Here’s my latest AirBnB misadventure.
TL;DR: Guests AND hosts can now leave a review if a cancelation happens ON or AFTER the booking date. In my case a guest requests a booking 5 days ahead of time for a month. Claiming to be a Hollywood big-shot he says he will confirm two days ahead of time. I cancel the pending booking and invite the guest to resubmit when he’s ready. In the meantime I do some grooming and slightly adjust my prices. The guest comes back one day ahead of the booking, and at 11 PM, after complaining about the change in cost, instant books the room for 5 nights. Sends me a message saying that I changed the price and that “we will talk”. Smelling the rat of review blackmail and generally not feeling it, i politely ask the guest to find other lodgings. He comes back with a “you can’t do this to me, don’t you know who I am” attitude and challenges me to cancel the booking. Which I proceed to do, not without calling Airbnb and discussing the situation with them. They specifically reassure me that there are no penalties in this instance since it was instant booked. I leave a neutral review and offer no rating for the options that aren’t relevant. Of course the other party leaves a one star review and a rant, about as long as this Long tale to explain how badly they were treated and how horribly I spoke to them.
I DID ask him if he was unhappy, since he chose to be so passive-aggressive. Didn’t translate. Oh well.
Another chalked up to “people are strange.” However, the fact that guests can now review even when the stay was canceled is impressive. Not.
I think the title of this thread is somewhat confusing, as it seems you mean ‘reviews for cancelled bookings are now a thing’.
As it happens I had a review for a cancelled booking all the way back in January. Others haven’t had that experience and in the event of cancellation a guest hasn’t been able to review. I am unable to explain the inconsistency.
Can I leave a review for a canceled reservation?
Yes, if the trip is canceled on or after the day of check-in. If it’s canceled before then, you can’t leave a review.
If a host cancels before the day of check-in, an automatic review will be added to their listing to indicate that they canceled the reservation. These reviews are one of the penalties for host cancellations and can’t be removed.
You can also send feedback to your host using your Airbnb message thread.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/368/can-i-leave-a-review-for-a-canceled-reservation
So you declined his initial inquiry, then raised the price. He comes back to book a few days later. Why did you decline the initial request if you had no issue? If it was just to raise the price that seems really wrong to me, or am I misunderstanding?
Pre booking? You mean post booking, pre-stay.
This was my first post on the forums regarding my AirBnB experience and I’m excited about all the positive and constructive feedback.
The reply is going to be lengthy so grab some popcorn!
To clarify. I left instant booking on, after the AirBnb nag screen made it clear that there would be no penalty for cancelation of instant bookings. Liars.
Regarding what happened: the person sent the request. It was going to expire prior to the time they said they were going to come back to me so I declined the request and invited them to check back in when they were ready. Since I don’t regularity review my smartbooking pricing i took this as an opportunity to look it over and I noticed that I had it set too low for what my normal rate is. I adjusted the daily price UP and increased the monthly discount, since I encourage long term stays. Overall the difference shouldn’t have come to more than $50.00 for the three week period the guest was originally asking for. IF the guest would’ve done what most guests do and had contacted with a friendly question in a timely manner, I would’ve been able to respond and, as I tend to do, adjust my rate to meet their price goal. I’m a friendly host and I work with my guests whenever I can. Instead this guest chose to send a terse message and then instant book a fife day stay. I mean. If you don’t like someone’s pricing policy, why the heck book their place? Plenty of other places to choose from. Oh, but I forget, many times Airbnb guests feel they’re entitled to much less than hotel rates because they’re booking on Airbnb and if anything gets in the way of their super cheap rates they get irate. Sigh. Anyways. Guest instant books, I ask to cancel, we argue, blam one star review even when the guest never set foot on the premises. No recourse through Airbnb. I accept it, move along and pursue happiness.
Ok. Here’s where the weirdness starts. This all went down Saturday/Sunday. Tuesday I get a very unusual inquiry that breaks my availability rules. I deny it because it wouldn’t have worked for my schedule and I rarely let guests arrive past 10 PM anyway.
No problem. Today I get a very similar unusual request, again for the same day. Out of curiosity, I accept it, but, smart fellow, make it a special offer with more days for the same price. Lo and behold, after I make a dash home to welcome my new guest, it turns out he cancels. Fortunately, because I made the special offer, I don’t lose the first day of the reservation.
It could just be a very odd coincidence that after a person got furious over a same day cancellation some spammy guests try to book a stay for the purported purpose pf canceling the same day. It would be equally scary that someone feels the need to go to that extreme to prove what a “mean” host I am. But I’m having a hard time not connecting the incidents. Go figure. Maybe I’ll find out. Maybe I’ll never find out. Magic and mystery of Airbnb.
Thank you for the community and the feedback.
Your posts are difficult to read.
That said; there are a number of false assumptions in your post.
Special offers do not mean you get to keep the first day of the booking
There’s no guest in the world that will appreciate a switch and bait on the price of your listing, no matter how you try to dress it up. My advice is to stay away from smart pricing until you have more experience.
You were able to cancel without financial penalty so there was no lie.
I’m slightly concerned at how ranty you already are, given you’re new to hosting.
I can’t read this… please please. paragraph returns. white space.
This was in the British press today. The courts have decreed this feature should be available to customers.
This was your mistake. Once they’ve requested booking at one price, don’t be a turd and change the price on them for when they do book. Eat your regrets at how much more you might have made and change the prices for another time and guest.
I just received a message from Airbnb to review a guest who cancelled the day they were supposed to arrive. It was just a one night reservation. The guest cancelled because their plans changed and they never came to town. How do we review each other? All I have to go on is a couple messages back and forth. I don’t see the point. Also, when I got the cancellation notice, it said I could refund the whole price. Why would I do that? It was a busy weekend with no rooms in town. I could have booked it with someone else. Should I review this person?
Sure. Say
“guest cancelled the day they were supposed to arrive.
It was just a one night reservation. The guest cancelled because their plans changed and they never came to town.”
Maybe guests the reviews only happen when there is no refund. This can put a spotlight on guests who cancel last minute and hosts with a strict cancellation policy.
So I wrote a review but haven’t published it yet. Airbnb wants me to rate the guest like any other; Cleanliness, Communication, Observance of House Rules. How do I do that for someone who never stayed here? Do I give then 5 stars? The only thing I have to really rate is Communication, which wasn’t great BTW.
This could end up becoming a problem couldn’t it: a guest is careless or reckless in booking and makes a last-minute cancellation, demands a refund, doesn’t get it because it’s unreasonable, and then smacks the host in the review.
Do you really need to write a review and trigger the guest writing you one? (Assuming they haven’t already written you one.)
If his communication wasn’t so great, what are the chances they’ll say anything good, if they go ahead to review.
Aren’t you better off staying quiet until/unless they write you a review?
Can you just leave those unchecked? This is so absurd! But no, don’t leave 5 stars. If you can’t review without including things that don’t apply, I would not leave a review.
Yes. …
That’s good to know that I can leave the stars blank. I thought I was compelled to rate something. Maybe I won’t do a review at all unless they do. Thanks to all for the advice!
I think this is a ridiculous thing!! But it could be helpful for us hosts to see that a guest canceled at the last minute… just like how they post a punishment notice on our page, stating that we canceled on the guest, giving the time period.
Maybe Airbnb should itself automate pre-check-in late cancellation review by the guest just as by the host.