Airbnb - are you embarrassed yet???

[Brenda328]

This, in part, is an AIrbnb message that I just received from a potential 'guest'.  I have removed the guest's name and location to avoid the public humiliation that they are actually due.

Hello! My name is 'First Name' 'Last Name' I’m a teacher in 'State'. My family is flying out tomorrow to Orlando. The resort that we were staying at is offering me is offering me a full refund if I want to cancel. Our other resorts house does not have a private pool. We are checking into our options. We will be staying two weeks and possibly more if there is a quarantine. Is there anyway we can get it a better deal on the price? Please let us know ASAP so that we can plan accordingly. Thank you, 'First Name' 'Last Name'

This was within less than an hour after I reduced my price over 60% to try to recoup some of my losses.  No, entitled guest, I will not offer you a better deal and since I have already fortunately turned off Instant Booking, I will not be accepting your reservation under any circumstances. 

The 'resort that you were staying at' is not offering you a full refund;  Airbnb is offering you a full refund of money that host is rightfully entitled to.  I know some other host right now will take your offer because we all have to eat, but I won't be a willing participant in shafting a host who in good faith allowed you to reserve their home months ago and now will receive $0 from you (when you are scheduled to arrive tomorrow) so that you can upgrade to a nicer home with a private pool for less money.

[Inna22]

@Brenda328 can you report this to airbnb somehow? This is ridiculous. 

[Susan17]

@Brenda328 @Inna22 

No point in reporting. This is going on, on an epic scale, everywhere. It's actually a "thing" now. If Airbnb wanted to prevent this happening - which was always an inevitable consequence of their 100% no-questions-asked, free-for-all refund initiative, courtesy of the particular breed of entitled, scammy guests their lax, guest-centic policies have engendered - they simply needed to implement a block on cancelling guests rebooking in the same areas, for the same dates. But of course, no such protective or preventative measures were put in place to prohibit such easy abuses. 

[Mark116]

@Inna22  Why?  You don't really think they would do anything do you?  

[Jody79]

Wow, I hadn't even thought about guests totally taking advantage of the situation and canceling at the last minute simply to find a better deal. Not cool.

[Kath9]

@Brenda328 @Susan17 @Jody79 @Inna22, I guess like everything else, this will bring out the good side in some and the ugly side in others. Good on you Brenda for sticking to your guns.

[Sheila22]

@Kath9   But when the "ugly" is encouraged and facilitated by Airbnb -- that is the problem here. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Brenda328 

There will always be people like that. Personally, I'd rather not host at all than host scum like that - plenty of other ways to earn a few extra bucks. There are tons of posts that *teach* people how to get a free stay on Airbnb so with the blanket EC being applied for covid-19, why wouldn't those vultures all come out to play??? People who do these types of things aren't and will never be embarrassed. 

[Fred13]

If there is one reality about Airbnb, it is that it consistently facilitates scamming by the lowest dregs of society by virtue of their flippant, shallow decisions. For the life of me I can't figure out where this is coming from, whether lack of real-world exposure because they became too big & succesful all at once (meaning too rich and too-quickly socially isolated from the common man), just plain stubborness, a San Francisco 'thing', an IQ ceiling, dysfunctional parenthood (LoL), or other 'issues'. No doubt they do show every-so-often a surprising lack of foresight for such a successful company. 

Their recent 'Welcomed to cancel' with no emphasis on 'Welcome to rebook' was an invitation for the carpetbaggers to then be in an excellent position to beat up the survivors.

[Raymond178]

Applies to Airbnb Experiences too.  Airbnb will refund guests not questions asked, and then contact the hosts. I've been on Airbnb for 5 years and Airbnb will inevitably give the guests refunds at the expense of hosts. There's a whole genre of self entitled individuals who will be exploiting Airbnb's desire to appease and take advantage of hosts that are enduring enormous losses.  The extenuating circumstances policy should not have been applied.  Allowing cancellations the way it did allows guests to exploit hosts.  The guests accept the cancellation policy when booking and have an assurance that their booking will be honoured.  I have spent countless hours responding to guests who having nothing better to do than send messages demanding a 100% refund - expecting me to do it all for free, meanwhile they have a job, have their travel costs reimbursed so they can rebook later.  Meanwhile I cannot got anywhere as all my future income is potentially lost. Airbnb has lost billions in value and the IPO will be cancelled.  There's been absolutely no support for hosts in any of this so far which is fairly consistent with Airbnb's way of operating.  For all that, occassionally you will get someone who is fair and reasonable so it may also be a lack of leadership and training, and low pay for many of their call centre staff.

[Md-Mizanur1]

Dear Raymond

I have read your message. Absolutely you are right. We want fare deal and fare policy from all from guest, host as well as Airbnb. Let make Airbnb as a our travel platform & way of living while traveling.

We like to have a safe home for all.

Thank you

Regards

Mizanur

[Kathryn440]

I am still unclear why the guests' financial burden has befallen upon the hosts.  My costs are not cancelled because someone's trip is.  And, no....I can't simply rebook a listing and recover my costs.  If AirBnB wants to refund guests, do it out of their own pocket; not mine...especially without my prior consent!   This is a complete breach of trust, if not outright theft via breach of contracted terms.

There's an initiative to include AirBnB Hosts in the currently-in-debate, congressional economic relief packages.  It might be one way for us to recover these losses, and you can personalize your msg to congress, or simply add your name to the initiative to give stronger decibel to our collective voice:  https://actnow.airbnbcitizen.com/kan8c40

[Russell49]

Do yourself a favor and see these potential high maintenance guests for what they are-Red Flags and poor reviews.

[Raymond178]

It's just not easy to see before they book and sometimes they can be very charming until they don't get what they want...

[Sheila22]

Airbnb's revised EC policy sent a clear very heavily publicized message that Airbnb is the Wild West, where agreements are not binding and Guests have free reign.  The "uglies" are coming out of the woodwork now.