AirBnB making UNILATERAL Cancelation against Guest AND Host wishes

[Gabreal0]

Dear AirBnB Community:

A few days ago, we got a notice "Canceled by Guest" for a reservation coming up on Sep 04- Sep 07.

The guest did NOT instigate any cancellation, and currently AirBnB is completely unresponsive to their pleas, and ours.

We did NOT cancel. AirBnB did this completely unilaterally.

Their phone system now hangs up on you if the reservation is less than 72 hours away. (?!)

Is AirBnB going out of business??

The poor guest is very stressed, as we are.

We both have written to AirBnB, as calling is now pointless.

Wasted many hours, and it feels like shouting into an empty basement. Zero responses.

They are currently keeping all of the deposit the kind guests paid - in good faith- and seem to be positioning to keep several hundred for themselves, and it is completely unclear what our position is, if we will get anything. They refunded $66.30 to the guest, who paid them a deposit of $1,351.00!

Completely Canceling is not possible as ABB have already canceled. 

We are keeping the guests on our own calendar, and the guests are desperate to fulfill their hope to get away to our beach.

We have had some other horrible experiences with AirBnB over the last months, but this post is focused on this one instance, and 

how disrespectful and broken the AirBnB system is at this moment.

Please someone offer some suggestions, so we can relieve the stress our poor guests are experiencing.

We always have played by the AirBnB rules, and have not (yet) suggested booking for them by another more functional platform.

But we are running out of time, and the comfort of our intended guest is paramount to us.

Thank you everyone. Covid cancellations is bad enough - this is totally artificial and unnecessary.

Reaching out on this platform before contacting the authorities and filing a formal complaint on behalf of our guest and ourselves. Fraud.

Sincerely,

Gabreal Franklin - owner Coastview Beach House, Santa Cruz, CA

[Emiel1]

@Gabreal0 

If the guest did not cancel, it seems to me a system error.

Why would Airbnb cancel without any notice and keep all the money ?

Did you check your Transaction History (upcoming payments) for this reservation, if there are any payouts scheduled ?

Airbnb CS is terrible at the moment, maybe try Twitter (AirbnbHelp) and ask to re-instate the reservation.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Anonymous]

@Gabreal0 This sounds suspicious. What is the payout indicated to you in your transaction record? 

[Gabreal0]

In desperation, and as the guest was very worried, we went ahead and accepted their cancellation.

We offered a FULL refund, and so far, AirBnB has kept over $300 of the guests money, and refunded only the $950 we offered back. That was the indicated payout, if we did nothing, and the guests did not come, and they forfeit that part of their payment + AirBnB fees.

In other words, the guests are still short over $300 on a reservation they did not cancel, nor did we.

Something(s) strange going on at AirBnB.

@Andrew0  @Emiel1 

[Lisa723]

@Gabreal0 @Anonymous @Emiel1 one way this can happen is if the guest's credit card expires before their second payment, and they are not attentive to Airbnb's requests to update their method of payment. This has happened to guests of mine at least twice.

[Helen3]

I wouldn't offer a full refund in these circumstances - it sounds like the guest had only made half of their payment and for whatever reason didn't pay the second half either because they didn't have the money in the account or because they changed credit card. Airbnb would have advised the guest of this and asked them to arrange payment by another method. If the guest ignored this request the booking would be cancelled. @Gabreal0 

If this is the case, why should you be out of pocket because they guest a) failed to make sure there was funds available to pay b) when offered the opportunity to put this right by making payment by another method failed to do so.

The most I would offer is a proportional refund if any of the dates they were due to stay get rebooked.

If you are refunding the guest in full can they not rebook.

If this is the case Airbnb are correct to keep their booking fee.

[Michele408]

The same thing happened to me with over 10 different reservations (in multiple properties) between February & October 2020 (prior to the pandemic). And once again, last week Airbnb just cancelled a reservation & refunded a guest in violation of our strict cancellation policy,

our wishes & our guests.  While attempting to resolve, another guest booked & Airbnb claims guest did a charge back