Review for guest who sent a sub?

1

I would love your advice on this weird situation. So we had a guest, let’s call him Mark, who texted us just before arrival “see you soon, Mark”. But Mark didn’t show up. Instead he sent “Andy”. Andy was a nice guy and the stay went well, but we had no contact info for Andy. Communication was challenging.

Now we’re asked to review Mark. What would you do? Mention this? I feel a little weird having had a total stranger in our apartment who we didn’t even have any info for. Maybe we should have contacted AirBnB after Andy arrived. Thoughts?

2

I wouldn’t write a review for mark at all - since he wasn’t the guest. Mark actually broke AirBnBs rules, so you probably ought to contact AirBnB about it, but if all went well your end i’d just leave it without writing a review.

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3

Curious what “Andy’s” story was. How did you discover he wasn’t “Mark”?

4

I really have no idea. Hubby went and met him (guests have separate entry and often arrive when we’re at work, so we say hi later), and Andy told us Mark couldn’t come… ? The reservation was only for 1. So ?

5

I would absolutely review Mark and state exactly what happened.

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6

You can just state exactly what happened:

“Mark did not stay at my property. He made a reservation for one guest and right before arrival he texted me that he would be here shortly. A different person arrived and said Mark could not make the trip. I am completely baffled.”

That way you are giving a heads up to future hosts to be sure to have a conversation with Mark before accepting his booking. Glad to hear Andy was nice enough :slight_smile:

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7

Makes me wonder if Andy had bad reviews and was traveling on Mark’s account… and promised Mark he would be on his best behavior!

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8

lol @konacoconutz no, Andy was the mild-mannered mid 50’s kinda guy. But the whole thing was weird. Maybe they just thought it was like a hotel, where it really doesn’t matter? But Mark had 4 positive reviews, so I just don’t know.

9

Thank you everyone! Your replies were very helpful. I think I will take @cabinhost and @dcmooney advice and just be straightforward. Seems right to me.

Thanks again!

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10

Andy could have told you he was Mark and you wouldn’t have even known there was a substitution!

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11

except for the profile pic :wink: but yes, in theory – are you trying to freak me out @konacoconutz :slight_smile:

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12

Nahh, it’s just odd! And does deserve a mention on Mark’s review. Sorry Mark and Andy. That’s not done. And it IS a violation of the TOS… Get your own account Andy.

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13

Please do tell other hosts about it. I’m flabbergasted when a guest who has only positive reviews is noisy, untidy, manipulative, and rude. It has happened several times. Knowing human nature, there’s no way a guest who behaves that way (without any crisis going on) was great at all of their previous Airbnbs. So either some of the hosts chose not to leave a review or they left a falsely positive review (as I’ve seen suggested a lot in the forums). Please don’t make the review system irrelevant by being anything but honest and straightforward. It’s fine to be polite and non-judgmental, meaning you don’t have to say “This guest deceived me.” If your value system says you should always be nice, you can just be factual, as others have suggested: “Mark sent someone else (Andy) instead, with no advance notice,” and also say that Andy was tidy, quiet, etc. Thanks for posting this. I’d really love it if we hosts would agree to help each other by leaving honest reviews.

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14

I agree. One issue may be that a guest is fine in an ‘entire house’ situation but loud and rude in a ‘private room’ situation.

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15

Agree with others here. You should let AirBnB know what happened, and they will probably suspend his account. This is a huge no-no. This has never happened to me, but if someone showed up at my door who is not the one who booked, I would not let him in.

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16

Write a review of Mark stating that he never showed up but sent an verified person to your home!!! Any other host will want to know!!! Then contact AirBnB to tell them of the violation. Also, I would not let anyone who has not be verified by AirBnB into your home. This verification and review process is the very power of AirBnB. Use it!

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17

That’s particularly creepy. Nice and friendly or not, that is a breach of trust to the highest degree.

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18

Oh hell no. I would have called Airbnb before Andy set a foot in the door.

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19

I should point out that this is strictly forbidden in the new TOS. A fact that would have helped me when I was scammed by a “accommodation curator.”

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20

Let me strongly second @AmyB’s statement that we should only leave honest reviews. That is the only protection we have from a potentially bad guest in advance. If there are damages ABB will help but if someone is just dirty or rude, we’re stuck. Especially if you have plenty of good reviews to balance out any bad one they will leave, please be honest. We have to power to run the terrible guests off the platform, let’s use it.

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