Strange Airbnb review

1

Hi

I had a booking very recently for just a night. The lady in question booked in but left after 4/5 hours which is fine but unusual. The next day I get an email saying to read her review. In the email all I had as far as the review was concerned was “”.

I wrote her quick review and then when I clicked the link in the email her review was not there whatsoever. Almost like she did not write a review at all.

Very odd to say the least.

2

Possibilities

  1. Bug in Airbnb software.
  2. She left you a rating but no text in the review. I assume this would show up in your progress page, though. Have you checked that?
  3. Guest’s account was suspended due to suspicious activity (fraud, etc.). There seems to be alot of that now, and leaving after 4 hours fits the profile. Have you been paid for this reservation?
3

I could be wrong but I think they have to leave text to leave a review.

I had one guest give me five stars on everything and the written part of her review said “xx”. She said in the private notes that she “didn’t want her name to be public.” She did not tell me this before I left her a review. So now she has a great review from me, with her name mentioned in it, and I have a review from her, under her name, that just says “xx”. Sigh.

2 Likes
4

The guests review does not show up in the progress tab, just like she never left a review.

I got paid the full amount for the reservation.

I guess a bug, but then why would Airbnb email the day she checked out saying she has left a review.

5

Has it been more than 14 days since the stay? Does your review show up on their profile?

6

It’s been 8 days since they checked out. My review show’s under the guests profile.

1 Like
7

Sounds like a bug then. Your review shouldn’t show up this soon unless they wrote a review.

Or perhaps as @Brian_R170 suggested their account was suspended. Or maybe they wrote something in their review that was against Airbnb rules and they pulled it before you could see it.

8

Oh and welcome to the forum @Andre2000! Hope you will stick around and contribute.

1 Like
9

I bet that’s it. If a review was automatically flagged for a violation of Airbnb’s terms of service, then it would be removed, but since the guest left the review and doesn’t have an opportunity to update the review at that point, a notification would still be sent to the host that the guest left a review.

A violation of the terms of service can be purely accidental, like giving a full name or address or something.

10

Yes I guess it must be a bug.

I have visited a few times over the last year or two. Many of my issues with Airbnb re software don’t seemed to get resolved ( bugs I guess) I just continue to live with them as chasing a solution when the company employees do not seem to know how the software works is a little strange.

Even though I have used Airbnb for 2 years I still feel a rookie. I just got my place in order then used Airbnb and it has been full ever since. Up till March of course, since then it has been dire.

1 Like
11

Would then the rating be omitted also?

I use WhatsApp for all guests and she was very nice about everything so I had no reason to be suspicious.

12

Yes. Airbnb deletes the review text and the ratings as far as I know.

13

Well, perhaps it’s a good job that you have found us Andre, and of course, welcome to the forum. It’s affectionately know as the University of AirBnB Hosting!

Whilst you have time on your hands in these dire times, it would be worthwhile having a trawl through some of the old threads. I know finding the forum a few months into hosting, in 2017, was a sanity lifesaver.

I noted you said you’re using WhatsApp to communicate with your guests. It’s a mantra of hosts here that everything should be communicated through the Airbnb platform. Otherwise, you have nothing to fall back on in terms of a good audit trail if things go wrong and you need to contact CS for a solution.

Please keep involved!

2 Likes
14

I guess that explains everything.

Thanks for taking the time to explain things.

15

@Andre2000 Do pay attention to what Joan said re communicating through the platform messaging, rather than Whatsapp, texting, phone calls. There has been many a host who has been unable to prove that a guest tried to extort them for a good review, or was verbally abusive, or admitted to damaging something, then denied it when asked to pay for it, or said they would do one thing, but then did another, because all the conversations took place over the phone.
There’s times when it’s fine, like if a guest just calls to say they’re running late for check-in. I get guests to phone or text me when they arrive in town, as most come by bus from the airport, and I pick them up at the bus station.
But for most communication with guests, it’s best to confine it to Airbnb messaging.

3 Likes
16

Thanks you for the welcome.

I do agree with you with regards to WhatsApp. If there is even a slight hint of any issue I do revert back to Airbnb’s messaging system so there is a trail.

I live 5000+ miles away from my listing And I am really fortunate to have a fantastic Co-Host (In-Laws) so we tend to use WhatsApp for communication purposes which I find can be more instant especially as I can call people for data cost ( inclusive )

Thanks again to everyone :slight_smile:

1 Like
17

Thanks for the advise.

We do use Airbnb’s messaging system in the main, whatsapp just between Host/wife/cohost/Security/Cleaners We do use a group for the guests but this is rarely used for any issues.