No Show Guest Leaves a Review

1

I had a potential guest book my room last week. Made the reservation on Friday for a Sunday check-in, one night. All good so far.

He texted at 4pm on Saturday (24 hours before check-in) and asks for the door code. I respond letting him know I will send the code tomorrow, the afternoon of his arrival. He then informs me he meant to book for Saturday, the app made a mistake and that he needs to cancel. Oh honey, the app didn’t make the mistake. (no, I didn’t actually say that).

The room was booked already for Saturday, so there was no way I could accommodate him. :frowning:

I let him know that he should contact AirBnB to cancel right away so that any refund he was owed could be processed quickly. Technically he wasn’t due any refund from me as it was within the five days of my moderate cancellation policy, but I could have worked with him; he seemed nice enough and I could empathize with his situation.

AirBnB calls me that same evening (before guest’s check-in date) to ask if I would offer a refund. I said I would consider offering a refund but that I would need him to cancel before I even considered a one. They said they would relay that information to the guest.

Now almost a week later I get a message from guest asking about a refund. I politely (truly, I was polite and professional) responded saying that without ever cancelling the reservation it was treated like a no-show and is not eligible for a refund, that I was sorry he couldn’t stay but that I had held the room for him and denied other reservations for that night. I did offer him a Buy-One-Get-One stay, where he could book for two nights in the future and I’d only charge him for one. That seemed reasonable and would be a dollar amount almost equivalent to his loss.

His response was that his (I mean, the app’s) mistake is not his fault (also not my fault, but that wasn’t mentioned) and that I am a bad person (to be determined), that I agreed to refund his money (I didn’t) and that if I really needed the money that badly maybe I should get a paper route (yes, he really did suggest that, no I’m not getting a paper route. It’s also not about the money anymore, but rather just on principle).

So, given the unlikelihood that he would ever actually take me up on the two-for-one offer and a need to be crystal clear, I politely (yes, really) rescinded the offer, wished him well and safe travels.

Okay, all is well and good at this point. I probably dodged a bullet with this guest anyway as it appears nothing that ever happens to him is his fault (those darn apps). But shortly after sending my last message I was informed that he had reviewed his stay. Because he never cancelled the reservation it appears from AirBnB’s algorithmic perspective that he stayed and is allowed to write a review. I, of course, can’t accurately write a review for him; if I could skip the cleanliness question and go straight to the communication and house rules part, it would be fine.

First Question: Do I go ahead and just rate him five stars for cleanliness and then accurately and professionally rate the other two, leaving detailed feedback about his non-stay and communication?

Second Question: Do I skip writing a review and just preemptively ask AirBnB to remove it or do I wait to see what he wrote and then ask? Full disclosure, I’m really curious what he wrote and I don’t care that it might actually show up on my listing. I’ve got hundreds of 5 star reviews and the occasional low score from a nutjob only helps other nutjobs know that they shouldn’t stay here. I’m not worried about superhost status and I’m kind of excited about responding publicly to whatever he wrote.

Thoughts?

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I’d review him accurately using 5 for cleanliness since it was EXACTLY as YOU left it. But, assuming it will be bad, have his removed since he did not actually show up to your house. Yours will likely be removed as well but that is up to you on whether or not you want to pursue, if not does.

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If your communication with this guest happened on the Airbnb platform, I’d be surprised how they could ignore the fact that he never stayed.

That should be a no-brainer to never publish his review.

4

You will have a really hard time getting his review removed once it is published, at least according to so many host posts I’ve read.

But if you don’t care about that, I would leave him a review as @Militaryhorsegal suggested- 5 star for cleanliness, house rules, 1 for communication and let other hosts know in the written review what happened.

If he writes a bad review, and you leave a response, that response appears on your review page, not his, so it doesn’t benefit other hosts at all as far as warning them about his refusal to accept responsibility.

(I would have messaged him after the phone call with Airbnb, telling him he needs to formally cancel if he wanted you to consider any refund, rather than trust Airbnb to convey that to him)

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I ended up writing a review, honestly and fairly evaluating him based on my interactions. I always try to stick to the facts and not be emotional in a negative review, and I think I did that this time as well.

And yes, he rated me at a 1 across the board, clicking every negative option possible. To which I laugh. I’m fairly certain that if I pressed hard enough I could get this review removed as it’s clearly retaliatory. But after hundreds of 5 star reviews, his will only stand out as a reflection of him and emphasize that normal people like my home and crazy people will not be tolerated.

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I like your attitude and uncaring nature of what sort of review you will receive. Lovely and refreshing.

-Mahalo!

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Yes, usually we read posts where hosts are freaking out over a 4* review and bemoaning that it ruined their perfect 5 star rating.

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We had a guest that booked three days on the day before her arrival. Day of arrival at 1:30 pm, after prep, she cancelled her reservation. I have been prompted to review. She may have been. We will see what I’ll write if a review from her comes up.

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Really makes you wonder if guests like this generally have totally chaotic, poorly planned lives, with zero care about wasting others’ time and energy. What could possibly prompt someone to book a place for 3 nights, the day before, and then cancel the very next day, within an hour or so of check-in time, with no regard for the logical thought that the hosts must have spent time preparing for their arrival?

Of course it’s possible the guest got really ill, had a heart attack, fell off a ladder, or their car broke down in the past 24 hrs, but not very likely.

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The perfect five star ship sailed a long time ago.

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11

One of my guests was coming from another country and had booked for two people, but then his girlfriend changed her mind. Not wanting to lose the flight fares, he decided not to cancel. However, his car rental through BDC also got canceled. It was quite a challenge to help him salvage his vacation, but thankfully, it worked out in the end.

Thank God I was able to quickly arrange another car and send him to Transalpina, which is an amazing place. Shit happens, but guests should know how to convince their hosts when things go wrong…

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If you can prove the guest never checked in or stayed at the listing they can remove his review. Their policy is a guest has to enter the listing.

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Keep us updated. Recently, a guest canceled due to a change in plans. I was expecting to be promoted to review because they canceled after check-in time, but I haven’t been so far.

Two days before check-in, my guest requested to change to a date a month out. I declined and told them to cancel so they could at least get the cleaning fee refunded. (I have a moderate cancelation policy.) The guest didn’t cancel and messaged me after check-in time saying they thought they’d changed the date and could I please change it. I politely declined and then she canceled. Thankfully no angry guest.

When I was a newer host, I would have accepted the reservation change, but I know now I’m unlikely to get another booking, and moving the date can just be a backdoor way to cancel.

Back to OP: personally, I’d rather not allow a review in violation of the TOS to be posted on my listing. If I saw a guest who hadn’t stayed left a review, I would call AirBnB and ask them to delete it before I reviewed back. I see there are different opinions here, but that’s where I’m at as I was thinking about this with my own recent last-minute cancelation.

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There was no review placed by the guest that cancelled.

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15

I treat date changes as cancel and rebook unless they are in the full refund cancellation window.

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I accept date changes, but I have not had a guest request a date change to the future, which would enable them to cancel and receive a full refund (and with my moderate policy, they would have to request the date change within 5 days of check in).

Mostly my guests just want to change the check-in or out day by a day or two forward or backward (and my minimum stay is 3 nights), or add or subtract one night, because they found a cheaper airline ticket for the day before or after they had originally booked. I’ve never experienced any issues with this, and can usually accommodate it, as I don’t normally do back-to-back bookings.

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