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...

[Clare-and-Coco0]

I have tried posting a response twice now with the same issue as yours but being rejected as spam?

[Clare-and-Coco0]

I'll try a shorter version haha!

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. 

[Clare-and-Coco0]

Success!

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.

[Tony295]

I am not sure when your message was posted but mine is May 27, 2019. Give Airbnb some more time. It is in the rules that persons who never visited your place cannot submit a review. I was in a similar scenario when a person  used his membership to book  and pay for 6 people. Ten persons arrived and  never set foot in my house. The person booking never came with them. They left in disgust  and the person booking  left a nasty review about my place.  I petitioned Airbnb and provided photos of my place. After weeks the reviews from both parties were removed from our respective pages on the Airbnb site. If your issue is recent then I suggest you give Airbnb some more time.

[Clare-and-Coco0]

Hi Tony,

The thing is that although she cancelled by text to me she never cancelled her booking online. She just requested a payment from me instead of which i declined.

However I will contact them to rectify it.