Review by guest who cancelled and never arrived

[Martina-And-George0]

A few days ago, I had a reservation but the guest never arrived, and sent a message informing  that instead of himself, someone else would arrive at our appartment without giving any further info such as the name of the other guest, or even an expected time of arrival.

I informed the guest that without his presence, no other guest can check in to our apt due to local tax law that mandates that the person who checks in must be the person shown in Airbnb's itinerary which we submit to the local tax authorities. We also contacted Airbnb about this situation, and Airbnb's case manager called and informed the guest that due to local law and regulation, the presence of the primary guest is necessary at the check in.

So far so good.

The guest cancelled the reservation and according to what he said to the Case manager he never even flew here.

To our surprise, one day later, this guest left a review!! 

It is understandable for a cancelled reservation to allow the guest to leave a review, if for example the guest canceled because the appartment was found dirty, or different than the listing or any other similar reason where his perception would be valuable to future guests.

But in this case, where neither the guest nor anybody else, ever arrived, never even flew to the city, never spoke directly with us but only through Airbnb's Case managers, it is marginaly insane that Airbnb allows him to leave a review!  What exactly can this guest review? Cleaningness? Accuracy? Location? Value? General experience?  He never even arrived in the area!! Nor has he spoken to the host!!

The only thing I can assume is that the reasons behind his review would be retaliation. And in any case I truly cannot understand why Airbnb is letting such a review stand.

I have contacted Airbnb support and requested that this review will be deleted, but its been 24 hours and so far nothing has happened nor have I any received any update.

I am a host and superhost, since 2013 and I sadly I regret to admit that Airbnb is not what it used to be. Each year it becomes more and more hostile to hosts., and I feel that it does nothing to protect us from such guests who use the review and star rating system as means to exortion in order for them to do whatever they want even if illegal.

Disappointment. Just pure disappointment...

[Moira21]

@Martina-And-George0  I was under the impression that if a guest cancelled, an automated review is posted stating the guest had cancelled. If Airbnb doesn't remove their review then you could always respond to the review stating the guest did not arrive therefore the review is not genuine. This is what I would do.

[Emilia42]

@Moira21 the automated review only appears when a host cancels, not a guest.

@Martina-And-George0  Has the review posted on your profile? I don’t see it. Maybe the review isn’t as bad as you think? Keep calling until you get a CS rep that will help you. Technically, it was canceled because it was a third party booking which is against Airbnb's TOS. Someone there should remove it for you.

[Martina-And-George0]

Its not posted yet because i havent posted a review of my own yet. I assume that after the 14 days period it will be posted.

The thing here is not whether its good or bad. Even if its a good review, even if its a 5 star review it will still be misleading and fictional as it is evident that the guest cannot possibly review and rate a place from the other side of the world that he has never visited

[Emilia42]

@Martina-And-George0, I have had guests cancel on the day of arrival but still review me with something along the lines of "Nice, understanding host." And I have reviewed them in return with "Guest did not stay due to blah blah blah but guest was easy to work with and communication was great." I leave the stars blank (like for cleanliness and following house rules) because I have no experience to review those areas.

That was with the old review process. With this new process, I do no think you can click through to the next screen without indicating a star. You should actually call Airbnb and ask for their help in reviewing this guest. Have them sit with you on the phone while you complete your review. Ask them what they think you should give as a review for cleanliness and following house rules when they never actually set foot on your property. 

[Helen350]

@Emilia42  Me too! I USED to review no show guests with a line about their pleasantness in pre-trip communication & a  communication star rating,  & leave "cleanliness" & "house rules" blank, but now the multiple pages FORCE me to leave a star rating in the 2 latter N/A catagories. I've raised this with Airbnb who said it was indeed a good point! - & would pass it on to the appropriate dept.... No change yet!

[Timo592]

Still waiting for the N/A option...

[Martina-And-George0]

The automated review is posted when a host cancels. Not when a guest cancels.

And yes i can always post a response in his text, but that doesnt solve that star rating dramatic drop which i consider totally unfair.

In any case the issue is not the review itself only, but as i have mentioned, the lack of support from Airbnb even in a case that would be a no brainer. I mean ok i understand, reviews are important but this "holly grail no touch no disturb no matter what" review policy, is becoming ridiculous..

[Helen3]

If you have a look at Cancellations information in the Help Centre @Martina-And-George0 it explains that if a guest cancels within 24 hours of arrival both host and guest can leave a review.

I do appreciate how frustrating this is for you.

All you can do is leave an honest review yourself including that the guest want to send someone in their place at the last minute and was upset when you said wasn't possible under your local laws.

If the guest then posts a negative review you would have to check and see if there is anything that would allow Airbnb under their terms to remove it.

[Martina-And-George0]

I am aware of that. I have already said that it is understandable if the cancelation is due to a dirty or bad apt then this would be a useful review and thats why they allow cancelled guests to leave a review.

However this is a different case. The guest has no way of knowing anything about the apt, the area, the city or the country. He never flew here. So what exactly did he rated?? This is like if I stop a random person on the other side of the planet and say "hey. Give me a review about an Airbnb apt somewhere you never been".

[Elaine-and-Greg0]

how do you leave an honest review - it asks you to review the cleanliness and if the person never saw the room, no one has any idea about cleanliness - so it would be disingenuous

[Moira21]

@Martina-And-George0 @Emilia42  Thanks, shows how often I cancel a booking!! 

[Zappa0]

Maybe Airbnb should make it so that guest reviews can only be posted if guests "check in." If check in isn't until 5pm and they cancel at 9am then there should be no review option. I understand the issue if they leave if it's dirty or whatever (as the reason for their policy) but 24 hours is just not right.

As for your issue, STAY ON THEM about it. 

[Elaine-and-Greg0]

The review questions need to be more matter of fact and less emotional. ie 1. Did you stay at the property, Yes, then do the review, No, then question 2. did you cancel before you arrived? etc etc

[Clare-and-Coco0]

I also had a guest cancel by text Saturday just gone, she is a new member here although looking at her proile registered as a host but no listing showing?. She was able to correspond via Airbnb messaging prior but chose text to cancel? Anyway I confirmed receipt of her cancelling via Airbnb and left it at that, got on with work and sleep!  I had agreed a midnight check in and amended my personal diary in order to accommodate.

Woke up to Airbnb messages and missed calls the next morning saying they were now coming, and then later messages saying that they had arrived in the area!

Then sent a a payment request to me that I of course declined, advised them that I will leave in the hands of Airbnb, however i have heard nothing from them. I can only assume that the guests have not contacted them.

I had  a feeling during initial communications they may turn out to be hard work when they asked if someone could come and pick up their luggage?? I advised of where they could store in the City.

They then request if they can come at 4pm, when declined they then say 6pm? Again I declined as had changed my diary etc. 

I feel many guests just think your sat there waiting, that I don't have work and a life like most of us.

Anyway sorry for rant! To get to the point she has also been able to leave a review, which I am sure will not be complementary and will lower my star rating. If it doesn't get removed I am going to close my listings after over 2 years of awesome people all of a sudden there are too many for my liking causing trouble (recently had to call police to have two drunk guests come back who proceeded to beat each other up and went on to cause disturbance outside my property, room was a mess. They had turned out to be inbetween homes and not holidaymakers and therefore turned up with ALL their worldly goods, absolute mess. However Airbnb were a great help in that case I have to say.

I take few bookings now as fed up of guests not reading the listing details, always asking information that is clearly regards to location, transport and property.