Guest cancel booking after their stay

Hello,
I am a host in Glasgow, Scotland. Normally I read posts as I found them interesting but today something happened which really annoyed me so I thought I’d share my experience.

I rent a one bed flat and on Saturday night a young Couple had booked it. I met them at the planned time and handed the keys as normal and left.

When I went down after their one night stay I was pretty annoyed to find out that they had dirtied the kitchen with food and didn’t even try to wipe anything and also sprayed a wall with what might have been beer (I found several bottles), also the sheets were a bit disgusting.

Anyway I wrote their review straight away and as I normally do I was honest about it and said that personally I wouldn’t have hosted them again.

After 10 minutes after posting my review I get a message from Airbnb to say that said girl had cancelled the booking!
First of all I didn’t know this was possible but I then realised that she must have cancelled to have a clean profile!

Personally I feel a bit angry about this. That means that any guest can get a bad review from a host and in order to fix it they can just cancel their booking as soon as they leave?!

I took a screenshot of her review for me saying “great!” Which I will send to Airbnb to show that they used their stay and obviously enjoyed it. She also paid and so far it’s not been taken off but that’s no the point.

So why bother with reviews if a guest can pretend that nothing ever happened? I want my review to show so that other hosts will know that they would be hosting party animals who don’t care.
Also if she booked again my place (unlikely but who knows), I would cancel the booking and that would penalise me!

Gobsmacked by this situation.

What am I supposed to think when a guest with no reviews books my place? “Oh fingers crossed it’s not another dodgy guest who has figured out how to keep a clean profile?”

It should not be possible to cancel the booking after the stay has been completed. Have you asked Airbnb about this? It sounds like you plan to but have not yet done so. If you get a clarification about this, please update this thread.

2 Likes

We had the experience of a guest canceling 4 nights into their 5-night stay. We were not able to leave a review for her (or her for us) despite other hosts stating on this forum that guests who didn’t stay with them even stay one full night were able to leave reviews.

I don’t understand Airbnb’s policy on this, but it does seem it’s inconsistent. @liciab, you should be able to review these guests! This loophole should be closed.

I received a cancellation ten days before Christmas and New Years. She had booked my two prime holiday weeks months ago. The guest had a medical, but it just wrecked my budget and my schedule. She was completely refunded. I am going to leave her a review because I was invited to. Don’t worry, I will just state the facts.

@faheem I have contacted Airbnb but so far I haven’t got a plausible answer. They thought I was concerned about the payment. This isn’t the case as I did get paid. After she cancelled I received an email with an option to refund her, which of course will never happen. I just want other hosts to know that even if a guest looks like they have a clean profile, this might not be the case. I also host people in my house, so this loophole makes feel uneasy about having any guests with no reviews. I’ll keep you updated on the matter.

Sorry I never wrote on this forum before so i’m Trying to get to grips on how to answer to each different comment :slight_smile:

@SuiteInSeattle It really is quite shocking that guests can do this. It makes me wonder how many other reviews this person my have cancelled! And how many more potential guests are out there that have figured out how to keep a clean profile. I host for a living, in my house as well. It makes me feel less safe to do so now that this happened.
I hope you were paid?

Yeah unfortunately that can happen. It’s very annoying!
So far I didn’t have any major cancellations, only a 4 day one due to the fact that Ryanair has cancelled their flight so it wasn’t anybody’s fault, but Ryanair’s!
I guess changing the cancellation policy could help in future?
Didn’t know you as a host could leave a review in that case.