Airbnb cancelled my reservation on my behalf without my approval or knowledge

[Albert11]

I’m a new host and was surprised to learn the issues Airbnb has with hosts lately.  But this one still came in as a shocker to me this morning.

[Albert11]

A case mgr named Mhel messaged me at 11:17 pm CST, my time zone, when I was asleep already.  She demanded me to respond within 15-30 minutes as a guest is requesting a cancellation.

[Albert11]

Of course I was not able to respond in her tight window of communication.  Nor did I know such demand was in my inbox.  

[Albert11]

2nd message from Mhel was at 2:43 am today.  She informed me that she canceled the reservation on my behalf and gave guests FULL refund.  And...wait... there’s more

[Albert11]

Hello Albert, I want to confirm that I was not able to get any response from your side, and as resulted I already cancelled the reservation of our guest on your behalf as a host, and will incur penalties:

1. $100 cancellation fee
2. Automated review
3. Blocked of Calendar dates
4. Ineligibility to become Superhost

If you have questions or concerns please let me know, I will wait for your response for me to further assist you as well. Thank you!

[Albert11]

So Mhel, the case mgr., demanded an immediate response from a host, at insane hours.  Then made a worst possible decision ON BEHALF of the host, with no patience for any voice/ input from host, without host’ knowledge or approval, but a decision that will be devastating to host!

[Albert11]

Now, being clueless and was involuntarily represented by someone in the other side of the globe, I was left with some very hard blows to deal with:

1.  Not eligible for Superhost.  I’ve been working so hard for it over the last months but now it is gone...only because someone else made a decision on my behalf.  A decision I will not make or approve.  A decision made without my knowledge.  A decision could have been avoided as there were other options available, not as devastating or one-sided as this one.

[Albert11]

2.  Blocked the five cancellation nights on my calendar.  That’s loss of income for those nights.

3.  $100 additional penalty on top of full refund to guests.

Why should I incur these losses for Mhel’s decision?   

[Albert11]

I understand Airbnb has a process to handle a guest cancellation.  Totally fine with that.

Problem is this is not an equal opportunity process.  Host’s side of evidence or documentation was not requested...or even give a chance to connect before the case mgr made a decision.  Such decision is by design, biased for sure.

[Albert11]

The process, at least the way how Mhel handled it, did not allow any feedback from host into the decision making process.  

With a tiny bit of patience or respect to host, she could have reasonably asked the guest to allow 24 hours before host responds.

[Albert11]

It is ironic how Mhel responses back to me.  She never did.  I sent her messages at the beginning of the day and no response so far. 

I assume she might be on a different time zone.  So I called Airbnb to work with other case managers.  

[Albert11]

Since Airbnb holds its hosts at very high standards, I was expecting similar 5-star treatment likewise.  I was so wrong!

[Albert11]

First call had about 15 minutes wait time.  Not too bad.  A case mgr named Harson, or similar, he was blurry about it.  He kept interrupting me and hung up on me 10 minutes into the conversation.  He immediately called back and blamed on bad connection.  I tried to explain to him why the decision Mhel made on my behalf should be reversed.  However, he transferred me to another person while I was speaking.  The customer support rep was as surprised as I was.  Neither of us could figure out how we got connected and for what. 

[Albert11]

Apparently, Harson, if that’s his real name, tried to avoid the responsibility of handling Mhel’s mess.  He just bluntly ended our conversation, again, in a typical Airbnb case mgr style, without host knowledge or consent.

[Albert11]

So now I’m with a customer support lady.  First thing first, she had to verify me is me, my contact info, etc, before she could help me with anything.  Now she transferred me to the 2nd case mgr of the day.