guests guilt tripping us about sticking to our cancellation policy

[S14]

Just wondering if other hosts are experiencing this and how you're handling it.

Obviously, anyone initiating a booking after March 14th is well aware --super aware -- that they are making plans in the middle of a global pandemic. As such, obviously there are risks (duh). We are all living in a time of great uncertainty. It's actually hard for me to understand why anyone would book any travel at all during this time, unless it's for emergency travel.

We are in NYC. We have had a surprising number of people booking vacations here lately. Bizarre, because nothing is open except some limited outdoor dining -- no museums, no theater, no nightclubs, no tourist attractions. What are these people thinking?

Anyway, we are so strapped for income since the pandemic began -- and since Airbnb decided not support hosts during this crisis - so if someone wants to book with us and if they agree to all our house rules and our cancellation policy -- and if they don't have any bad reviews -- we're not turning them away. Of course, we do all the enhanced cleaning.

NY State initiated a travel advisory about 2 1/2 months ago, which is updated literally every few days. It is public. Easy to find on a simple internet search. (Would you book travel during a worldwide crisis without doing a quick search first? Who would do that?)

Anyway, we are having a rash of people cancelling and demanding full refunds. We always apologize but refer them to Airbnb Support. We tell them that we will abide by Airbnb's decision in case Airbnb decides that their situation fits into the Extenuating Circumstances policy. Generally, these cancellations do not fit. Even when it's crazy last minute, we (graciously IMO) offer them penalty free alterations to any date in the future, as long as we're available and as long as their new dates meet our minimum and maximum stay durations. Sometimes, the date change happens. Fine. We even give them our current pandemic era reduced prices for future dates, knowing that we might be back up to full rates by then. Some people are fine with that. But, it's shocking how many dig into hard core guilt tripping. Hey, we lost almost all our income since March. They took a risk for the cost of one vacation. And most importantly, they absolutely agreed to our cancellation policy when they booked. So, why all the guilt tripping?

And Airbnb seriously makes it worse. In virtually every canned message to guests about these sorts of (or all?) cancellations, they specifically suggest that the guests ask the hosts for a full refund. Why??? So, Airbnb makes the host into the bad guys. Why doesn't Airbnb back us up?

This has become quite unpleasant. Not to mention that the constant bickering style messages from the guests is taking many many hours of time. I hate this.

Times are hard for everyone. Why are hosts suddenly scapegoated? Not fair.

[Seth157]

I agree. Already seeing this where airbnb do whatever the guest wants. I have had a guest book for 30 days, stay for 6, complain on day 6 (never said ANYTHING before hand and I asked if she was all ok) and airbnb rolled over, gave the guest back their money and then for the nights she stayed worked everything out based on the discounted rate and wouldn't listen to me when I pointed out that the guest paid based on a monthly discount. I even offered to move the guest to my weekly deal (which isn't as big a discount), even though the guest wasn't staying all week and Airbnb wouldnt budge. 

[S14]

@Seth157 - That's horrible. I'm shocked by how inconsiderate some guests are -- and then even more shocked every time Airbnb utterly fails to protect hosts or even to simply be fair. They have become more and more and more one-sided, only helping guests, almost never helping hosts. Horrible,

[Huma0]

@S14 

I agree with you and, yes, I think that a lot of Airbnb reps are trying to push the blame onto the hosts, so that Airbnb can come out unscathed by refunding at the hosts' expense.

Be cautious though. You say, "We always apologize but refer them to Airbnb Support. We tell them that we will abide by Airbnb's decision in case Airbnb decides that their situation fits into the Extenuating Circumstances policy. Generally, these cancellations do not fit."

However, please bear in mind that any guest, regardless of their circumstances, can simply 'attest' to qualifying for extenuating circumstances and receive a full refund, without providing any proof, as long as they accept Airbnb credit instead of cash. Airbnb get to hold onto the funds in the meantime. If the guest uses the credit, they still get their fees as well as the extra interest they earned. If the guest doesn't get round to using it, which will happen in a lot of cases, they get to keep it all. Meanwhile, the original host receives nothing.

So, it's a win-win for Airbnb and I believe, therefore, that it is likely they are encouraging guests to go down this route.

