Cancellation issues??

[Rebecca1282]

Hi, 

I have exhausted all avenues available to me, and I am begging for help. I’m a super host and I’ve been a host since 2018. 

I recently had a guest book my place in April for several months, starting in May. He left after the stay began, and wants a full refund, which I can’t give him. The computer system would not let him cancel. We have both spend hours with AirBnb support via the phone and via messaging every day. 

AirBnb support will not cancel the reservation, so I cannot book my place to someone else. It’s been a WEEK. The messages I’ve been getting from AirBnb support have been unhelpful, and seems it difficult for us to understand eachother in that platform. However, I’m completely hurt by this financially, and see no end in sight. I will need to cancel my account and list with another company soon. 

Does anyone have ideas of how to get in touch with someone who could help? 

[Anonymous]

@Rebecca1282  Have you tried using the Change Booking feature to amend the check-out date? I don't think it can be backdated to an elapsed date, but it should at least open your calendar up. You'd probably have to tinker with the pricing a bit before submitting, and the guest would still have to click Approve, but this is the only work-around that I can think of that doesn't require intervention from customer support.

The guest's insistence that "the computer system doesn't let him cancel" merits some amount of skepticism and scrutiny. Have you witnessed this yourself?

[Helen3]

Hello @Rebecca1282 

It does seem strange the guest isn't able to cancel his booking, as he just needs to go into his booking confirmation and hit the cancel button to do this.

Why would you want to give him a full refund after he has already stayed with you. Surely it would be a cancellation under Airbnb's long term cancellation policy and the guest would lose the first month's fees?

If you can explain the context of why the guest is cancelling then we can try and help you further.

[Rebecca1282]

It his initial request, the guest said he worked for a specialty construction company and was coming to the area for training to meet the needs of medical facilities in the area. He told me that he needed to leave because not enough businesses were open- but our city reopened the day he left, and the medical facilities were always open. We were very friendly and I actually saw him the day before and he didn’t mention it. I have a feeling he may have been let go unexpectedly. In any case, he was totally okay to leave, but definitely no extenuating circumstance that I can think of. 

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca1282  It sounds like this guest lied to you about his reasons for coming and his reason for leaving. Did you try what @Anonymous suggested?

[Rebecca1282]

The frustrating part is that AirBnb support still has my calendar blocked. Every time I call, they just tell me that only a case manager can open it, but the case managers have not been able to help. I don’t know what to do.