A few days ago, I had a reservation but the guest never arrived, and sent a message informing that instead of himself, someone else would arrive at our appartment without giving any further info such as the name of the other guest, or even an expected time of arrival.
I informed the guest that without his presence, no other guest can check in to our apt due to local tax law that mandates that the person who checks in must be the person shown in Airbnb's itinerary which we submit to the local tax authorities. We also contacted Airbnb about this situation, and Airbnb's case manager called and informed the guest that due to local law and regulation, the presence of the primary guest is necessary at the check in.
So far so good.
The guest cancelled the reservation and according to what he said to the Case manager he never even flew here.
To our surprise, one day later, this guest left a review!!
It is understandable for a cancelled reservation to allow the guest to leave a review, if for example the guest canceled because the appartment was found dirty, or different than the listing or any other similar reason where his perception would be valuable to future guests.
But in this case, where neither the guest nor anybody else, ever arrived, never even flew to the city, never spoke directly with us but only through Airbnb's Case managers, it is marginaly insane that Airbnb allows him to leave a review! What exactly can this guest review? Cleaningness? Accuracy? Location? Value? General experience? He never even arrived in the area!! Nor has he spoken to the host!!
The only thing I can assume is that the reasons behind his review would be retaliation. And in any case I truly cannot understand why Airbnb is letting such a review stand.
I have contacted Airbnb support and requested that this review will be deleted, but its been 24 hours and so far nothing has happened nor have I any received any update.
I am a host and superhost, since 2013 and I sadly I regret to admit that Airbnb is not what it used to be. Each year it becomes more and more hostile to hosts., and I feel that it does nothing to protect us from such guests who use the review and star rating system as means to exortion in order for them to do whatever they want even if illegal.
Disappointment. Just pure disappointment...