I don't know what to suggest, other than trying some sort of communication early on with the guests to try to avoid these types of situations, whether that is on your listing or, what I believe might work better, in a message to the guests when they book/request to book. I.e. remind them that they have a 48 hour period in which to cancel penalty free, after which the stated cancellation policy will apply. Stress that bookings made after 15th March do not qualify for Airbnb extenuating circumstances and that they should understand that after the 48 period, they are entering into a legally binding contract.

It sounds a bit heavy handed and I am sure there are better ways to phrase it, but it might deter the flaky ones. After all, why are these people even booking these holidays right now if they have any sense that they will lose money by cancelling. They are simply assuming that the normal cancellation policies will not apply and they'll get all their money back regardless due to COVID. They need to be reminded that is not the case!

[S14]

@Huma0  I really appreciate your response. I am seriously thinking about everything you said in order to modify our pre-booking inquiry response.

You wrote:"However, please bear in mind that any guest, regardless of their circumstances, can simply 'attest' to qualifying for extenuating circumstances and receive a full refund, without providing any proof, as long as they accept Airbnb credit instead of cash." -- Wow, I certainly didn't know that!

I had been given the impression by Airbnb support that they always require documentation when guests make a claim for Extenuating Circumstances. Of course, Airbnb constantly changes its policies, never notifies hosts when they do that, and also most Support personnel have no idea what they're talking about. Sorry to say all that, but sadly it's true.

Someday, and it will probably be soon, someone will get smart and start a new platform. If that happens, if it's done well, I suspect a lot of hosts will move over. We are already cross listed on Vrbo but we rarely get any bookings there, just a lot of scammers. They need to do better PR and slick up their system interfaces a bit.

[Huma0]

@S14 

I am afraid it is true. I called Airbnb to ask about this a while back. I had a guest who wanted to cancel but was not covered by the EC policy as it was written at that time. His dates weren't covered, there were no restrictions to prevent him from coming and I knew he was not sick. He told me himself that he just preferred not to take the trip.

However, as he was so determined to get a full refund (seemed to think I would get compensated anyway, even though I repeatedly told him this was not the case), I was sure he would get in touch with Airbnb. So, I called them to see where I stood.

The rep confirmed that this guest did NOT qualify for EC but when I asked her to confirm that guests who do qualify must provide evidence, she said yes, or they could attest to it. I asked her what did she mean by 'attest' and she said they must 'officially' tell Airbnb that they qualified, but all that meant was they had to put it in a message. No other evidence was required.

I thought this was totally bizarre, but that is exactly what the guest ended up doing. He told me that he had cancelled citing health reasons to Airbnb. The booking on my side automatically changed to £0. I only found out later that Airbnb was offering refunds as credit if the guest 'attests' rather than provides evidence. So, literally ANYONE can get around EC requirements if they know how this system works.

[S14]

@Huma0

Wow, that is so interesting. I had not been aware of this "attest with credit" option until reading of it in this message thread. Thank you for sharing.

Of course if a guest is given a travel credit due to cacnelling a reservation with me, I would rather they use the credit to book with me later rather than someone else. So -- From my perspective, this validates my current MO of offering to approve a date change for sometime in the future, so there are no penalties for anyone. Yes, it's true they can then cancel the new dates. However, I honestly don't mind if they cancel dates that are far in advance. It's the last minute cancellations that are driving me crazy -- really creating a lot of problems.

I wish Airbnb would implement some kind of incentive for guests to cancel sooner rather than later. During this Covid madness, once a guest realizes they are not getting their money back, since it is less than two weeks before the checkin date, they are getting seriously angry with the hosts. SO, there is this passive-aggressive routine where they tell me they're going to cancel and then they intentionally wait until like 10 minutes before checkin -- dragging the painful process out for the full two weeks or so. There is no incentive for them to  move faster, and some of these people just don't care what problems they are creating for other people by waiting. Some of them want to create problems as retribution. 

We use the Airbnb "strict" policy where the 50% refund only applies if they cancel more than two weeks ahead. But there is no difference between cancelling at day 13 (in advance) or at day 0. The penalty should be steeply graduated.

Also, I feel that -- under any circumstances - when a cancellation is less than 2 days before the host's standard check in time, there should not be a refund of the cleaning fee.  We can't cancel willy nilly with the housekeeper on such short notice, so we end up out of pocket every time. That's part of paying a "living wage" to housekeepers -- reliability goes both ways.

