Let's compare cancellation stories

[Kelly149]

So, ABB has put out new terms of service that are greatly curtailing the Extenuating Circumstances reasons - hooray!!!

In celebration, let's talk about our strangest cancellations, recent or otherwise:

This has been a month of cancellations here... 1. People from halfway across the country booked 6 weeks in advance to come here for "a memorial service", then cancelled after the free cancellation window closed, because they were concerned about "the covid situation" which is exactly the same then as it was when they booked. Weird, ok, I got some money.

2. A guest who was prevented by ABB from IBing for some reason, went thru a whole long convo with me, did indeed read my whole house rules, said all was well. And then a week later came back and said the rules were too strict & they needed to be at a place where they were free to host extra guests.  So they cancelled, and didn't ask for any extra back. Weird, ok, I got some money.

3. A guest says, week of the stay, that one member of their group has Covid so of course none of them can come, will I refund them? When I say, no, the cancellation policy will stand, she says "but how could I possibly know that one of us would get sick?" Umm, I don't know, have you seen the news on any given day in the last 6 months? They didn't cancel, didn't come and ok, weird, I got all the money.

@Inna22

[Kelly149]

@Debra300 Its like @@huma (dang it. Which huma is huma?!?) guest who kept booking over and over and getting canceled. 

yes @Ann72 hosting can make one despair at the intelligence level (or lack thereof) of the travel going public

[Debra300]

@Kelly149

Huma is the original here in the community. Her tag is @Huma0 .

[Ann72]

@Debra300  Brilliant!

[Huma0]

@Debra300 @Kelly149 

Sorry for the late response. My laptop broke and I haven’t been able to fix it so have been away from the CC for a while.

Yep, I had to cancel an instant booking from a non responsive guest. He booked with ‘I land at Heathrow’ as his only message and ignored all communication for the next few months. Funnily enough, as soon as I cancelled, he messaged and rebooked. Still, it didn’t matter how many times I asked him to answer basic questions. He just ignored them, so I ended up cancelling again and then he would book again. Finally, I told him I would absolutely not accept the booking and convinced home to cancel, but ten minutes later, his girlfriend booked instead. When caught out, she tried to pretend it was a coincidence but I was not having it, so another cancellation...

I have also had a third party instant booking which the guy refused to cancel, saying his friends couldn’t book because they cannot use Airbnb in China (nonsense). The first rep I spoke to also refused to cancel it for me, saying that although I was right that it was against Airbnb policy and that I would not be covered for it, it was still my ‘choice ‘ and there was no reason not to host these guests. She was a bit put out when I told her I was going to hang up so I could redial and get someone who knew what they were talking about.

[Laura2592]

We haven't had anyone cancel recently though there were a few that I wish would have....

We had people book and just not show up, no response when I emailed, nothing. Did not try to get their money back and never heard from them again. We got paid but I do think its weird. Maybe I watch too much true crime but I am expecting to see "Couple Goes Missing on the Way to Airbnb" one day.  Likely they got into a fight and decided not to come, or even forgot that they booked. 

[Ute42]

.

A guest had booked a november weekend for a total of 760 Euros. This was not an airbnb reservation but a direct sale and in such cases I get a 50% downpayment from guests into my bankaccount,  so I had 335 Euro in my bankaccount from these people already

Last friday the guest wrote to me:

• Good Morning Mrs. Ute
  
  unfortenately, due to new government regulations in Germany we have to cancel our stay from nov. 13 to 15.
  
  What happens to our 50% downpayment. Do we get that back or do we get part of it back?

On Sunday I had a phonecall with said guest

• Ute: You asked if You will get Your 50% downpayment back or part of it. What would Your proposal be?
  
  

• Guest: Maybe we can agree on half of it
  
  

• Ute: Agreed

So half of 50% would be 50% of 50% wich comes down to 25% of the rentalprice. This 50% of 50% rule was an airbnb invention at the height of the pandemic, when hosts got 50% of their 50% cancellation fee compensated by the company. Why not use this airbnb-invention for my own purposes?

But I was unsure if this was ok, bc. the legal situation in Germany is, that I would have to refund the entire 50% downpayment.

I thought, let's ask my fellowhost in Germany what they think about it, and today I opened a thread in the German Community Center entitled:

• About Moral and Ethics in Short Term Rentals

The question I asked my fellowhosts was:

• From a moral and ethical standpoint, is it ok to only refund a guest 50% of 50% despite the fact that the german law says, I have to fully refund 50%?

