How does free cancellation for 48 hours work with Instant book?

[Melodie-And-John0]

I had a first time Airbnb guest Instant booking that showed up 2 hours after they booked,  a very young couple, a baby with an extra guest and a 12 pack of beer.  I should have turned them away right then.  But instead I asked them to update the booking to reflect the 3rd person and they went up to their suite.  They left 2 hours later, left the doors open so I looked into the suite and they had filled garbage cans with food leftovers and wrappers, used the bathroom and mussed up the beds but not much else and when I went out near where they parked, there was a half empty beer can sitting there.  I suspected they werent going to return but because they didnt say a word, I had to assume they could.  The whole thing smelled funny so I sent a text to the Help desk with description, pics and asked them to note my concerns (They never answered, thats another thread) we went to bed.  Last night i got a request to cancel while I slept-

"the house smelled like something that wasn’t very good for a 8 month to be around. So we left at 730pm. We live over an hour away. So we would like a refund at least most of my payment. & also you do not have it advertised you Guys live there and with a dog! Or else we wouldn’t have even tried to do this one!"

I will say, our rooms do have a disinfectant Lysol/ Clorox like hint in the air with the new guidelines for prep but nobody has ever complained of a bad smell.  And yes we do say we have a dog and we live in the home in our own sepaerate suite but obviously they didnt look at the rules and disclosures as I asked them to do before accepting them. I think they were coming to the country to party and didnt fully read the listing to see we live here.   If we werent here, we probably would have had a few more visitors before the night was over!!!!! 

5:00 this morning, I was overly gracious and gave them a 20% ($21.00) refund, that was before the coffee kicked in and now Im now fully fired up, pissed and wired, she should have gotten nothing!  I immediately got a  "We've issued you a payout of $4.32." email, about $84.00 short of a happy meal!   They cancelled a single night mid booking for reasons that dont exist, is this part of their Cancellation policy update Airbnb inserted "Free cancellation for 48 hours".  If thats the case, my most liberal "cancel up to 24 hours before check-in and get a full refund, minus the service fee" just became more lucrative for guests. 

I updated the as of now 1 way chat mail to the service/ help desk to reflect the situation, I will let you know how that goes!   Argh!!!!!!  Stay well, JR  

[Emilia42]

@Melodie-And-John0 Wow, definitely annoying on all accounts. 

I attempted to book one of your listings for today (June 14). 

The guest should not have gotten a refund, at least not for a one night stay.

Also, did you know that when booking your house rules are hidden behind a 'see more rules' link, so it doesn't surprise me at all that these guests didn't see anything about your dog or that you live on the property. 

One of the most valuable pieces of Airbnb advice that I think a host can give is NOT to take last minute/day-of bookings. At the very least not through an instant book. So many things can go wrong.

[Melodie-And-John0]

Thank you for checking that @Emilia42 , its interesting to know about the non generic rules being hidden in a drop down.  Changes they have made to the way the listings navigates and limitations of viewing large quantities of info on a phone are not helpful as is this being her first time using the system.  Just a quick update, She wasnt happy with my $21.00 offer and asked for more about an hour ago, I let her know in about 4 nicely worded  paragraphs why that wouldnt be happening and told her to "Stay well".  

[Emilia42]

During these "new" times, I hope that Airbnb is revaluating their refund policy. Literally nothing can be "returned" right now even after being touched. If a guest enters a space and spends time there, that space now has to be completely disinfected and sanitized. Creating a ton of extra cleaning costs to simply turnover the space even if the guest was only there for an hour. Who will pay for that? I had a customer at my family's store try to return a mask because after trying it on it was too small. She suggested I wash it and sell it to someone else. I suggested she wash it and gift it to a family member. I had no problem telling her absolutely not.

[Melodie-And-John0]

Exactly @Emilia42 , There was something strange about this pair and their extra that I couldn't put my finger on, maybe a little dueling banjos stuff going on.  It didnt feel right from the first short and miss spelled request she sent or the second when she wasnt sure if she sent the first.   I was weak, the space was empty and ready to go but I really needed to drill down deeper with the inquisition due to her "First time" Airbnb Guest status.  I wont slip up again, one more time like this and there will be no more first timers at Bearpath Lodging cause Im too old to be the one whos dime and time the learn on!   

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Melodie-And-John0 the free cancellation does not apply for bookings made at the last minute so should not have applied to your situation

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 , I didnt think so, but the two are right beside each other in the details of the booking so that could be very confusing.  

[Melodie-And-John0]

Almost three weeks now 2 tickets, 3 phone calls and 3 escalations yet no resolution and Im about to be forced into publishing my review and having her BS slammer put on one of my listings that has nearly perfect reviews for 4 years.  Im not happy @Stephanie , when they let go 25% of the workforce, was it all on the Customer Service Lines?   If so, they may not have any customers to service soon if this is how they handle emergent issues going forward, its very frustrating getting a popup notice that you will be helped in the next 5 minutes and nearly 3 weeks later I am still waiting....

[Stephanie]

So sorry @Melodie-And-John0 , let me take a look with the team for you - will update here.

[Yadira22]

I'm sorry (@Melodie-And-John0 ) you are going through this and I have read so many bad things recently about the decrease in customer services by Airbnb, based on one specific post (can't remember which) it looked as if the majority of the staff let go last month belonged to this sector.  I can only imagine the extra strain this has created for the remaining team, especially when considering COVID-19 related cancellations, refunds and so forth.

Personally, given how much emphasis is put on the host to be guardians of their spaces (eg. we can only host groups belonging to a single household in the UK from July 4th), I  would suggest you get off IB at least till everything has become a bit more stable. Hope you get it sorted out and maybe never make a decision until the coffee kicks in. 

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Yadira22 , @Stephanie , @Emilia42 , @Mike-And-Jane0 , I have good news to report, A nice lady named Kat from the support team messaged me 

After a thorough examination, we determined that the content didn’t contain enough relevant information to help the Airbnb community make informed booking decisions. For this reason, we have removed XXXX review.

She is #1 to me!   I complain if something is wrong but wont hesitate to say if something is right.  Kat showed me that there was a person ready to look and listen and thats all we hoped for!   Thank you Steph if anything you might have done behind the scenes helped resolve this!!!!!   Its all good, god bless and stay well, JR

[Yadira22]

congrats @Melodie-And-John0 !! 🙂