I hope someone in Airbnb reads these things.

[Huma0]

@S14 

That's an interesting point about the graduated cancellation fee. Not a bad idea, but I think that a lot of guests would find it difficult to grasp. Many of them don't seem to understand the fairly simple policies that currently exist.

Of course, none of this would be so bad if Airbnb was tempting guests to accept a travel credit to book in future with the host they are cancelling on. What makes me so mad is the fact that they are taking this income from us and they must know full well that a lot of those guests will never end up using that credit. So, why do those accommodation fees not come back to us, the host? Why do they end up in Airbnb's coffers?

If the guest doesn't use the credit, they are basically paying Airbnb not only the service fees but the money they were supposed to pay to us. It's not just the stay (some would argue no stay = no pay) but the fact that the calendars are tied up, sometimes for months, preventing other bookings. It's also not like we don't put any time into the process prior to a guest's stay. There is often a lot of correspondence etc. to deal with, even more when cancellations are involved. This current policy of Airbnb's seems like daylight robbery to me.

You are right in that the guests generally have no concern for blocking our calendars as they just see as making 'free money' anyway, so if we don't get another booking, why should it matter? On top of that, Airbnb is encouraging guests to wait until their stays qualify for COVID-19 EC which seems to be extended for two weeks at a time and always at short notice. Hosts really are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I also don't mind guests rescheduling for much later, but already I have a guest who rescheduled from June to September, which was fine, but now her stay is becoming imminent and Airbnb have since extended the EC to cover her dates, so I have no idea if she will cancel super last minute now, but suspect that she will because she can do so with a 100% refund. I did not agree to her rescheduling on that basis. I agreed because she didn't qualify for a refund at the time and I was trying to be kind!!

[Debra300]

@S14, @Huma0,

Airbnb isn't fully transparent with the guests regarding the redemption of the vouchers.  There have been quite a few postings where people were surprised to find out that the vouchers can only be used on one stay.  Imagine a person with a $1000 voucher uses it on a stay that costs $500 thinking that they can use the $500 balance on future stays only to find out that the voucher is valid for just a single use.  Airbnb really has pocketed a nice sum, the service fee on the original booking, $1000 for a $500 stay, and the host commission fee.

[S14]

@Debra300

Yes, that's the story with all the AIrbnb travel vouchers, not just the ones issued for cancellations. There have been a few times when Airbnb gave me vouchers to compensate for some problem. They are always in amounts too high for me to use. I have asked them if they could break it down and give me $50 vouchers. The answer is always no.

You see, even before Corona, i haven't been able to travel except to see my mother who is 98. I only need to stay one night along the way. I'm pretty sure they disclose that the vouchers are only good for one trip -- but they probably don't disclose it at the time they offer the vouchers -- so people don't know what they're agreeing to. It's only in the fine print. No transparency at the appropriate time. I'm not surprised there are people upset about that, feeling tricked, which they were.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

Yes, that's true. I hadn't thought about that but I guess Airbnb will often be making money even when guests do try to use the credit. I am sure they are not explaining these details when giving guests the option, or maybe it is in the small print somewhere that no one reads...

[Mark116]

@S14  It's a nightmare.  We've only had 2 total post COVID reservations, one just cancelled and the other one is going to be in the running for worst guests of all time and this is before we even see the state of the apartment after check out tomorrow.

So, I would stick to your guns.  Keep turning it back to Airbnb, hosts don't even get payment until the reservation has started, Airbnb handles all refunds according to the cancellation policy, you aren't able to waive or otherwise make changes to the policy, but will abide by whatever Airbnb determines is correct, blah blah.

[Hilary79]

Be careful when changing dates.  If the new reservation date yields a larger cancellation payout, the guest can changes the dates and once approved by you, cancel the reservation.  It's happened to other hosts and is a loophole in their system.

Best of luck!

@S14 

[S14]

@Hillary79 -- thanks for that. I didn't think of that before. But, honestly, if they cancel far in advance of the checkin date, I don't care. The big problem for us is last minute cancellations.

[Debra300]

@Hilary79,

You make a great point.  Here's the link: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50/as-a-host-how-do-i-make-a-change-to-a-confirmed-reservation.

Changing an arrival date can enable the guest to cancel, and get a full refund of the nightly rate and any applicable fees.

A new arrival date may give the guest an opportunity to cancel and get