Host cancelled our reservation to rise the price

[Grégory38]

Hello

When borders opened the host cancelled our reservation just to increase the flat price. We lost 3 weeks and now all prices raised.

We have been scammed by a host from Ohrid (Marcusapartment). The price we paid to rent the flat was 450 euros for 14 days. During 3 weeks the host asked us several times to cancel but we refused telling him that the macedonian embassy told us that borders will open. He insisted a lot and never gave us the adress of the flat. When borders opened he asked us to cancel again our paid reservation and told us that he can rent the flat or not. We refused and requested one more time the adress of the flat but we also told him that we will notify to airbnb his behaviour

The result is that he finally cancelled our reservation but now the price is 750 euros instead of 450 euros we paid. The booking is still possible on Airbnb and we have all evidences and conversations are available on simple request.

Therefore we ask Airbnb to ban this kind of behaviour because its a real scam and lack of respect for guests. It means that now it is 300 euros more because he simply decided it due to borders opening even if it was already paid 3 weeks ago. 

Marcusapartment has also a facebook page.

We need the community help to make it not happen again. This behaviour must be severly punished by Airbnb.

Best regards

GJ

[Sarah977]

@Grégory38 

 Normally when a host cancels a reservation, they receive many penalties, one of which is that the dates that were cancelled remain blocked, so the host can't rent them again to someone else. That is the policy that is in place to prevent what this host did. I'm not sure how he was able to convince Airbnb to allow his calendar to open up for those dates, maybe he lied about COVID regulations or something.

Sorry this happened to you, but if I were a guest, i wouldn't even be concerned abut this host anymore- they behaved in an unprofessional and scammy way and I wouldn't want to give this host any business at all, even if they gave it to me at the same price I originally booked for.

What you can do is click on the flag "Report this listing" on the host's profile. That will bring it to Airbnb attention and hopefully they will investigate this host's behavior.

As far as you insisting that the host give you the address, you are actually in the wrong there. Many hosts will not give out the exact address until a day or a few before check-in. Or it should be on your reservation. It's a security risk for hosts- an ill-intentioned guest can arrive long before check-in time if they already have the key code and the address, and rob the place, or they can come around to "check it out" days before the booking, decide they don't like the area and then cancel. 

There is no valid reason why a guest needs the exact address long before their check-in date. It's reasonable for a guest to want to know the area and ask for the cross-streets. That way you can look at a Google map, go to street view, and see what the neighborhood looks like. If a host refuses to even tell you the nearest cross-streets, then you would have a real reason to be upset about that.

[Christine615]

I think he needs to call customer service and report the host. Or do it through the platform. It's pretty clear the host cancelled to raise the price. Under Airbnb policy, those dates should then be blocked. Or the host should be kicked off the platform.

[Anonymous]

@Grégory38  When a host asks you to cancel, you can be sure that the booking isn't going to work out. Best thing to do is call customer service right away - if they see in the record that party A demanded party B to cancel, they will process it as though party A was the one who cancelled and apply appropriate penalties.

Well, at least that's how they've traditionally done it. Customer service can be unpredictable these days.

[Norma543]

This has just happened to me in our first time trying airbnb.  After 1 month our host cancelled for 'private reasons'.  Now the listing has the same dates open at triple the price.  I called customer service to report this after reading this conversation.  It's a new listing and  I was told the host can do that once and then 'penalties' can be implemented if they do it again.  They  would not block off the dates so this guy will probably get away with it though, of course, I hope he gets stung!  If he does the same thing again then they would block the dates and the 3rd time they would cancel his listing.  So much for integrity and that allows 2 guests to have their plans messed up.