Canceled now a review

[John-And-Teail0]

We had a guest message us at 7 am asking if they can book and check in early. We have a 24 hour open booking window. He stated that he would be willing to Pay extra in order to check in earlier than our standard 4 pm. I agreed to allow him to check in at 8:30 am and charged an extra $20. He agreed and then asked if we could accept cash. We stated that is against our Airbnb contract so off he went to buy a prepaid card. He was a new Airbnb guest with zero reviews. He had one guest with him. He booked for the agreed price and then arrived at 9:45. By 10:47 he messaged us that he liked our place but did not realize it was a shed with an off grid set up including no hot water which was listed in the description twice. He therefore wanted his money back and stated he would sit in our driveway until he got his money back. I contacted Airbnb and decided to do a refund despite the fact that we have a 24 hour cancellation policy. They agreed to give him a refund but then told him to find a reason to argue his satisfaction with our listing and because he had found the no hot water was described in the listing  he asked if he could take pictures and took apart the loft mattress arguing that it was not a queen size mattress. He took the pictures as requested by Airbnb and submitted them and that was the reason they allowed him to get his refund. Now we both get to review one another? Why is it even an option when an individual cancels? I see so many others complaining of this flaw and honestly it is a big flaw that doesn’t help anyone. Please change this policy so that those that are possibly scamming us cannot review us. What happened in that hour he was in our Airbnb ??? I can think of a few things and how often does this happen? Did they just get a free spot to do the horizontal limbo and they get to complain about us now stating that Airbnb is a joke that makes people think they are renting a hotel room and it is a shed in someone’s backyard. Yes that’s our listing exactly so why did he even book with us? It was a nightmare to begin with! 

[Sarah977]

@John-And-Teail0  Yes, unfortunately Airbnb's review policy is that guests are prompted to review if they cancel day-of check-in. Even if they never even arrived and canceled before check-in! It's  insane, we all agree.

Just use the opportunity to write an honest review for this guest, to warn other hosts. No one wants a guest like this. The guest will no doubt leave you an awful review, but just in case he doesn't get around to reviewing, wait until the 13 and a half day to submit yours- that way he may get the notification that you've left a review too late to leave one himself.

And hopefully he will say something in the review that will be against Airbnb review policy so you may be able to get Airbnb to remove it. Supposedly you can ask for a review that's irrelevant to be removed now, so if he complains abut the off-grid nature of the listing, which you say is clearly that in your description, that may be grounds for removal.

This guest, although new to Airbnb, sounds like he has been reading online blogs about how to get  free stay or a full refund on Airbnb. Jerk.