safety of Airbnb hosts and resident guests

[Lesley439]

Airbnb allowed a guest to cancel a months booking during August as they said I hadn't added a policy of asking for ID on my listing.

This then was treated as a host cancellation 2 days after the guest failed to show.  Easy for a guest to sight anything as a reason to say the host is not giving the room/service expected and not allow hosts to refuse "dodgy guests"

How can asking for guest photo ID be an issue and against policy.  Surely this is a basic safety measure.    Im horrified to find some hosts don't require this and also that Airbnb would side with the guest.   Are Airbnb liable if an unidentified guest steals or attacks another guest?

So to protect my household and also existing guests I was fined and lost a months booking in peak season.

Airbnb seem to find it difficult to identify with the safety of guests and instead prioritise the revenue from guests who have a need to keep their ID secret.  People who cant use say a hotel for some reason.     Isnt it a basic courtesy that if Airbnb are going to cancel and fine they should inform the host immediately and not 2 days later and also ask the host their point of view.    Airbnb's customer service is both slow and poor and uses agents who spout policy without understanding it.  

Still havent had a proper response from Airbnb and this happened on 16 July.  

[Mark116]

@Huma0  We did our very first cancellation in 7  year yesterday, which thankfully although the CS person wasn't the best, did log it as a neutral cancellation.  The reason we requested the cancellation was because since she had booked the guest received a scathing 1.5 star review, stating she made false accusations to get out of paying various charges, left the house covered in dirty diapers and human waste and destroyed all the linens by eating in the beds. Yikes.  However, it appears now the real reason that Airbnb so 'graciously' cancelled her for us is that her f....g payment had NEVER GONE THROUGH. 

Her 'aunt' is now trying to book for the same dates and gave some explanation about the credit card being hacked [yeah sure], and how the niece now won't be on the trip [yeah sure].  So I am the same situation you were in where now I will have to deny the 'aunt' and hope no one else shows up from this same group.  The guest's profile is now gone also.

On topic...I thought/think you can ask for ID, but yes, the issue would be making a copy of it.  However, I think OP could have probably gotten that host cancellation reversed with a few calls and effort.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Phew, sounds like you definitely dodged a bullet there. Yes, I have had a similar situation with a guest whose IB was cancelled then got his girlfriend to try to book from a different account. Also, a guest who could IB due to a bad review try to request book from a different profile. 

Anyway, so far I have found it pretty easy to get IBs cancelled penalty free. It's one of the few things that I have actually found quite straightforward when dealing with CS. There was only one time when I got a CS rep who refused to do it (third party booking) and I simply told her I was going to hang up and redial to speak to someone else, which is what I did, and then it was sorted in minutes. 

I haven't needed to do that now for many months (last time was December) because I turned off IB around spring time, so maybe it has become tricker?

[Mark116]

@Huma0  This wasn't an IB, that's why it was more involved and we basically had to show cause.  I went back through the communications and there had been red flags all over the place.  Blank profile, only an email and a phone number.  We then went through a series of back and forth on questions found in the listing 'is the apartment attached to a house?'  'how do we get to the house from the airport' and so on.  We accepted her anyway with fingers crossed.  Then I was going through the calendar a few days ago and saw now she had a review.  And what a doozy it was.

I sent her a very polite message asking to confirm it was adults only and no children.  Thinking that if there is no infant maybe some of the problems outlined by her host will not exist and she might still be managed with a lot of effort and in person check in/check out, resending of the house rules, etc.  Of course, she never responded to that message.

Funny, though, within minutes, like 5 minutes, of Airbnb cancelling her reservation, she replied about how she missed the earlier message [yeah sure] and could she still confirm.  Ah, no.  You can't.  

Her 'aunt' has not responded today to my requests that she withdraw her booking request so I imagine I will have to spend a denial on them.

On the broader issue, our views are still not back, still hovering around 5 a day.  It will be a test I guess once I deny this 'aunt' which will open up almost a week in October if we get rebooked or not.  I did renew our permit but I can't imagine we will last with STR beyond the first quarter if things don't pick up.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Ah, okay. I don't think I have ever tried to get CS to cancel a request booking penalty free (except once, a long time ago, when it was clearly extenuating circumstances - I needed surgery). I imagine that this could be quite complicated.

A few weeks back, I was invited to join a video conference call with a bunch of other hosts, where Airbnb outlined the new host cancellation penalties. One of the things that they mentioned, which I repeatedly asked for clarification on without much luck, was that they were going to extend the three 'get out of jail free' cancellations to ALL bookings, not just IB, when the host felt that the guest was likely to break house rules. Then they rolled out the policy, but I'm yet to see any confirmation that this point actually true or not.

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@Mark116 wrote:

Funny, though, within minutes, like 5 minutes, of Airbnb cancelling her reservation, she replied about how she missed the earlier message [yeah sure] and could she still confirm.  Ah, no.  You can't.  

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Yep, seen this before too. A guest who does not respond to my most basic questions despite months of chasing and doesn't even respond to Airbnb when I ask them to contact him, responds within five minutes of his booking being cancelled. So, I had no doubt in my mind that he was simply ignoring the messages and phone calls. He then IBs again, still not answering my questions! I managed to get him to withdraw his booking but, within minutes, his girlfriend tries to book from her profile. SMH.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

As for views, mine seem to have gone up a bit since late August, but are still desperately low.

I have been lucky lately though as, hosting long term stays, I do not need a lot of bookings to fill my calendar, and have some from repeat guests, plus a couple from new guests (finally). However, if any of them were to cancel, or even significantly change their dates (and long term guests can do that with no penalty) that would set me back enormously. 

I feel like I am hanging in there by the skin of my teeth.

[Helen744]

@Lesley439 hi lesley i use IB but always , but always check Ids before guest arrival and inform my guests that it is 'part of my rules' and i 'need to know who is in 'my home' at all times . That , also ,' this is is for both my protection and yours '. if they remain reluctant i also let them know that I personally 'own the house' as well as being their host and ,do not recieve a copy of their id from Air or indeed never have access to their 'credit cards or credit card information' some people have trouble distinguishing between 'the host' and Airbnb and this must sometimes be made clear, or allow them to cancel .I am alarmed that you would receive a penalty for asking for id , but do put it in your rules . By the way , "allowing a guest to 'cancel' and"asking a guest to cancel ' are two different things. H

[Lesley439]

Thanks Helen its good to know that others do same.   It seems that Airbnb will accept anything not in the listing as a reason to allow a guest to cancel as happened in this case.   It was a months booking in August which is why this is an issue especially as they also fined me and blocked the dates.   The issue is that even if the guest complied (they sent ID via the Airbnb website the day before) an Airbnb agent may agree with the guest and say anything that differs to the listing is a reason to cancel.   My case is this should be implicit and not stated hence looking for other hosts who do the same thing.   

BTW I offered a guest a double room instead of the single they booked and again was fined by Airbnb when the guest decided to stay with a friend instead

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