If I write a review and the guest does not, will mine ever be made public?

[Rosemary287]

I understand that both host and guest have 14 days to leave a review and neither will be made public until both have been completed.

My question is, if I write a review and the guest does not, will mine ever be made public? I\

[Laura5176]

@Sarah977

Hi... Reading through all of this has been very helpful. I understand now for a guest review to be nothing but simply honest.  I just had my first bad guest.  

We had communicated well and even mid trip (a weekend) I received a messaged that they loved the place.  I was even informed prior that they would have one addtional person come and they asked if okay.  It was fine becasue capacity is 8 and that person was #8 as I was told.  

They left the place in shambles.  Dishes piled high, used every plate, utensil, pot and pan.  Pots were left on the stove with food in them.  Garbage was never taken out and in 3 paper bags on the kitchen floor.  Curtains pulled down, garbage all over.  

I am still within the 14 days.  I just make superhost and have 5 star reviews.  I am terrified of a bad review.   Is it best for me on the 14th day to leave an honest review (no emotion)?  What is the cut off time on the 14th day?  Midnight in what time zone?  

Also, please help me to understand:  I leave a last minute review.  Let's say they do not leave a review.  Does my review post?   They cannot post after day 14, correct?    

 I am really beside myself over how my home was left.     Oh... they had a positive review from a stay in 2021.  So I went on that.  Said they left the place "clean and tidy".   Not my house!

[Sarah977]

@Laura5176  My sympathies. 

The 14 days isn't counted from a specific time zone or midnight. It is 14 full 24 hour periods from when you first received the email to leave a review. Apparently there is a countdown timer next to your message stream with the guest that tells you how many days you have left and in the last 24 hrs tells you how many hours and minutes you have left. (I have luckily never had to use this strategy, so I can't say for sure where to see this, I am just relaying what other hosts here have shared)

Yes, all reviews post publicly after 14 days regardless of whether both parties have reviewed. The review period is then over, the other party has no further opportunity to leave a review. 

Try not to be "terrified" of a bad review. It's honestly not that big a deal, nor is Superhost. Bad reviews are usually such outliers that guests won't take them seriously (if you have a bunch of reviews saying the place was lovely and clean, do you really think future guests will believe one review claiming it was filthy? Guests aren't all stupid.) and you always have the chance to leave a brief, factual response to correct any misleading comments or lies for  the benefit of future guests. 

You may be surprised to see a good review from these guests if they said they liked the place. Just because they left it a pigsty doesn't mean they'll leave a bad review. Guests usually leave bad reviews if they get called out for something during  the stay, or demand a refund and have it rejected.

[John7560]

I am very new to Airbnb. Two guest only so far. I recently received a person asking to book that was new to Airbnb. No previous bookings and no reviews. I decided to not respond and now how received a mark down for not responding. Could you please share with me how to better handle the next time this occurs. I just had a bad feeling about the request. Should I have simple declined? 

Thank you for your help. 

[Jo912]

@John7560 You need to respond to the request to keep your response rate up - you can decline a request if you aren't comfortable with it for whatever reason. When you decline a request you can choose from a few options the reason why, and one of those is that you were uncomfortable. I have declined a few where it didn't feel right

[John7560]

@Jo912 Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it. 

[John6305]

Your review will post after the 14 day wait period wether the guest reviews or not. We are fairly new hosts and just experienced this. We left a 5 star review for a guest and anticipated the same but no review was written… ours posted for them but nothing for us. it really bummed us out. I really thought that the policy was either party would get a auto 5 star review if nothing was left for them. I was wrong about that. We have now adopted the policy of not reviewing unless we first get the notification that our guest has left their review. No more free good reviews from us if its not reciprocated. 

[Val76]

That was a great question because I had a terrible guest and wanted to give a review that was due them but figured they new I wouldn't give them a good review so why would they give me a review.  Hence since I figured they wouldn't I didn't, now I will always give a review even if I 'm sure they won't.  The bad ones need to get out there.

[Lisa6068]

Thank you for the post!!. I was confused with the review process as well. We had guests stay for Christmas and ended up snowed in on check out day. Then the power went out on check out day as well. 
In a nut shell I told them they could stay as long as necessary and eat whatever canned food I had there. 

I had given them warnings regarding the weather and snowstorm to come as well as possible power outages well before the trip.

They ended up leaving the following day and are now asking for a refund. They are claiming the trip was traumatizing because they were left to "fend for themselves"

(obviously we didn't charge anything for the extra night)

I was scared to write a review because I know she will write a nasty one (based on her rude comments which I have now blocked) made with lies and thought both parties had to write reviews for them to be public.

now I am past the 14 day window.

