[Vent] After 5 years of being Super Hosts, it finally happened....we got that one Toxic guest :(

**Tldr -** My wife and I have hosted our Airbnb continuously since 2020 and held Superhost status for 3.5+ years. We finally got burned by a toxic guest paid us NOTHING, somehow got the entire reservation canceled, and left us a bad review that could cost our status. Airbnb sided with them. I know I sound naive, but I didn’t think it could get this bad after years of mostly great experiences. We’ve had difficult guests, but never like this. **The Deets -** * A male guest with only 2 prior (decent) reviews booked 24 hours before check-in. Within 20 minutes of arriving, he messaged that he couldn’t stay due to a “bad smell” and “loud dehumidifier.” The unit is a basement apartment, and the dehumidifier is essential. We’ve never had complaints about it EVER in the last 5 years. it is a very nice high end and relatively quiet machine and no other guest has ever complained about it. * I responded immediately and went down to check. There was no smell at all. In person, he was polite and didn’t mention the smell or dehumidifier noise weirdly – only complained about my quiet neighbors sitting in their yard. I showed him how to turn off the dehumidifier while in the room and asked if there was anything else I could do to make his stay comfortable. He said no and wanted to leave. I explained our cancellation policy, he acknowledged, and I left. * 20 more mins later, guest leaves presumably to their new lodgings. Then we get an email from Airbnb that they have given the guest a full refund (they never ran it by us nothing) and said they canceled the guests entire reservation. we were very dissapointed but ok. it is what it is. Figured the guest at least won't get to leave a review right! **WRONG!** * Not only did they get to leave a review, they left a poor one. I don't know if this necessarily means we will lose our status, but bad reviews on airbnb are punitive (as I have learned from this sub-reddit) I don’t care that the guest was difficult, people are difficult and shit happens; what bothers me is Airbnb siding with him and overriding our cancellation policy. How he convinced them to cancel unilaterally is beyond me. we called support, got this escalated and even demanded to know on what basis the guest was able to cancel with full refund AFTER check in. No answers, just a standard, *it is our* *policy* bullsh1t. Just wanted to vent. if anyone has gotten around situations like this, would LOVE to hear. --- **Post Details:** - **Subreddit:** r/airbnb_hosts - **Author:** u/aditya1878 - **Score:** 186 upvotes - **Upvote Ratio:** 84.0% - **Comments:** 178 - **Posted:** 7/2/2025 - **URL:** https://reddit.com/r/airbnb_hosts/comments/1lq1j9f/vent_after_5_years_of_being_super_hosts_it/