The Guest did not Show Up

[Julie319]

I had a group of seven coming in yesterday that have not responded to any of my messages regarding check-in details (I've reached out through Airbnb, text and calling) and then did not show up last night.  First time I've had this happen and not sure what to do.  

There's been no communication since the reservation was accepted and they are also supposed to stay tonight.  

What are my options here?  I'm a little weirded out by the radio silence.

J

[Chris-And-Mièle0]

In my case, I had a no show, but it was a bit different. Our guests are required to have a vehicle (4x4 mandatory) to access the house. This is a property close to the beach up in the hills of Costa Rica.
The guests were asked to let us know approximate time of arrival 48 hours in advance, but failed to. I had to contact them on their arrival day as I had not heard from them. I ask them to text me to let me know when they where 30 minutes away to wait for them at the bottom of the hill (which is the meeting point on the check in info we sent them). They called a few hours later freaking out, saying they could not stay at the house because their car would not make it (remember, the check in instructions said to call 30 minutes away and wait for us at the bottom of the hill). They kept going on and on as I tried to tell them to just wait at the bottom of the hill and my husband was going to meet them there as soon as he was available (he was doing another check in with guests that were on time and that had called prior to arrival). They kept saying there is not way their car will make it. I told them ALL 4x4 rental cars even the smallest ones make it up and down with no issues. I think they were probably really bad drivers or something was wrong with their car, I lost the call as I was driving thru a road with bad cell service, I tried calling back, but the call would not go thru. So I called my husband and I ask him to go find them as soon as he could, which he did about 15 minutes later but did not see anyone at the meeting point. They never called back.
 
I called AIRBNB in the morning to ask about the no show, I ask the AIRBNB representative what to do if they left a bad review and he ASSURE ME they would not be able to, since they did not stay at the property. And if they did, just to call back and they would remove it, because a guest CAN NOT leave a review if they had NOT STAYED at the property. So I was relieve.
I did not left the guests (not sure if I should called them that) a review since they did not stayed at the house. I honestly though they would do the same.  A few hours before the dead line to leave a review, they left a 1 STAR review saying they DID NOT STAY at the property, as their car would not make it up the hill and how rude I was, and how I hung up the phone on them, went into saying we lied because  you need  a bigger motor and how we did not specified that (my son has a 4x4,  4 cylinders, motor 1200 SUZUKI JIMNY which  is pretty much the smallest 4x4 you can find, and he makes it up the hill easily). 
Anyway, his 1 star review would hurt us of course. So I called AIRBNB and ask them to remove the review and the 1 star. BUT THEY SAID NO ! because even though they did not stay at the  property it does not violates their review policy ! Can you believe it?? So the AIRBNB representative was lying or did not know what he was talking about?  I just don't get it. Basically AIRBNB is allowing a guest that did NOT stay at the property to review on ALL the aspects. How is that possible? I think I did everything in my power to help them even though they did not fallowed the check in rules.  If something was wrong with their car, how I am responsible for that? they did not made it to the property: End of the story. 

Anyway. I just wanted to let you all know this, in case this happened to you. MORAL OF THE STORY: DO NOT trust the AIRBNB representative on the phone, have him send you a message with what he told you. AIRBNB does not have our backs when we need them, their review policy is only a few lines and WILL allow a guest who is pissed off because he won't get a refund, to leave you a negative review even if they don't stay at your property. I though AIRBNB was different. I already took all my properties off BOOKING because of the same reason, they don't have your back when you need them (but they call you their PARTNER pffff).  
Also make sure you leave your guest a review with your side of the story about what happened in case they leave a review a few hours before the dead line. 
I will keep trying to fight back and try to get this review taking off.  But I doubt that will happen. 
As of today I was giving AIRBNB a 5 star for how great the system is, but I never had to contact them about a problem with guests before. They certainly don't have my most devoted love anymore. 

[Courtney290 · Accepted solution]

Just experienced our first ‘no show’ at our cottage. Because we leave a key for guests and aren’t on the island for check in, we didn’t know they hadn’t shown up until

I went to turn the cottage over today. There had been no response last week to my check in instructions/query as to whether they’d like the pullout bed made up. We’ve received the payout for this so I’m inclined to leave as is. Not our issue that this guest didn’t turn up. If they contact and explain some sort of emergency, I’d be inclined to discuss some sort of refund. It would be helpful for Airbnb to have a no show button for the times this does occur!

