How long until Airbnb support reply to me?

[Karen2692]

Hi
please can someone help or advise me. 

I have had no reply from Airbnb support, they have blocked out my calendar for last weekend in half term (which is also Halloween) due to a cancellation I believe I was allowed to make. 

I have only been hosting for a couple of months and had qualified for super host status on first of October. However I have had to cancel a guest and now my cancellation rate is 4%. The guest booked for one person then immediately after they had paid it turned out that one person wasn’t coming and she has actually booked for her 17-year-old brother to celebrate his 18th birthday and five of His friends. I did give her the option for one of the boys to make the booking themselves (before I knew they were 17 and it was a birthday) but obviously they can’t have an Airbnb account as they are underage. I checked she would get all her money back before I cancelled and I thought I checked I was ok to do so with no penalties. 
I have instant booking on.
many help or advice would be appreciated 

thank you

karen 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Karen2692 You will have to try calling Airbnb support.The phone number is in a post pinned to the top of the help section in this forum

[Karen2692]

Hi and thank you for reply. 
I rang  the uk help number but which ever option You press they will only consider helping you if your query concerns a   booking/cancellation Which is in the next three days. If you can’t give the date of the booking or you put a date in more than 3 days ahead the phone Cuts off. 
they suggest you use the Airbnb support page which I have done several days ago, without a reply! 
any other ideas please 😬 

[Helen3]

Try them on their social media @Karen2692 

Third party bookings are not allowed nor under 18’s to book. I can’t understand why they didn’t allow you to make a penalty free cancellation when you contacted them about what I presume was an IB? 

best of luck  

[Helen350]

@Karen2692 You may have dodged a bullet there Karen... Your listing wisely says 'No parties' - but I can't believe 6 x 17-18 yr olds were NOT going to party!

I can only suggest opening a case with CS via  the messaging & politely pleading your case as a new host, who made a rookie mistake in cancelling yourself, when you should have asked CS to do so, being a booking outside terms & conditions... Ask if they would override the 'cancellation' from your side, as you thought you were doing the right thing by stopping a) a 3rd party booking, and b) an underage booking. Good Luck!

(It will be wonderful if CS override & you get Superhost status..... But if not, just rest in the relief that you did not get your house trashed by 17 year old party goers!) 

[Karen2692]

@Helen350  Thank you for your kind and sensible advice. In the end Airbnb did take away the penalties they had imposed and this restored my superhost status! When I look back I think I was over worrying about it, but it’s just so frustrating when you feel you are powerless to change these automatic decisions !! 
My next challenge was to stop people checking in on Christmas Day which seems impossible unless you block off the day which I didn’t want to do. My situation has been solved by someone booking from 23rd for a week but I think these things should be easier to manage!! 
thanks again 

[Nick86]

I had to wait a month to hear anything. They are blaming covid but 8 months on this is clearly a business decision. If anyone could work from home it is airbnb support, not to mention bookings would have fallen through the floor.

they treat us like garbage

[Niklas24]

I sent a message to support on 2 September and have received no reply yet. Fortunately, my request wasn't urgent. Perhaps someone actually looked at my message and concluded it was a low priority. If that didn't happen, it means that AirBnB has a crazy backlog of support tickets that they are not able to handle in any reasonable time frame.