Cancellation wants to rebook - Opinions??

[Normen0]

Had a booking for Thursday (tomorrow) til Sunday - three nights. The guest stated originally it was herself and family coming to shop and for her nephew’s hockey tournament. The cancellation policy is moderate. This morning she messaged to say that she has tested positive for COVID and “obviously” she cannot travel so she would like to cancel with a full refund. I explained that she is free to cancel though it’s a moderate cancellation policy so no full refund. She could however contact AIRBNB and make a request for full refund if she wishes but COVID Is no longer a reason for full refund. Next message : In that case, why don’t I still come alone with my dogs and isolate. My response is absolutely not. I’m the cleaner and that is putting me in a position to have a higher risk to contract COVID and we would have to close the house for a couple of days after your stay. I advise she has to cancel and if I’m able to rebook I can send her a refund. She cancelled. And got a 50% refund plus cleaning fee. Now she messaged to say “ I’d like to preferably get a full refund but if not I’d like my family to still come and be able to enjoy it. They have tested negative. Can you undo the cancellation?” My response was that No, I physically cannot undo it and third party reservations are not permitted. Someone else from your group will have to make the request to book. So far no response. Firstly, I don’t understand why she cancelled when the kid had the hockey tournament still apparently. She could have just not come and stayed home. But no mention of the hockey tournament today so my bet is the team is out of the tournament for some reason and she thought saying she had COVID would get her a refund. Secondly, if she does have COVID, she has very bad judgement based on saying she would travel 2 hours and isolate in our AIRBNB instead of at home and put other people at risk. Haven’t heard back from her or any family at this point. Maybe the family actual had to cancel and not her so no one is willing to book it. At this point I don’t even want the family there. What would you do??

[Colleen253]

@Normen0 If the booking guest has covid, that’s a valid EC. If the guest figures this out and contacts Airbnb, they will get a refund. Because it’s best not to have Airbnb involved in any way shape or form, if I were you I would immediately refund. Make this guest go away happy.

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2701/extenuating-circumstances-policy-and-the-coronavirus-covid19

[Normen0]

@Colleen253 Thanks Colleen. I had previously read the policy and that COVID was not covered but now I see the one line that if either the host or guest is SICK with COVID it is just other COVID related stuff isn’t.  Ahhhhh. 
I think she is lying anyhow. That’s my sense. I think the kids team is out of the tournament.  If she does have COVID, I’m incensed that she would say she would come with COVID with no concern for anyone else.  What if she gets in a car accident? What about first responders? What about the health of the cleaner (ME)? Ugh. 

[Colleen253]

@Normen0 Could be lying, of course, but it doesn’t matter. She’s claiming covid so it’s done. Get her out of your hair and move on. WITHOUT Airbnb becoming involved. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/My-listings-are-suspended-because-a-guest-Cancelled-due-to-...

[Normen0]

@Colleen253 @Thanks for the link. Interesting indeed and disturbing.
 Do you know if they have to present proof of their positive result? I realize the host asking for it would be walking the line on asking for private health info but it seems that it would be just too easy to claim COVID if you didn’t have to provide proof? 
After reading all this and THANK YOU for the info, if AIRBNB calls or messages, I will offer the refund immediately. And I don’t mean to be contrary but my spider senses are calling BS on this claim.  Still thinking for the next few minutes….

[Colleen253]

@Normen0 "Do you know if they have to present proof of their positive result?" I'm not aware of any hard and fast answer to that. AFAIK all the guest has to do is 'attest' to the fact they have Covid. As we all know very well, Airbnb's main interest is always to keep guests happy and coming back to book. Top of mind is making it easy for guests. Simply attesting is just that.

[Paula1025]

I think you did the right thing. I would have done the same. Booking through Airbnb is not like booking a hotel that is part of a multi-billion dollar chain. Using Airbnb is being part of a community and is a buyer-beware situation with each individual cancellation policy is stated in the listing. A guest is running the risk of not getting a full refund if something goes wrong. If she wanted a guarantee like that, she should have booked a hotel. 

Late cancellation is a loss of income for you. In a sense, you're splitting the difference. It's not fair to you when there is no to little time to get a rebooking. I see this as a lesson for her to be more diligent and mindful of the cancellation policy of places she books. 

Although this is not an ideal situation for you or her, this is fortunate that neither of you can leave the other a review. She still want's so get something for her money that is "lost" by having her family stay. Again, that's not fair to you. Many guests don't see what risks hosts have in this whole process. 

Good job. Take a deep breath and let her go! 

[John2406]

@Normen0 @Colleen253  First and foremost, although Airbnb aren't so forgiving/understanding of anyone who's booked for a holiday post March 2020 (judging by what they say), the facts remain that the Covid-19 pandemic has not gone away, and secondly, if Airbnb don't want to repay anyone who's booked a holiday and suddenly been infected, then they shouldn't accept any bookings during a pandemic! They can't have it both ways!

The person who had booked then notified you about having Covid, did the right thing by letting you know (whether she did have the virus or not), but she seems to have gone to an awful amount of subterfuge if all she wanted to do was cancel her booking! and she also appears to be oblivious to the facts of what has to be done when one is infected! - and no, I most certainly wouldn't want her anywhere near my property, for all of the reasons stated.

I'm more than a bit confused by @Colleen253 's comment however about you refunding the Guest rather than Airbnb doing so, for as far as I understood, the latter don't pay any money to the Host until 24hours after the Guests' book in, so how would that work for @Normen0 , especially as if the Guest is reimbursed by the Host, but the Guest doesn't book in, the Host won't receive any money!

Personally I haven't found any difficulty with Community Support, and whilst I accept that sometimes one has to explain the situation several times to C.S. provided everything is explained clearly to them, the problem is usually ironed out to everyone's satisfaction.

Maybe I've just been lucky or fortunate, so in that case I'm grateful I have been!

[Colleen253]

@John2406 The guest had a booking. The guest cancelled. @Normen0 is due to receive a  payout according to their cancellation policy (because the guest hasn't claimed Covid to Airbnb - if they do, then Airbnb will claw Normen's payout back to give to the guest). Normen can either authorize a full refund, or send the money through the resolution center. 

You are indeed very lucky you haven't experienced the general ineptitude of Airbnb Customer Circus. 

[Stephanie365]

I would just block her and move on. If you let her rebook, she can review you. At this point, she can't.

We, as hosts, should not have to absorb the costs of people who refuse to get vaccinated and contract COVID. It is a known risk at this point and guests can purchase travel insurance that covers COVID. 

[Sarah977]

@Stephanie365  To be fair, there was no mention of the guest being unvaccinated, and she could still contract Covid even if vaccinated.

But odds are, she was just using this as an excuse to cancel, and didn't actually test positive.

But I agree that guests should cover themselves by purchasing travel insurance.

[Ryan2352]

From what I understand, the extenuating circumstances policy regarding covid is no longer in force.  Might be a US thing and different since you're in Canada.

What you could do is refund per your cancellation policy and offer to fully refund if you can rebook the nights.  That's a fairly common practice.  I can see them wanting to cancel since they couldn't come because of the "no 3rd party bookings" rule.

[Sarah977]

@Ryan2352  The EC policy is the same everywhere. There aren't different policies for different countries.

The one COVID issue that is still covered by the EC policy is if a guest tests positive. They are supposed to have to provide proof to Airbnb, but of course we have no idea if Airbnb is actually enforcing that, or simply taking guests at their word.