Host loses again!

[Robin4]

Here in Australia there has been a recent cluster of COVID-19 cases uncovered in a part of Sydney in NSW which resulted in the rest of Australia closing their borders with the Greater Sydney area until further notice.

Ironically I had a number of short duration bookings from Sydney guests over this festive season including 3 around the NYE period. Two of them have cancelled because travel to my state is now not possible without a 14 day quarantine period. One of them however, a booking for the night of NYE, the 31st, will not cancel, she is saying travel looks unlikely but, miracles do happen and will not cancel with Airbnb.

I have had an enquiry for a 3 night reservation over the New Year period from a guest not affected by the Sydney regulations but I am unable to proceed with that booking because of this confirmed one nighter that cannot proceed, yet the guest will not cancel.

I cannot get Airbnb's position on this and where I might stand if I cancel because, when I phone for support no matter what option I select I am directed to Airbnb's standard help pages which do not provide any assistance for this and I am not able to actually speak to anyone. And even more annoying it says..."If you are a host all the information is on your dashboard". No it's not, the only information on my dashboard tells me how to offer my listing cheaper.

It looks like Airbnb's position is, until the guest is personally informed officially by some government dept that her travel is not legally possible, her booking has to remain. I can cancel but could be subject to cancellation penalties. 

It looks very much like my possible 4 night window which has reopened to accept a reservation is compromised because of a booking in the middle of it which cannot proceed, and customer support are once again offering me none! 

Cheers........Rob

[Colleen253]

@Robin4 I'm sure you 've thought of everything.  Just throwing stuff out there. I guess posts like this make ALL of us antsy even though it isn't our issue atm. There but for the grace of god (will I be dealing with this next?). We feel the need to brainstorm and come up with solutions, if just to do something. I understand your post is really more about the CS issue though. Immensely frustrating.

[Lissa1710]

Hear, hear @Robin4 

[Anthony223]

which is exactly what I would do

[Pat271]

@Robin4- I wouldn’t confuse the situation by telling Airbnb that you have another potential booking that would take the place of this one.  That should be irrelevant as far as the legal necessity to cancel this current reservation. For all you know, the agent may have been trained to deny your request to cancel reservations if you imply that you might have a “better” one. Point them to the page I referenced above, the pertinent clause within that page, and the specific website that declares the restrictions in Sydney. Both guests of mine and the guests of hosts on this forum have had success with this type of approach.  It’s worth a try!

[Robin4]

@Pat271 

Pat I have not mentioned anything about another booking to Airbnb. That would be guaranteed to get me a bad response. The cardinal rule of Airbnb hosting is, you do not cancel a booking to chase a better one.

Although the bulk of my bookings are through Airbnb I do use other reservation sources as well and the other option I have for the dates in question is not with Airbnb. But that is not the point, I do not want to do the wrong thing by Airbnb but, what I have here is a reservation that is not going to be able to happen. She will simply leave the cancellation until the last minute in the hope that the current COVID situation will miraculously disappear and walk away with a sorry and get her money back. By that stage the guest I have waiting in the wings will have made other arrangements, nobody else is going to book with NYE blocked and I am the one that gets stiffed out of 4 nights.

Pat I would point them to a pertinent clause if I could get that far.....I can't get to talk with anyone, I just keep getting redirected to the help pages.

I will try Helen's approach and message them, but I am not optimistic, this is one of those times when support would be handy.....if it was available!

Cheers........Rob

[Lissa1710]

Hi Rob,

Could you not cancel the booking yourself? I know this will mean your calendar would be blocked but if you are also using another platform could you not then accept the new booking? I had a similar situation where I ended up doing the cancellation myself and my calendar is now blocked leaving me with no means of filling the dates 😞 I too have had no joy trying to resolve with Airbnb and it's infuriating.

[Kelly149]

@Robin4  book it on the other platform & wait for it all to come out in the wash. 

????

[Robin4]

@Kelly149 

Kelly I have been in the situation where I have had two confirmed reservations on my site for the same night....and I never want to go through that again!

@Anonymous  I have not asked the guest to cancel, I have just asked her to study the situation from both her state and from mine and to make a judgment call from there.

I would love to host her and her partner if it were possible, but it isn't. The fact that reservations around hers have collapsed and these dates have become available is not her fault.....she should not feel victimized or pressured to cancel because of my situation.

As I said in another post we are doing really well with COVID-19 here but, we are a hairs width  away from the next outbreak, and we are having to make the hosting rules as we go, I guess just like you are!

I want to be a great Airbnb host.....but the only thing that is getting the way is, Airbnb!

Cheers.......Rob

[Clare167]

Would it really be such a bad thing for you to cancel, @Robin4 , if all else fails? I bravely made my first ever cancellation, of a longstanding one nighter for 2 January, as I had developed a feeling that the wedding reception is not going to happen. There was no financial penalty. Plus, although that makes my cancellation rate 10% (apparently), this criterion for superhost has been waived, and according to the Performance tab, I am a superhost and on target to remain one. I am hoping that, if I get an automatic review, either I can reply to it or guests will be unfazed in the circumstances. If I ever re-list!

[Anonymous]

@Robin4  Putting myself in your guest's shoes, I would find it unfair if my booking were canceled before there was any confirmation that the travel restrictions would still apply on the arrival date. All future plans are speculative at best at this point - who knows, maybe next week a new outbreak will put the 4-night guest's region under lockdown too - but the logic of booking a place with a Flexible cancellation policy is that you have the luxury of waiting until the day before travel to see how the situation shapes up. 

I guess your best case scenario would be the government soon offering more clarity on the duration of the lockdown than just "until further notice." 

[John5097]

@Robin4 you can change your cancelation policy in your booking preferences. Unfortunately when a guest books its whatever policy was in place at their booking. I also changed to flexible and so far everyone has given me enough notice to rebook. I understand your eagerness not wanting to lose out on a few days booking, but at the same time, I can also understand that Airbnbn is more overwhelmed with host and guest wanting to change their canceleation policy and can understand if its a lower priority to cancel a booking so a host can rent it out on a different booking site. I am glad to hear others have been able to reach some one at CS for Airbnb. I'm concerned that if their is a real emergency like a drunk guest disrupting neighbors that I won't be able to reach anyone. I wish you luck communicating with the guest. If one of my guest mentions covid concern, I assure them that canceling isn't a problem at all but would apprecitate as much notice as possible so I can rebook the room. After that its up to them. If they cancel last day without any reason at all, only one has, and sure it was for what they tought was better deal,  I send a message to please not make another reservation. They also had a family of 4 and I only have 2 guest limit now. 

[John5097]

Sorry I meant to include every company and agency is overwhelmed right now. Guest aren't able to get IDs that are taking 4x longer. I also have expereinced very long wait times for federal IDs and access passes, buying anything, returns etc. Another option is not to host during these times. I don't think Airbnb will be able to keep up with the day to day changes in local Covid policies. That becomes a local enforcement. I wouldn't take any risk and would temporaly suspend my listing if I thought hosting guest would impose a risk.