Reservation Cancelled by airbnb and no payout

[Serap4]

Reservation was made  and confirmed on 14/10/2022 for the period from 23/10/2022. to 28/10/2022. 

Guest contacted me via phone on 22nd saying she will checkin next day. So i went to check airbnb and could see confirmed reservation was still there and my calender blocked but it seemed guest account has been access limited or suspended.

So i raised a support message to findout what happened. In response to my query, airbnb support cancelled the reservation saying there was an issue with guest account.

I have strict cancellation policy and reservation was there for 1 week but no payout.

I cant see any policy guidance where airbnb can cancel the booking without payout.

And also if airbnb suspected and limited the guest access, why didnt they let me know earlier to findout my options about freeing the calender?

Any help?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Serap4 the guest possibly used a stolen credit card and hence the bank may have reversed the payment. When I last read the Ts and Cs it was clear that if Airbnb didn't get paid then the host wouldn't get paid. You are lucky that this was all discovered before the guest actually stayed with you.

[Serap4]

Thank you for your response. Do  you mind posting the link to that terms and conditions?

My issue is why airbnb suspected something with the guest account much earlier and limited their access but kept me in the dark while the reservation stand and block my calender.

Airbnb has caused me income loss in this scenario by blocking the calender for 8 days. I had 98% booking rate for this month before this cancellation. 

[Gwen386]

@Serap4 Airbnb did not cause income loss. The guest did! And on top of that, guest was acutely aware of it. That’s why she called you instead of keeping everything on airbnb message platform. No doubt she was planning on still checking in (payment or not) and causing god-knows-what kind of havoc. Also, it’s a possibility that there was a problem with guest CC that airbnb thought would be straightened out 24 hours before check in. 

Count your blessings and don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You avoided the possibility of a scammer in your private home for 5 nights, which would have been far worse financially than just having dates blocked off on your calendar. 

As @Mike-And-Jane0 stated, if airbnb is not getting paid, nor will you. 

[Serap4]

Well. This is going to be bad publicity for airbnb. (I will consider my options to make public aware of this)

As a host,

1) why airbnb allows such bookings?

2) If airbnb believed something should be sorted out before checkin and knew reservation would be cancelled if not, why it was not communicated to me as soon as the booking was made? (It stood for 8 days)

So airbnb clearly made me lose income.

In summary, Airbnb's approach was to allow a suspicious booking to stand until the last minute and keep host in the dark.

If the guest sorted out by last minute, airbnb get thier commision.

If the guest didn't sort out by the last minute, cancel the reservation and airbnb loses nothing but now host has lost thier potential earnings. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Serap4 I am sure you can use google as well as I can. Also you need to read the right terms for your location.