[Amy812]

I had a similar experience - tried again and again to reach the person, returned home from a family emergency specifically to let them in even tho hadn’t heard from them, worried that I was obligated to be there for the checkin time for the next night...Finally called Airbnb and yet said if you don’t hear from them and they don’t check in on time for that first night, you have no obligation to be there for the next nights checkin time. Most important: you keep their money. Period. Airbnb will withhold income tax on the full amount, so refunding anything cost much more than you think. I could see refunding if a terrible circumstance arose (death). But my people didn’t call me back even though I called five times. I think maybe they were dead.

i rushed back to attend to my own family emergent as soon as Airbnb said it was okay. And I left a bad review for my guests.

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

We have had guests book as a back up in case they need a place to stay for whatever plans they are making. Some have not showed up or showed up a few days later & I am ok with that as our Airbnb stays clean & we still get paid 🙂

[Hello6]

Have had our first no show just yesterday. We are on team "We hope they are OK". Did the Airbnb message, text, calls, whatsapp email etc with address reminders and phone numbers - no response. Thank you for the advices to contact Airbnb etc here on the Community Board. We did so - contact Airbnb - by message this morning +1 day of no show for x2 guests for a 19 day booking. It is a significant sum of money for our bottom line during holiday season and x2 beds allocated for just under a month of blocked calender for them.  We do hope they are ok but we just can not refund in absence of contact or advice. 

Airbnb were helpful and supportive and advised us not to cancel on our guests as they may show up at sometime during their booked stay and have paid in full. Airbnb reached out to the guests as well and got no response and mentioned this to us that they got no reaponse. Airbnb mentioned we should leave a note on our door with our contact details. Unfortunately for our residential area advertising our business on the building is not permitted. We have a small sign on our Mailbox that mentions who we are. We are not inclined to leave our direct business phone line as we do not want to encourage our neighbours to call or solicit bookings direct outside the App.

It is good advice from Airbnb about the note. We will look to do a small plaque in the future to advise guests to "Welcome to Hello House. Please ring the bell and message hosts if you are arriving at your scheduled time. If no appointment please contact hosts through website to make an appointment. We do not accept Walk-ins, Mailbox for delivery is at the North Entrance...".

[Hello6]

Sorry the cut and paste edit merged in the last message.  Our phone gets glitches on the community board if we try and re-read / edit our posts, it keeps jumping the screen to the top and first message of board.  Hope you get the idea / moral: stress, hope,make contact, ask airbnb to contact, keep money, wait and see, don't cancel on them, calendar stays blocked, they could show up, leave a physical note on your home with how to contact you outside checkin window.  All the best.  Thanks as always Airbnb for all the guests and helping us to live comfortable in this small slice of paradise. 🙂

[Stephanie]

@Hello6 no worries, I edited out the duplicated bit for you 🙂

[Bingin-Beach0]

Hello Airbnb community, 

I have been hosting more than 3 years and in that time, I have had only 2 no shows which were all paid as per our cancellation policy- Strict. 

We just got another no show where the customer booked using instant book and failed to show up, three days after checkin (self checkin) we reported that the customer had not shown up. 

Airbnb are now advising that they will only pay the first 3 days and they have placed our account in debt for the remaining funds (12 days) without any form of notification or information. Airbnb cancelled the booking and opened the calandar without our request and it was only when we didn't receive payment for the next customer booking that we self discovered our account was now in debt. 

Our policy as mentioned is set to Strict and the terms of 'no show' state: 

If your guest decides to cancel or not show up for an active reservation, we’ll uphold your cancellation policy and any payout for a cancelled reservation will be released to you. If you’ve hosted before, the payout will be released upon cancellation.

Does anyone else have any experience where Airbnb are making up the rules and blatantly disregarding pre agreed terms? 

Thanks Rohan 

[Dave1074]

That is TOTAL BS.  They are obligated by law and the T&C to abide by your cancellation policy.  They have no authority at all to "pay only 3 days". 

Time to "go postal on them".  Write on Air's social media pages every single day.  They hate public embarrassment.  At the same time, call back and get someone with a brain. 

[Dave1074]

You have already reached out so it is not your concern.  Keep the money and move on.