Changed to 3rd Party Booking? How long to wait for guest cancellation?

[Amanda1775]

Hi All,

I was notified by one of my future guests yesterday (stay is still 30+ days away w/Firm cancellation policy) that she won't be able to go on the trip with the 3 other softball coaches after all. She wanted to know if the other 3 (one is her boyfriend) could still use the reservation. I said ABB doesn't allow 3rd party bookings and she should cancel and have her boyfriend book after cancelling (she actually suggested this option in her original message). 

Also, I had recently changed my cancellation policy to strict, but reversed it back to firm thinking she was going to have her boyfriend rebook right away, but she hasn't cancelled. 

Three questions:

1. Would you suggest I contact her again? 

2. Would you put the cancellation policy back to strict and let them deal with the new policy since their plans changed?

3. How long would you wait to call ABB to have the reservation cancelled?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

@Amanda1775 Changing the cancellation policy for your listing doesn't change existing bookings - they're bound to the policy that you had at the time they were confirmed.

It would be hard to persuade the guest to cancel and rebook when that would mean a substantial loss in Airbnb fees. It's pretty common for couples to have a shared user profile, so that seems like the easier workaround if you actually want to keep the booking. If you don't, you can call Airbnb to report that the booked guest won't be coming and ask for a neutral cancellation.

I'd be curious how they respond if you were to do that. In practice, Airbnb doesn't seem to take its third party booking policy seriously enough to actually create a booking transfer protocol. So I wouldn't be shocked if they just tried to get you to honor it as normal. But the odds of the outsourced customer care agent actually knowing the policy are low anyway. 

[Genaro18]

I am going to give this it's own "moment" and tell everyone, print this out, read it at least three times, read between the lines, although it's utterly accurate down to the Oxford comma.

[[[[.  ~~~   In practice, Airbnb doesn't seem to take its third party booking policy seriously enough to actually create a booking transfer protocol. So I wouldn't be shocked if they just tried to get you to honor it as normal. But the odds of the outsourced customer care agent actually knowing the policy are low anyway.  ~~~]]]]

That is the entire current state of Airbnb agent procedure wrapped up tight.

I am not as kind as this gentleman - and this happens about 3 times a week, and I will carefully, as an active investigation is going on - the last agents definition of ""wouldn't be shocked if they just tried to get you to honor it as normal." is that we now have an agent on a revenge mission, stalking us, interfering in other cases, flipping suspension switches on and off, and answering in his own case thread as 4 other agents, none of whom exist, he is all 5 agents. He calls himself "Senior Air BNB Case Management Chief Ambassador" and there is no one to ask for because "he is it".

Learn it. 

It could have a red bow on it, it's a gift, and 100%, no need to reflect on it, accurate. 

[Amanda1775]

@Anonymous 

Thanks Andrew - it worked! I contacted ABB (via messaging so I would have a record) to explain the situation and ask for a neutral cancellation. Apparently ABB was able to contact the original person who booked and the new person who wanted to take over the booking.

Basically ABB did a neutral cancellation and helped the new person to re-book it. Only minor change is that the new booking's cancellation policy is strict rather than firm.