Will my guest be notified if I change my review?

[Robyn23]

Hello,

Does anyone know if my guest will know if I change my review? She has not done her review yet, so I'm pretty sure I can still change mine. I said in my review that she would be welcome back anytime. But now that she's threatening a horrible review if I don't refund her, I'd like to take that part out of my review. I'm a 5 star Superhost that dedicates full time hours to making sure my listing is clean, beautiful, and my guests are as happy as possible. Thanks in advance

[Linda108]

@Robyn23  As a Super Host I am sure you know the guest cannot see your review until it is published and you can edit until both are published.  I believe the guest is notified that you have posted a review and urged to write a review but there is no notification of editing.  

Don't know what reason your guest believes she should get  a refund, but if she is demanding one, you probably will not get a 5 star review.  If she is threatening with a negative review if you don't give her a refund, she is violating Air BNB policy and should be flagged.  Hope all your communication on the Air BNB messaging system.  Depending what she writes in her review, you may want to be able to have Air BNB take it down if it violated the Content Policy.  Keep us posted how this works out.

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

If she has not yet done a review, you can definitely still change yours.  I am not sure if the guest will know if you changed it, however.

If she is threatening a horrible review if you don't refund her, flag the message now, and communicate with Airbnb regarding the situation.  And keep all you messaging vial Airbnb.

Of course, from your message, I have no idea why she is requesting a refund.  If something went wrong on your part, it may be a reasonable request. If she just left early for her own reasons, then you can kindly explain that this is your business, and how you earn a living, and that is why you have a strict cancellation policy.  She knew your cancellation policy when she signed up.

Keep it friendly, professional, and via Airbnb.

[Robyn23]

Thank you all, I'm so upset about this. She didn't leave early, she stayed the two nights she booked. She messaged me yesterday with a list of issues she had, including: not enough towels, and the power went out in the middle of the night. I live on property, in the back unit of the duplex, and I spoke to them during their stay twice and they never asked for more towels. They had 6 in their group and there's 10 towels in the unit. The power outage is out of my hands, the whole street was out.

Her big threat was over some friends we let park in our driveway for a big beach festival down the street. apparently they were loud and yes, from drinking, when they came back to get their cars at midnight. I know this was a mistake, and I'll never have friends over again because of this. Our friends all said they did yell to one another about who was going in who's car, but after one minute they got in the cars and left. This guest is claiming there was an escalating altercation on my front lawn and she thought of calling the police! She's also claiming her group pulled up as our friends were outside, and that's not true either. She knows we weren't there to witness any of this and she can say whatever she wants and I can't really argue.

I understand that this was a HUGE mistake on my part letting festival goers park at my place, and I'll never do it again. I feel extorted on the other hand, specifically since she directly threatened to post the awful review if I didn't refund.

I am going to give her a refund for that night, because I feel terrible she's not totally happy, and I'm worried if she knows I changed my review, she'll go back on her word and post the bad review even after I refund her.

[Robyn23]

I left out, she also said "the bathroom door was too thin and everything could be heard in the entire apartment".

[Robyn23]

She checked out 6 days ago, never contacted me during her stay with any problems, and my husbans and I spoke to the group twice during the 2 night stay. Just a little backround 🙂

[Linda108]

@Robyn23  Sounds like your refund offer is based on your assessment that your decision to allow your friends park in your drive was a mistake and the guest is to be compensated for one of the two nights.  However, you will probaby still get a negative review.  Your review of her should be based on her behavior and it sounds like she was not great at communication in that she had post stay complaints, not allowing you to resolve at the time.

[Robyn23]

@Linda0, Yes, I know our friends were loud for a minute in the driveway, so I do feel very bad (and learned a huge lesson!) I also feel like none of these complaints were communicated to me. She said in her message that they almost woke me at 3am to tell me about the power outage because it got so hot in the unit they could barely stand it. And the thin bathroom door seems a little over the top as well. She very well might make a bad review even though I refunded her the night. If she does, I will publicly respond, as I feel she could be a 'scammer', but I'm not sure. She waited until I was unable to change my review until she contacted me (6 days later), which is suspect to me, and never said a word during my visits to check on them, or upon check out.

 As for my original question, It's too late for me to edit the review, and that is so disappointing that her one and only review will be (for now) from me saying how great a guest she was and that I'd have her back anytime.

Thanks so much for your input 🙂