot water. Which in that morning, the apt had it. I told them i can have it look tomorrow. They said fine. The house rules say reach me till 10 pm unless its very urgent/important that can be taken care of at night. 

4. In the morning at 7 am, i receive a whatsapp message saying they are leaving and they want their money back asap. 

I have arranged an engineer and went to look to water, and it was working, they just had to restart it/increase temperature. 

5. I regret that we had a long decent chat which I sincerely encouraged them to be active on airbnb, while later i realize maybe they were just trying to get more info about my situation. 

6. The guest had prpfile for years, but had no reviews. He seemed fine in our conversation, now after 3 bad experiences with no reviews people, i highly reconsider if i should be ok with first time/news users, it really discouraged me. 

7. I have moderate cancellation policy, since they rushed to leave in 9 hours, i am not sure if they realize if they will get only half of the money back. 

My questions:

1) Airbnb twitter is usually fast at these things, but i still didnt hear from them.

2) should i give them full refund? 

2) Do they get to review me if it stays with moderate refund?Can they review me even in full refund? Can they review me if i only charge for 2 nights and cleaning and airbnb fee, in addition to moderata cancellation policy refund? 

3) How to be still encouraged after this? 

[Helen3]

Hello 

First of all you should keep all communication within Airbnb - not using what's app or other communications such as email or text. That way there is a full record of what has happened.

They had no right to remove or move items around in your property.

I would just agree a refund in line with your cancellation policy, although Airbnb might argue for more if the guests say they have no hot water.

Make sure you message your guests know and summarise what has happened including them moving items in your home. Confirm that your heating engineer came and checked the premises and that the heating was working fine. (if you need to reboost/increase the temperature to get it working then you need to leave that in your guest instructions/advise them of this when they contacted you.

Give Airbnb a call now to explain the situation and ask for their advice.

Guests can always review you if they stay in your property.

Living in Turkey you will know that some areas and communities are more conservative then others, so perhaps keep photos and wall hangings more neutral - so images of Istanbul rather than images of men or women in swimming costumes.

[Shann1]

They were Germans with Turkish roots, but they said they would not like to be turkish citizens. 

I informed them that i actually live in that house so everything was designed accordingly.

But ok, i will take that picture off although its a sportwoman. 

They were the ones who used whatsapp to call me at midnight maybe since they do not have mobile phone credits for this country. 

In midnight at 00:24 am, when they called via whatsapp, I advised them to increase the temperature of the heater, and she said yes i did, and when i went to the apt, it wasnt increased, i took a pic of it.

In whatsapp in the call, i said i will have it looked in the morning she said ok, to have a writen copy, i also wrote, i will have it looked in the morning, and she replies back saying its ok. 

Then airbnb sent me a cancelled reservation email at 6 am, and they sent me a message at 8 am in whatsapp saying they left, and they want their money back according to house rules.

In the morning around 8:30ish am in the morning when I went back to the apt with the engineer, the engineer laughed said there is no problem. So i messaged back saying: there is hot water actually no problem, you can come back if you like, for your information. 

they said they actually dont like the blanket on top of the sofa doesnt look accurate/stylish (which when i welcomed i told them they can remove them if they like).

Also said the bathrooms hygine could have been better. And when i welcomed them, they checked the bathroom, and checked the cleaning even touched and smelled the sheets to check if they were clean, and said it is ok.

My guess is they told me they have some friends/relatives nearby, they just went to stay with them urgently, otherwise especially at 6 am in the morning, in the area they are looking for its hard to find a new and good place like mine, they told me themselves. 

[Shann1]

Airbnb twitter and responsible person  got back to me following this post on the phone. He said its up to me to decide to fund them more. 

Now again at night 10:30 pm, they have issued an unaccurate/unclean full refund request in German, which I do not understand and which they also know that i cannot speak since they asked me twice. they must have planned to cancel it before even they came.

I am undecided betweeen funding them fully or partially. I am Level II, whats the best way to proceed? 

As money and time, what did i lose? their late arrival, cleaning, arranging engineer, my naive trust and hope on diversity/respect. 

[Shann1]

@Helen3 In short, due to his seemingly unpredictable/conflicting behaviour and their lack of airbnb experience/culture and their tendancy calling me late at night tonight again twice, I was afraid of my safety/ i wanted peace, and I have decided to fund him everything except 1 night stay plus 25 TL for extras;  he requested 605 TL full amount after moderate policy, I funded him 500 TL. 

only have 2 questions, may be you might help.

1) According to gtranslate, they have stated toilet, sofas sheets, and towels were very dirty that they could not sleep or go to restroom. they def. used the bed and when check in they checked the bathroom, they even smelled freshly clean sheets and towels....and the apt was cleaned right that day. In my response to their refund claim, i said: following airbnbs email tonight, although its against moderate refund policy and the claims content is not agreed, everything except 1 day stay and extras have been fully funded back to you. Airbnb will pay you back as soon as they can, hope your family enjoy the stay in Istanbul. 

i never had such claims with negative things i know everybody can get one story, so i am wondering even not true, will airbnb think less of me or can this affect the listings search result potential in any bad way, for airbnbs system for referring me to new guests?

and how can you prove that you are right if something like this happens again so that i can know and act accordingly?

2) Without them asking, I have provided and shown them prayer books, praying carpet, all that they can need during their stay which seems like they used. So I respected their views. Despite that, when they ripped off the small logo in the entrance door, questioned me on the books on the library and hided the newspapers/magazines on the table (no politcs or history or nudity, general books/magazines on business, economics like forbes nytimes etc.), moved everything (carpet chair cycle chairs sofas tables) around although they asked and knew i lived in there, and definitely lied in the claim.And it is sad and my second bad experience when a turkish german or turkish australian say you are so turkish you should do ... as an insult.  It made me cry because its your own people saying this to you, lose hope for future on unity, diversity and respect. 

I question if they value airbnb communitys value on respect and diversity.  if  ever and how they could get some kind of warning/orientation/penalty for it somehow?

Ok i can remove every magazine/book ok. You might say be careful when you choose a guest, how will i know if they have such issues before hand? 

I would greatly appreciate any insights from more experienced airbnb host.