Also, I made this point:

• If I refund 167.50 Euros, the guest is happy and I am happy

• If I refund 335.00 Euro, the guest is happy but I'm not

So I made this poll and I said that I would proceed according to the result of the poll. Here are the results:

Under moral and ethical considerations, how much money should I refund to the guest?

			167,50 €	335,00 €
	1	Till	x
	2	Anja	x
	3	Sabine		x
	4	Udo	x
	5	Tamara	x
	6	Andrea	x
	7	Monika	x

Sorry for the guest, but now he's out 167.50 Euros. That wasn't my decision though.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Gastgeber-unter-sich/%C3%9Cber-Ethik-und-Moral-in-der-Kurzzeitve...

@Kelly149 @Laura2592 @Emilia42 @Ann72 @Debra300 

[Debra300]

@Ute42,

Would you have also agreed to rescheduling the stay if the guest had requested to do so?  I think that would have been more agreeable to me as a guest than losing 168 euros.

[Ute42]

.

@Debra300 

I asked the guest if he wants to reschedule but he said no. It's not that they wouldn't want to come back, they do. But it's almost useless in these times to agree to reservations way out. The situation in Germany is changing on a bi-weekly basis.

Also, it's not that one guest is losing 167.50 Euros, this is a group of 10 guys. So each of them is losing 16.75 Euros. They just don't care.

[Deedee3]

@Kelly149 @Laura2592 @Emilia42 @Ann72 @Debra300 @Ute42 

Ok, thought I'd pitch one in here as well.. 

We just had a recent cancellation (on 22nd of November) for a December 17 -20 stay by a guest who booked mid October, about a month ago.  Our cancel policy is Strict so they would normally have to pay a 50% cancel fee.  On the 21st, before cancelling they called in to let me know they needed to cancel (due to a guest having Covid?  - explanation wasn't clear ) and to ask how much they will be reimbursed.  I informed the guest of the 50% penalty and that as a courtesy we can offer a third of that fee as  credit towards a future stay.

Apparently they didn't like my offer as there was no reply and the booking was canceled one day later.  I immediately looked over the booking info and notice the Payout Total updated to $0 and the booking was Canceled by Admin.  Believing there's a glitch or someone (e.g., Airbnb rep) made an error here, I call support to straighten this out.  The agent proceeds to let me know the guest canceled due to extenuation circumstances and received a full refund.  When I asked for more detail, they could not tell me what these circumstances were stating guest's privacy. My understanding is that the latest EC policy applies if the guest or host have Covid.  If I didn't see the adjusted payout amount and call in, no one would have notified me of what transpired and why.

So I've been doing this for several years now and can accept there are extenuating circumstances at times. But these are different times.

After being crushed from having well over 100 of our 2020 reservations (made before March 14) cancel (which was practically all of them) and Airbnb covering 25% of the 50% cancel fee for March 14 - May 31 arrivals and then completely waiving our fee for every check in afterwards ( we recently had the last of these, 3 December bookings, cancel without penalty... the guest patiently waiting for the EC policy to update and cover them while our inventory was not bookable and basically held hostage for a year), I'd say I'm pretty upset. 

Sorry for venting, I just can't accept that Airbnb continues to do this at the host expense.  Thanks for listening.

[Kelly149]

Hoping you all had happy thanksgivings; we were sunny and 72 degrees so it was a very nearly perfect day. The cancellation show just keeps on trucking along here though.

- the guest this morning cancelled bc upon receiving her rental contract she realized that the notes in the listing that said "no additional guests" actually meant that she couldn't have her entire extended family popping in and out during her stay.

- the guest last week cancelled bc she was surprised that an infant and a toddler should be guests and she was offended that I was offended that they were traveling with their family of 9 people to attend children's team sport for an entire weekend-long event. Super spreader anyone...

- I've had half a dozen various "we'd love to stay for a really long time, so could you make it oh so much cheaper" inquiries, which are not exactly a cancellation, but still so much work to deal with what is essentially pointless communication.

- and then my favorite go away message was delivered to a guest who wanted to fly in from overseas and then lock himself in the Barn for 14 days and then go hang out with his elderly parents afterward. What in the world did he expect was going to happen if he were actually sick during those 2 weeks??

we're also a week out from 11/20 and my calendar isn't blocked yet... still waiting