Why am I getting high pressure phone calls from Airbnb to cancel guest reservations?

[Caleb1]

Airbnb's lack of consistency and direct manipulation of its cancellation policies is getting really frustrating.  Twice we've had Airbnb forcefully refund a guest reservation against the stated cancellation policy and today they're trying it a third time.

My cancellation policy is set to Moderate, up from the lenient settings after numerous "my dog is sick," "my friends bailed on me" etc short term cancellations from first time users of the platform.

Today I get a call from an Airbnb rep trying to force me to cancel a guest reservation without any communication from the guest because "their flight got canceled and they can't make it to the funeral."  The guest communication clearly states "Me and some friends are coming to Colorado to party in the mountains and enjoy some cold weather".  Airbnb didn't even bother to validate guest communication before calling me.  After politely declining four times to cancel and fully refund the reservation I got pretty pissed.  I repeatedly told the Airbnb rep that if the guest cancels I would gladly open up the dates and refund any portion of a rebooking.  The Airbnb rep (according to the guest) never contacted them back.  They haven't canceled and are even less likely to benefit from a rebooking.

The Airbnb rep was exceedingly unprofessional IMO, working everything from guilt trip, veiled threats of Superhost status and my 'hospitality responsibility'.  If Airbnb wants to offer travel guarantees or insurance or whatever else as an option great, but its totally ridiculous that a rep is calling a host to ask them to cancel a guest's reservation, then putting high pressure tactics on them when them are simply adhering to the stated cancellation policy for both groups.  Even more ridiculous when I offer a simple resolution, to have the Airbnb rep not communicate that back to the guest in a timely fashion.  Now everyone's pissed.

We are nearly 4.5 year host, Superhost status every single quarter since we started, 4.9+ review status and averaging 340 days/year booking.  The guest?  2 previous bookings.  Not cool.

[Huma0]

@Caleb1 

I feel your frustration. This sort of thing hasn't happened to me in a while, but I remember having to really battle with Airbnb CS over wrongly refunded reservations a couple of years ago. I am not talking about people who cancelled within the then COVID extenuating circumstances policy, but those outside of it, i.e. guests getting refunded for nights they already stayed with me (up to two weeks at a time) because of COVID. What the ...???

I experienced a lot of the same tactics from CS. It took me a month of sheer determination and endless phone calls and emails to get my payouts. Unfortunately, you have to waste a lot of time, energy and stress on this and I can see why some hosts simply give up and cave in.

I found it most effective to just continually message them back copying and pasting their own policies. Over and over...