Reviews from pre-cancellations

[Richard230]

Based upon the feedback from AirBnB, I turned on Instant Booking to attracting more guests. 

This worked well for a while. We had a 100% response rate within 1 hour and almost every review was a 5-star review. We were on-course to become a super-host. 

However, a month or so ago we had a guest book for the very night next. The guest had previous reviews which stated they had damaged a previous property and stolen items from the property. This is clearly not someone we wanted to let into our house. 

It was too late to cancel via the site, so I called up customer support. The support rep was kind enough, but felt that we should 'give the guest a second chance'. We disagreed and cancelled. 

Now this has shown up as a negative review on our page and competely ruined our chances of becoming a superhost. I feel this is incredibly unfair given the work we have put into this. We simply followed AirBnB's advice and used the reviews to ensure a thief didn't stay in our house. 

Is there any way to dispute this review? 

[Sabine42]

Hi Richard,

your response is right on. i would try airbnb again, some reps are unfortunately rather clueless and unforgiving while others are more supportive. i had the exact same thing happen to me, they ended up removing the cancel notice and giving me a travel credit instead. 

i hope you flagged him and gave him a thumbs down, that way he can't use instant book anymore. good luck!

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

The only way is to call back and speak with another rep and plead your case.

[Elena87]

They say in the guidence - Hosts who use Instant Book may be able to cancel penalty-free if they have concerns about the reservation or a guest’s behaviour.

I think you have every right to have major concerns about the conduct of your Instant Book guest based on the one previous highly negative review.

As far as a 'second chance' goes for a guest, it's understandable that you declined to be the guinea pig here.

The guidence also states that you should call AIRBNB if the reservation is within 24 hours.

However, it looks like you did come out of it with a penalty - the automated review left on your page.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work

I agree, you should phone AIRBNB up and discuss with a supervisor why they didn't follow and apply their own rules in this case.