My reservation canceled after 6 weeks

[Greg1603]

6 weeks after confirming our reservation the host cancelled our reservation due to lack of information on my profile.  We are new to Airbnb so didn't even realize this was possible.  But what bothers us is the 6 weeks it took the host to cancel.  Now the alternative properties we were looking at are booked so we are out of luck.  Is there any Airbnb rule about the length of time it takes for a host to cancel?  

[Emiel1]

@Greg1603 

A host can cancel a reservation at any time for any reason. But cancellation means also facing penalties like blocked dates (no able to rebook them), a fine etc. So a host will not easily decide to cancel a reservation. Maybe there were other reasons and you just had bad luck.

[Greg1603]

Thanks for the info.  I guess the fine must not be very high, the host made no attempt to contact us.  And I just checked and the dates are available again.  The reason we were given for the cancellation was no profile info and no profile picture.  This would have been our first Airbnb rental so we have no reviews either good or bad.  But it is interesting to know that there is some incentive for the host not to cancel.

[Lisa723]

@Greg1603 the fine is $100. And there are a few other penalties. But the dates being open again indicates that the host contacted Airbnb and asked for special dispensation to cancel penalty-free, which really should not have been granted under this circumstance-- but Airbnb CS is unpredictable to say the least.  At minimum they should have contacted you and asked you to update your profile. Like @Emiel1  I suspect something else was the real cause, and the host used this as an excuse. Did you instant-book this property? Is the price now significantly higher than your booked rate?

I'm sorry this happened to you. This host was definitely not playing nice. In future you may want to look for bookings with "superhosts" -- this doesn't offer complete protection from cancellation, but it does offer some.

[Greg1603]

Thank you for that explanation.  The price looks to be the same as 6 weeks ago.  I guess I'll never really know what happened.  Since this was my first experience with Airbnb it does seem unlikely that I could trust Airbnb again.  The good news is it was a local trip so no airline or other costs involved.  The "superhosts" comment is helpful.  I would not have known to check for that.

It also seems unfortunate that I cannot leave a review for this host.  Since I never actually stayed at the property there's no way to leave a comment.  So this may happen to other people and there's no way to warn them.

[Lisa723]

@Greg1603 Right. Normally, there would be an automatic review saying "the host canceled this reservation X days before check-in". But that is one of the penalties that this host apparently evaded.

Another thing to note is that many hosts have become quite wary of bookings by locals, because of the party risk.

I hope you will try Airbnb again. If you do I would suggest proactively communicating with your host, with a booking message explaining a little about who you are and why you are booking, and offering to answer any questions they may have. And once you have a problem-free review or two, hosts will be more confident about you.

But again, cancelling a reservation six weeks after booking for no good reason is really not the norm, and this host behaved quite badly.

[Sarah977]

@Greg1603  Everyone starts out with no reviews, both guests and hosts.

But what you have to realize is that guests and hosts are complete strangers to each other. So when you are new to the platform and have no reviews, and the host sees that you have also not bothered to fill out any profile info (i.e. write a little blurb about yourself so hosts can get a sense of who you are),  nor uploaded any govt. ID, that can make a host wary of accepting.

This is not entirely guests' fault- Airbnb should be more pro-active in explaining this to guests when they open an account. They know darn well that hosts want info on guests, yet they ignore that and make it easy as pie for guests to book, leaving guests bamboozled as to why their booking got declined or cancelled.

I will say that in this case, it's very unusual for a host to cancel 6 weeks after you made the booking because of not enough info. Normally if a host had an issue with lack of information, they would either decline the booking to start with, ask you please provide more info, or cancel an Instant Book booking immediately  after it was made. This sounds like either a new, inexperienced host, or a pretty unprofessional one.

I have accepted guests with  no reviews and no verified ID, but their communication with me was friendly and informative and it was obvious they understood that booking an Airbnb, which is someone's home, is different from booking a hotel.

