My guests want to cancel their reservation with refund just 4 days before check-in date

This is going to be a dissaster guest, she already lied about her illness and she is going to lie in the review and destroy you with 1 stars, think about future revenue that will effect also.

I would just cancel the booking, in the case it was a no show then definitely no refund but this woman will show up and be able to write a review unfortunately.

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I am thinking that the bad guest is thinking that they have a better chance of getting money form the host if they do a standoff… they have nothing to lose by telling the host they are showing up, and they are betting that the host will feel the need to cancel the lying guest.

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I’m not convinced a guest would think about it that deeply. The host hasn’t given the guest any indication that she doesn’t want to host her, accused the guest of lying, or anything like that. As far as the guest knows, the host has no issues with the guest coming, she just won’t agree to more than a 30% refund for a cancellation.

I suppose the guest might rightly assume the host is quite irritated by this point, though.

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Agreed, but there is an article from six weeks ago where a couple ran up huge expenses for the host when the host refused to refund their stay when they tried to cancel (Chinese couple runs up $1,500 in utilities and expenses at Airbnb rental as revenge)

Not to scare you, but keep a close eye on this guest, and even register a concern with AirBnB before they arrive. Some reports are the first party to call AirBnB get favored in disputes, so getting ahead is a good idea.

Be sure to tell AirBnB you are concerned she will retaliate in some fashion for not giving her a full refund.

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Oh, I certainly don’t put it past this guest to retaliate in some way, I just meant it probably wouldn’t occur to the guest that the host would be worried about that and say she’s coming just to try to force the host to cancel.

While there are some crazy vindictive people out there in the world, I think (and hope) a guest pissed off that they didn’t get a refund would be much more likely to make up a bunch of complaints for the review, or call Airbnb and make some bogus report, than purposely trash the house or leave the the gas stove turned on and the water running.

A guest doesn’t risk anything by leaving a bad review, or claiming a host invaded their privacy or had hidden cameras, but trashing a house or what those guests in China did could result in criminal charges or a civil suit.

So yes, the guest could and might take revenge and hurt the host with a bad review, but I doubt she’ll burn the house down.

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She said she will come herself. My house rules requires guests official names and no un-registered guests are allowed into the apartment.

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I had same concern about her retaliatory reviews. So yesterday I contacted Airbnb support. The CS told me they already made a note on this guest. I have score of 4.99. If she gives untruthful bad review, they would help me.

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Hopefully that will be true. But don’t count on it, because if they don’t that’s just setting yourself up for more stress.

What you were told is Airbnb’s standard response when a host expresses apprehension about hosting a guest.
I have read many posts from hosts who were told this, only to have Airbnb refuse to remove the bad review and rating.

It’s definitely good that you got out ahead of this and got your concerns on the record. Just don’t assume that their promises are true. This guest seems to have been aware of the trick of trying to alter the booking to different dates, resetting the cancellation dates so they can then cancel right away and get a full refund. So she may very well be hip to leaving a bad review without saying anything that would qualify it to be removed. If she just says she found it dirty, or that the host was rude, Airbnb will likely say nothing about it violates review policy.

But there’s no sense losing sleep over something that hasn’t happened yet and might not. If she leaves a bad review, you can deal with it then.

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They won’t remove, and 4.99 can fall drastically with only one 1 star review. You can only hope the review breaches multiple content policies, but don’t count on it.
As per airbnb content policy guest lies area allowed in reviews even if you can prove they are lies.

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Correct for me is what I’m comfortable with and my own tolerance for adhering to Airbnb policy and personal risk. The few third party bookings I’ve accepted either through Airbnb or directly have all worked out fine. Mine is a homeshare so I am immediately aware of most issues when people are here.

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Thanks so much for all of your help! I’ve already given up fighting this battle and let her got away of penalty. I just wish I had chance to write a review to warn my fellow hosts about this guest. She made mistake and she demands the world pays for the consequences. That’s not right.

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You let her cancel and refunded her in full? (Edited to add - only asking for clarification, not a reproach)

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Unfortunately, guests go to reddit everyday to ask for advice about how to get out of a reservation and this is some of the most common advice given. “Make the host think you’re coming. Make her worry about a bad review. Force her to cancel…”

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What is crucial is how many reviews the listing has. Having humdreds of reviews gives a host more freedom from retaliation. It’s another way relatively new hosts get exploited by dishonest guests.

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Oh dear. I know there’s all kinds of “how to get a free stay” hacks out there, but not frequenting Reddit and such, I didn’t realize the scammers are drilling down into every dirty trick they can think of.

If someone had told me 30 years ago that by 2020 people who consider themselves normal and would be totally offended if you called them thieves and liars, would be sharing ways to screw over other people, openly and shamelessly, in public, I wouldn’t have believed it.

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My most recent favorite is the number of guests who post that they requested an early check-in but the host said they weren’t able to accommodate it and then they say, “but I know they’re lying to me because they aren’t booked the night before my stay”. I saw one recently that said something to the effect of “I’m going to keep pushing and if they keep lying to me then it will reflect on their rating”. :flushed:

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Too bad those folks hadn’t considered – not an exhaustive list – that the Host might be taking advantage of that time to do repairs or maintenance work; for the possibility of a future booking in a gap that would make an early check-in not possible (even though right now it looks like it ‘should’ be available), or that they might have given a late checkout to the previous guests.

It’s this entitlement mentality.

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Or that just because the previous night isn’t booked doesn’t mean the host has had a chance to clean the place- perhaps their routine is to clean in the morning before check-in time if the previous night isn’t booked.

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I called Airbnb to cancel the reservation for me and she will get full refund…

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It’s so sad. On Amazon, there are so many fake reviews to trick people buying bad products…