Long term stays

[Kirsten287]

Hello! I have a guest that booked with me back in December 2021 for a stay spanning from 2/6 - 5/24. On March 17th she decided she was only going to stay until 4/9, which opened up my calendar unexpectedly.  I was going to charge her a cancelation fee as she had my calendar held and booked for several months,  but Airbnb is telling me I can't do that because she sent me a date revision request and I accepted it.  What would have been the appropriate course of action for me to take? Should I assume I'm out the money if I decide to take on long term stays and this happens? Thank you in advance for any input!

[Anonymous]

@Kirsten287  You had the option to decline the revision request and maintain the notice period that's stipulated in the long-term cancellation policy. But since you accepted it, it's not considered a cancellation - just a change. You can't pull a random cancellation fee out of your butt just because it feels unfair.

You're definitely out the money in this case, though I hope you can get replacement bookings to earn it back. You might consider a shorter maximum stay, since Airbnb is not really designed for long-term stays anyway.

[Kirsten287]

@Anonymous , thank you for taking the time to explain! I wasn't exactly sure how to differentiate between a cancelation and an alteration, so this was a big lesson.  I appreciate the clarification,  and it's helpful to hear that Airbnb is not designed for long term stays.  We will revisit what we approve as far as our length of stay.