YOU CAN CANCEL GUESTS STAY'S AT ANYTIME

[Steven1390]

Hi All!

I wanted to let you guys in on a secret that i figured out through an air  BnB i stayed at called "SeattleVacationHomes", owned by Andy and Lynne, who threatened to call the police on me during my stay and have me jailed for "tresspassing".

After dealing with Air BnB I've come to find out this is completely ok, and from the various yelp reviews, they have been doing this for a long time!

I've spoken to air BnB who has told me hosts can accept stays and cancel them at any time for any reason, even after collecting the money.

So i wanted you guys to know this, if you're ever in a financial pinch, you can just scam people and Air BnB has your back!!!

Just wanted to spread the word!

[Steven1390]

As a side note -- we were exceptionally respectful to the house, and myself and my 5 guests (Family i was visiting), sad in a circle in the living room all night, to make sure we wouldn't case any drama.  So you can really just cancel for no reason at all.

Go make that money yall!

Thank Andy and Lynne from seattlevacationhomes.com  for the scam!!

[Huma0]

@Steven1390 

I'm intrigued why you included this information:

---

@Steven1390 wrote:

myself and my 5 guests (Family i was visiting), sad in a circle in the living room all night, to make sure we wouldn't case any drama. 

---

So, by that, do you mean that your 'guests', i.e. the 'family you were visiting', were not actually registered guests on the property, but you invited them there anyway and just expected the host to be okay with that?

[Steven1390]

@Huma0 No they were on the reservation.

I included that information because i was going to go into great detail about how her original offer was for me to leave the property, and for her to give me a full refund.

Unfortunately we had taken two Ubers and a train to get there so that was not an option.

[Mark116]

@Steven1390   Sorry, I can't really follow this.  So, you stayed somewhere, where you were very respectful to ensure 'no drama' but your host cancelled you?  Seems like there is more to the story.

But, you are misinformed.  When hosts cancel unless there is significant proof of guest poor or illegal behavior, the host is penalized and the guest is refunded.  The guest is often still refunded unused nights even when their poor or illegal behavior is documented.  That said, of course a host can cancel if they are willing to take the penalty, that's common sense, just as a hotel or concert can always be cancelled.  Refunds may vary.

[Steven1390]

@Mark116 The amenities i paid for didn't work, including the AC and the TV.

When I let the host know she gave me the option to leave for a full refund.

I told her that leaving wasn't an option -- due to taking extensive public transportation to get there (was visiting my family and didn't have a car).

To this she replied that she would be canceling my reservation and have me reported as tresspassing.

I was not refunded, because i stayed the night. She did indeed, not cancel, but i spent the night waiting for the police to arrive, and paid the $500 fee regardless.

Air BnB has refunded me $40 dollars for the broken amenities which is obviously not what i care about at this point.

[Emiel1]

@Steven1390 

This is unlikely, as when a host cancels a reservation, there are several penalties:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/host-cancellation-policy

Also the guest is refunded.

[Steven1390]

@Emel1  

I was not refunded, because i stayed the night. She ended up not canceling, but i spent the night waiting for the police to arrive and paid the $500 fee regardless.

Air BnB has refunded me $40 dollars for the broken amenities which is obviously not what i care about at this point.

The fact that you can just cancel an Air BnB and all the sudden your guests are now tresspassers?   Seems easy enough to work that system!

[Huma0]

@Steven1390 

I am trying to get this straight. You arrived at the airbnb and reported to the host the broken/missing amenities. At this point, did you ask the host for refund/partial refund but still wanted to complete your stay? Or, did you ask the host to fix those amenities and she said she was unable to?

As others have said, hosts get heavily penalised (financially and otherwise) for cancelling guests, unless they can convince Airbnb that there is valid reason for a penalty free cancellation, but they would then end up not being paid for unspent nights. There are obviously policies in place to prevent hosts from scamming guests as you have claimed and those policies got even stricter earlier this year, so the fines for hosts are high!

What is the $500 fee you are referring to? Is it Airbnb's service fee? The accommodation fee and, if so, for the first night or for the whole stay?

If the host did not cancel and you did not cancel, then obviously you were not trespassing. Did the police come? What did they say? 

The whole thing seems very odd to me.

[Steven1390]

@Huma0 

I appreciate you trying to understand, and i'm sorry my original post was so convoluted. As you can imagine i was and am frustrated by the situation.

My stay was only for one night. We wanted a place for my whole family (6 of us who were all placed and accepted on the Air BnB reservation.)

The $500 is what I paid in total for my 1 night Air BnB -- to get threatened by the host and sit by the door all night waiting for the police, who did not come.  The host threatened to cancel and never did.  I wasn't aware I could also cancel on my end. Air BnB did not give me that information.

I still don't understand how accepting a reservation, then threatening to cancel and call the cops on your guests who have done nothing wrong is OK by any means.

[Huma0]

@Steven1390 

Yes, it does sound a bit extreme. I am assuming the host overreacted when you complained. Either she did not accept that the amenities were not working and thought you were scamming her for a free stay, or she could not fix them in time as you were only there for one night and decided to cut her losses. Threatening to call the police, especially without cancelling the reservation, seems extreme.

Did the communication with the host become heated at all? I am trying to understand why the host would behave this way. It doesn't sound to me like she was scamming you. That doesn't make sense for the reasons stated already. Some people can take it very personally when their guests complain, so it might be that...

[Steven1390]

@Huma6 

I agree, which is why I'm so upset about this.  I feel like I got scammed out of my $500, paying for a night of fun which ended in a night of worry.

My Air BnB reviews are great, i've completed many stays and never had an issue so i don't get why she would jump directly to me trying to scam her??

Things did start to get heated after she offered me the option to leave.

I told her i found it disrespectful that her only solution was to have my family and i leave the house after spending 3 hours and $30 to get there (2 trains and an uber), also it was 8:30PM in a neighborhood that i've never been in, and i was with my 3 young sisters, and my elderly grandmother.

[Steven1390]

@Huma0 

Another unfortunate part of this is that the review of my stay won't be posted unless she posts one for me on Air BnB.

If you go to yelp-- she has plenty of terrible reviews, but on Air BnB they are all good reviews.  It should be illegal to hide reviews in this way.

[Steven1390]

@Huma0   

Considering the multitude of terrible reviews on yelp that describe situations similar to mine, dating back pretty far now --- It's really hard for me not to believe this isn't a scam.

One bad experience like this -- maybe i'm just a liar and a bad guest.

10?     20?    I mean how does she keep getting away with it......

[Huma0]

@Steven1390 

No, that's not true. The review process is 'blind', which means your review for her does not appear until either she has posted one for you, or after 14 days. That means, if she doesn't post one, yours will appear anyway, once the deadline has passed. That is, unless she convinces Airbnb to remove it, but it's actually very tricky to get a review removed unless it violates Airbnb's content policy.

When you say there are 10, 20 similar reviews on Yelp, you mean for this specific host?