keep an eye out for CANCELLATION REQUEST from guests

[Dawn33]

I received my first Cancellation Request a few weeks ago and thought that it was a special request. It will appear

to have Airbnb's approval, as well as the Queen's, and you can easily fall for it.

It sounds like it is indeed a new option for guests who want to cancel, but don't want to lose their Airbnb fees.

They will send you a request through Airbnb and if you click "Accept", you have just cancelled it and will be penalized for it.

Thankfully, I didn't accept it. The other option is "Continue with Reservation" and confirm with Airbnb that you can indeed host them.

The guest will then have to resort to cancelling the reservation themselves and lose their fees.

Just wanted to give you a headsup in case that you receive one.

[Brittany1]

Thanks for the heads up, @Dawn33

I would be really upset if I accidentally accepted a cancellation.

[Dawn33]

Me, too!

[David126]

I thought it was quite clear what was being asked but unnecessary.  Much better dealt with in other ways, you can as a host be messaged to cancell so why have this option as well?

Amusingly there seems to be nothing asking the guest to cancell.

[Dawn33]

@David0I agree with you! It was unexpected. Since hosts expect to receive booking requests to accept (or decline), I initially thought it was one of those. The verbiage makes it seem like it is okay to accept it without penalty.

[Mary186]

Yes this just happened to me today.  Directly after a guest booked he called me and said he had to cancel.  I said okay, just go into AirBnB and cancel the booking. You won't get a penalty because it is two months from now.  

An hour later I received a text request through the Airbnb interface (in my messages) that said,  

"<Guest name> requests that you cancel. Respond by August 21 at 1:37 pm or reservation will be cancelled"

I accepted it and realized that this shows in the system as me initiating cancellation of the reservation. Airbnb has now blocked the days so no one else can book for those cancelled days. I have also had my 'Superhost' status revoked. 

I thought I was just allowing the guest to cancel at their request. 

This is not a very good user experience for me as a host.  There should be a warning message to indicate that there is another option for cancelling at the customer's behest. 

[Dawn33]

@Mary0, I am sorry this happened to you. I am certain that you aren't the only one that fell for it.

I have noted to self that wine is not for subtitled movies or for these sneaky cancellation requests.

[Dede0]

@Dawn33 Wine!

(And thanks for mentioning this odd sort of message. I'll now be on the lookout.)

[Cathy72]

Ugh this happened to me too. And, it is for one of the most profitable weekends of the year.
Has anyone ever gotten resolution on this? Any way to reverse it or get ahold of someone at Airbnb??

[Jane105]

I have had cancellations showing up on my reservation list that were not even sent through to me as they  had apparently failed at the verification phase. Wish we could contact Airbnb to have these glitches sorted more reasonably.

[Andrea9]

@Jane105

I've had such 'cancellations' too, but it simply means that the booking is cancelled because the guest either couldn't finalize their verification and/or their payment before the 24h timed out. It has nothing to do with the host and has no repercussions on status.

[Marie82]

My god so sorry to hear that all ur hard work to be Superhost just vanished by simple mistake

I hope u can talk to Service centre so they can give back u Superhost again

Not really fair

[Andrea9]

Thanks @Dawn33 for clarifying. From different posts I've seen I've been suspecting something like this but have not seen it myself.

Another sneaky change introduced underhandedly...

[Dawn33]

@Andrea0, as @Mary0 noted above, this is what the message looks like:
"<Guest name> requests that you cancel. Respond by August 21 at 1:37 pm or reservation will be cancelled"

If you get one, be sure to respond with "leave cancellation as is" (I think that is how it was worded.) and do not accept it.

[David-and-Fiona0]

Sigh! Another strange "experiment"