Trying to do the right thing I called Airbnb and they suggested they'd cancel the reservation since the Guest would clearly be breaking the House Rules arriving after latest check-in. I agreed to allow a refund and was assured, in writing, that the Guest wouldn't be allowed to leave a review or any review would be removed.
However, the Guest was, in fact, allowed to leave a review, 1 star naturally, even though they were given a full refund for their failure to ensure that the listing was suitable for their needs.
What followed was a point blank refusal by Airbnb to remove the review and several days of messaging and telephone calls.
Well, after several days of protracted messaging and telephone conversations, Airbnb eventually agreed to remove the review which they had originally assured me wouldn't be posted or would be removed it it were posted.
Given that the reservation was cancelled before it began, that is, it was cancelled prior to the earliest check-in time on the day of the reservation it's hard to see how the Guest was allowed to leave a review in the first place.
Of course, what it equally concerning is the complete lack of teamwork within Airbnb, the "Support Ambassadors" seemingly can't talk to other departments, there's a point blank refusal to allow Hosts to talk to anyone other than the frontline staff and therefore everything seems to have to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy and multiple individuals with the answer coming back down the same route.
Depending upon who you speak with, the willingness and ability to assist varies alarmingly as do the answers to questions, consisten
It's also disturbing to see that either Airbnb has very poor policies or no policies at all in certain areas. Below is a selection of responses given over the marathon of conversations, some of these directly contradicting others:
“If they did not arrive in the property we can request for the removal of it. We just need to make sure that we have a proof, sometimes even though the Guest should not be able to leave a review there were some instances wherein they received an invitation to leave a review.”
“As per that, it is the decision provided by the department and as per the review will not be removed.
I do understand that it will not be acceptable, and I respect your thoughts over it, and also I am aware that you are Super Host which we do value but as per the review policy of Airbnb, the review is relevant.”
“After careful consideration, we determined that the original outcome should be upheld. We understand that this might not be what you’d hoped for, but we came to this outcome because as it doesn't violate our Content Guideline policy since it's just relevant to their experience. Therefore, we are unable to remove the review. I hope you understand that my decision was centered around some of Airbnb´s founding principles: trust and transparency.”
“I checked everything here and since there's no check-in that happened on this reservation your Guest should not have left a review on this reservation.”
“I would like to inform you that the review left by your guest D for the reservation HM5KXXXXXX has been removed for not following our policies, and it will no longer be visible on your listing or public profile.”
From the perspective of a Host who is attempting to do the right thing by the Guest, even when that costs the Host a considerable sum in lost revenue, it's most disconcerting to find that undertakings given by Airbnb in writing are simply brushed aside at a later date. If the Host made claims or statements in their listing which weren't followed through I suspect Airbnb would be merciless yet Airbnb is happy to simply renege on its word.
I guess in future the only course of action is to apply the listing details and House Rules rigidly and next time around, leave the Guest to resolve tings for themselves, at least I'll get paid which will make the possibility of a bad review more tolerable.
In this particular situation, the fact that the Guest chose to arrive after the latest check-in time as stated on the listing and in the House Rules, it was not considered a "revenge review" as a result of the Host enforcing a policy or rule, despite what the Airbnb review policy states.
A lesson to be learned I guess, it's probably symptomatic of the shift towards competing with other platforms,, which are aimed at hotel customers, and away from the original Airbnb type of customer coupled with a call centre operation where box ticking and cost efficiencies outweigh good service delivery by knowledgeable staff able to use common sense.
All I can say is always, always, always make sure that you ask for any discussion by phone to be confirmed in a message by the Airbnb support staff and preferably try to avoid conversations by phone. It's clearly far more quick and convenient for Airbnb to call than message but there's no evidence to fall back on if everything is handled exclusively by phone. And, be persistent, it's amazing how the help and attitude varies from one person to another, so if you don't get help first time around, message again, eventually you'll find someone who isn't a slave to "the process" and who's willing to provide a common sense approach to helping, even if the result isn't what you want at the end of the day, at least they try.
