Host Penalties

[Hilltop0]

Any advice?  

My guest has an early August reservation and wants to cancel because my vacation rental is in Santa Fe, which still has strict restrictions due to the coronavirus.  

I consented to her cancelation, and she contacted Airbnb to cancel.  AirBnb then contacted me.  They told me that the guest requested a cancellation and that I had the choice of: 

(a) Confirming the cancellation, and Host Penalties would apply to me. 

(b) Confirming the reservation, letting the guest know that the house was still available.  No Host penalties.

If I failed to respond within 48 hours, AirBnb would cancel automatically and Host Penalties would apply to me.  

I have called AirBnb at both their numbers about 15 times.  The line keeps getting disconnected, sometimes after my waiting almost an hour.  I finally reached someone, and a case was started for me. But I have not heard back.  

[Anonymous]

@Hilltop0 What Airbnb is doing here is very sneaky and nasty. The guest's booking date falls outside of their current window for Extenuating Circumstances, and Airbnb is minding its cash flow, so they're following the procedure for guest requesting Host cancellation.

You must select option B and propose that the guest wait until Airbnb extends the cancellation window this will probably happen by July 1. What really sucks for hosts is that this waiting game prevents the dates of dead bookings opening up for new guests to book. 

[Pat271]

I have handled this type of guest cancellation by placing in the messages to the guest that I approve the guest cancelling, and that I would be willing to forfeit any payout coming to me. The guest then calls CS and points them to the message.  CS usually contacts me and I confirm the forfeiture.  This usually makes CS quite happy. 🙂

This should take care of your portion without you incurring any cancellation penalties.  That leaves the guest’s Airbnb fee.  For that fee, some of my guests have had success referencing and/or documenting the government travel restrictions, quarantine, etc. at the destination, especially if the reservation was booked before March 15th.  It is then possible that the stay will qualify for cancellation under Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy.  If it was booked after March 15th, the guest is (and should be) responsible for any cancellation charges, since by then COVID19 had been declared a pandemic, and the guest should have checked his/her destination’s restrictions. 

@Anonymous  is correct that another option is to wait and hope that Airbnb will continue to extend its COVID19 100% refund or travel voucher arrangement, as they have been doing regularly since this started. That’s risky though, and as Andrew said, it’ll tie up reservation dates that can potentially be rebooked by other guests.