[Greg1603]

@Sarah977Yes, this has been a learning experience.  I did not know anything about Airbnb and this thread has helped a lot.  I didn't "bother" to fill out the profile because I did not realize it was important and would make a difference.  In general I avoid making personal information available on the internet.  I still don't see where I would provide an ID (let alone a verified ID).  I guess I should have learned more about what I was doing before making the reservation.  Most of all I didn't realize how the guest is at the whim of the host.  And I guess that's true the other way around also.  So I would agree that Airbnb could help to educate new guests.  But it still makes it hard to make a reservation and plan a vacation knowing that the host could cancel anytime for any reason, and apparently without any penalty.  In my case this was a surprise family reunion for my wife's 60th birthday (our three adult children and spouses and three grandchildren).  If the host had sent a simple message to me I would have provided anything she requested.  But apparently she couldn't be "bothered" either.  As it stands she hasn't respond to our email.

But thank you to everyone that has responded to my message.   It has been a learning experience.

[Sarah977]

@Greg1603  I really couldn't say why this host was able to cancel and the dates she cancelled show as open.

There are most definitely penalties for hosts for cancelling. If I were to cancel a reservation, this is what would happen:

My calendar would be blocked so I couldn't rebook those dates to anyone else +

I would be fined $50-$100+

I would lose my Superhost status+

A notice would appear on my review page saying "Host cancelled this booking XX days before check-in", which will make future guests wary of booking with me.

So it isn't in the least bit true that hosts can cancel bookings penalty-free and if this host was able to do so, she must have somehow been able to convince Airbnb that is was somehow warranted.

She has behaved very badly.

In the future, make sure to communicate with hosts before committing to a booking. Look for listings with good reviews, and preferably with hosts who actually manage their own listings, not use some property management company. If the host takes a long time to get back to you, or you don't feel good about the way they are communicating, take that as a red flag and move on to look for another listing.

And please don't take offense at my saying "not bothering to fill out profile info" . As I also said, I fault Airbnb for this. It should be their job to educate new guests as to what sort of things hosts look for when they get booking requests. 

I also hear you about not wanting to make too much personal information available online. What you may not realize is that a host looking at a guest's profile who has requested a booking really can't see all the information you may have made available to Airbnb. 

What we see is any reviews a guest might have, and just a list of what you have provided, but not the actual info. It will say "Phone number, email address, verified ID", but that's all. We don't get a guest's phone number until after a booking is confirmed, we never see your email address unless you specifically give it to us, we don't see what verified ID you provided. That's one of the reasons hosts like a guest to be a bit forthcoming- the info you give to Airbnb is not shared with hosts.

Nor do hosts see a guest's profile photo until after a booking is confirmed.

And your profile write-up doesn't have to be super personal. If I see a profile write up like "We are a mature, active couple who enjoy hiking, camping, and travelling. Our children are grown, so we are enjoying having time to do more of this now. As homeowners ourselves, we know how to respect others' homes ", that's not personal info that scammers would be interested in, but gives a host an idea of who they are dealing with.

[Colleen253]

@Greg1603 Everything Sarah has said is true but one thing to note is that hosts who have Instant Book enabled have some leeway to cancel penalty free with those bookings, within reason. If yours was an Instant Book, then that’s what was likely at play. 

[Sarah977]

@Colleen253  The thing is, the OP is a new guest. If the host was being truthful that they cancelled because of lack of verification ID and recommendations, why wouldn't the host have those requirements checked for IB? In which case, @Greg1603 would not have been able to IB.

So this is either a really bad host or a really discombobulated one. I could understand if the host got some message from the guest which disturbed them, or just noticed that the profile photo was of some young, half-naked party boy, but this is a mature couple who certainly wouldn't throw up any red flags for me.

[Colleen253]

The fact that six weeks elapsed before cancelling points to the host not being completely above board.

[Lisa723]

@Greg1603 this explains how ID verification works:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1237/verifying-your-identity

My instant-booking settings allow people with verified ID and previous host recommendations to book instantly without sending a request.

When I get a booking request from somebody with no verified ID and no previous host recommendation I reply asking them to verify their ID and explaining the procedure. When they do (and so far nobody has declined to do it) then I approve the request.

[Lisa723]

@Jody141 

[Jody141]

@Lisa723  I did send him an email referencing my house rules to have a profile photo and also requested that he verify his ID. I heard nothing back and it’s been 10 days. 
I was finally able to talk to Airbnb CS and she said she would also send him a message requesting that he add a photo but said that even though it’s in my house rules it’s not an Airbnb rule so they didn’t want to cancel it for me. 
It seems that the actions taken by the CS aren’t standardized. Very frustrated.