[Sarah977]

@Lisa6068  Traumatizing? Because they got snowed in? Then you let her stay for free and told her to eat whatever was there and she wants a refund and sends nasty messages? 

Honestly, some people should never leave home nor inflict their nasty, miserable selves on anyone else. 

Too bad you missed reviewing her.

[Gail772]

Thank you all. I feel better about leaving a bad review for our horrible guest and got slammed with a 1. I did briefly respond but I really took it personally. And this was after all positive reviews of the guest. She was very manipulative and lied but I feel I did the right thing. 

[Mary4252]

Sounds like your guest was trying to extort you for money.  This is something Airbnb by policy does not allow.  Be sure to put a review out there even if beyond the 14 period.  Airbnb and guests need to know that "extortion" is not acceptable.  

[Amy2069]

I just had a guest that left my place trashed. He had no reviews, so I had to approve his stay. It was he, his wife, and a small child. I saw no red flags as why not to rent to them and I often rent to folks that are newer to Airbnb and feel like someone has to give folks that have no reviews, a chance. He was very pleasant through out the stay, messaged me about a problem with a doorknob, told me how lovely and clean my house was. He checked out on time and my cleaning lady arrived a few minutes after they checked out. I have never had my house left in the condition that they did. The child stuck stickers on my walls, wrote on my walls, there was feces spread on the floor, walls, sink, side of toilet in the guest bath, cooked food in the microwave, fridge left full of food, dirty dishes on counter, several glass items were broken, master bath shower curtain was missing 3 shower hooks (which of course I don't keep extra on hand), and a piece of door molding had been broken. There were also child handprints all over the front of a new 55" TV. They also moved furniture, moved rugs around, etc. It took my cleaning lady over 6 hrs to clean the house and I had to pay her $100 extra from what I normally pay her. And I was very fortunate that I didn't have another guest checking in that day as we would not have been able to allow her to check in on time. I messaged the guest and he surprisingly owned up to everything I had stated, although blamed everything on the child stating that it all happened while they were sleeping (I do not think the child left dirty dishes on the counter, nor food in the fridge and microwave, LOL) but what I find shocking is that the guest was well aware of all of this and just chose to check out with it in this condition. I filed a claim for $200 through Airbnb Cover and he did pay the $200. I have completed an honest review on his stay as I hope to save other hosts from having the same thing happen to them.

What I found ever more disturbing is that he says that they stay in Airbnb's all the time and always leave the places they stay in pristine. Which I truly doubt. But as I said, he had NO REVIEWS. So this leads me to 2 conclusions, either hosts are not leaving him reviews for fear of a bad review  or maybe his wife had a profile that they previously rented places through. 

If he really has rented Airbnb's prior to this, I really wish hosts had reviewed his stays. And I wish hosts would post HONEST reviews instead of being fearful of a bad review from a guest. Had I read a review such as one that I have done on him, I would not have rented to him. This is also my home part-time and it's heartbreaking to have your home treated as poorly as this. 

[Elizabeth1093]

@Amy2069 Thanks for sharing your response! I just had a a few guests leave and they smoked cigarettes and marijuana for 3 days straight in my small apartment in NYC. They also urinated in my bedroom garbage can and left it beside my bed. They also left gum in the toaster oven , purposely, they left the gas pilot on, which thank god my cleaning  lady arrived to smell the gas and shut it off. The apartment smelt like a dirty ash tray …… cigarettes found under the bed and ashes everywhere. I’m a super host with over 75 wonderful reviews.  I I loved almost every single guest so this was a bad guest. Bad communication from the start! As a check them in I got an uncomfortable feeling from the start and they did not respond in between. Come to find out that they did have someone else stay in my apartment and never told me and then wrote through Airbnb support after I asked for cleaning fees extra to what is already posted because I’m still getting the smoke out of my apartment. Thankful after reading everyone’s reviews that on the 13th day I will write them a review and  be honest to help other hosts! 

[Colby44]

Thank you for leaving this post.  I just had my first experience like this and was trying to decide what to put in the review, or simply not to review.  I’ve decided to write a review for others. 

[Colleen426]

We are lucky with our suite is directly under us.  So ifs there's an argument I can hear it.  If something falls and breaks...I can hear it.  We have a security camera that shows all activity coming and going.  I may add one to the back where the suites door is located.  There's only been one couple that was problematic.  The suite was a mess.  We have a 65$ cleaning fee.  I actually gave one guest their cleaning deposit back cuz the place was immaculate.  I did my Covid cleaning and that was it.  He cleaned everything!!!  Vacuumed and mopped.  Did the wash and had it all folded on the bed.  Crazy.  
Sorry about the 4 overall rating with all 5's.  Been there......:(