Double cancellation, cannot confirm the cancellation.

[Daniel8190]

I am a guest, my host asked us to cancel.

We did the cancellation request and are waiting for him to confirm it. He however also apparently did a cancellation request to us and told us he is waiting for us to confirm it as well. We even spoke on the phone, he hasn't seen our request to cancel, nor have we seen his. And from our side it states that we are waiting for him to confirm and vice versa from his side. What do I do now?

[Emiel1]

@Daniel8190 

Probably a technical issue...

The host need to contact Airbnb and ask them to finish his cancellation process.

[Sarah977]

@Daniel8190Why did the host ask you to cancel? Is he unable to host you for some reason, or were you asking or expecting something he doesn't provide, therefore the booking wouldn't suit your needs?

If the reason for cancelling is on the guest side, the guest should cancel. This does not require agreement from the host, you just go ahead and cancel. If instead you send a cancellation request, most hosts will decline it, as if a host accepts it, it is registered as a host cancellation, for which hosts receive penalties.

If the reason for cancelling is from the host's side, that he can't or won't host you, it is the host's responsibility to cancel, not the guest's. 

So I can't understand why he told you to cancel, and tells you he is also cancelling. Either he is confused, or something else is going on.

If you are still within the period when you would get a full refund ( read the cancellation policy fully- oftentimes you may forfeit the Airbnb fees) just go ahead and cancel. Otherwise contact Airbnb to sort this out.

[Dale711]

HI @Daniel8190 

Welcome to the community 😊

You stated, "my host asked us to cancel........

                                                        ........he hasn't seen our request to cancel, nor have we seen his"

Obviously, the host is playing on you.

I bet the host doesn't wish to cancel on their side, because of host penalty applies.

You need to act quickly if you still under the free cancellation period, do it and get back the partial refund excluded the Airbnb services fee.

Or else, do contact Airbnb by message and report the incident urgently.

As Airbnb help article,  

What is the cancellation policy for my stay?

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies

[Anonymous]

@Daniel8190   If it helps make sense of what's going on, Airbnb penalizes hosts for cancelling bookings. They get charged a fee and their calendars are blocked against re-booking the cancelled dates. So one way that a host may try to evade the penalties is to ask the guest to initiate the cancellation. But in most cases, this means you have to eat the hefty Airbnb service fee and get nothing in return.

So the process that you might have used to request the cancellation is the one outlined here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1250/  That requires the host to acknowledge that they are the party responsible for the cancellation, and if they confirm it, they also accept the penalties. Maybe this is what your host is trying to avoid. 

But if this is the procedure that you followed, do take note of the last part of that link:

If your trip starts within a week, the host has 24 hours to respond to the request. Otherwise, they have 48 hours to respond.

If your host accepts or doesn’t respond, you’ll get a full refund. If they decline the request, your host should still be able to host your stay.

As long as you used the "Host needs to cancel" tag on your request, I recommend waiting until the required time elapses before taking further action. If the host does nothing, you get a full refund; if he declines but still refuses to honor your booking, that's when you'd have to endure the unbearably tedious intervention of what passes for Airbnb's "customer service."

[Daniel8190]

I contacted Airbnbhelp on twitter, so we'll see where it goes from there. I will already be travelling before the 24 h wait-time is over...