This has to be the most Un-AirBnB thing, perhaps the most un-capitalistic decision by AirBnB ever.
Today, I have a reservation cancelled by AirBnB, AFTER the guest checked in and decided to cancel. According to the Case Manager (CM), it's because our ROOM RATE WAS TOO HIGH. And that we did not reply to the CM within the "given" 15 minutes (even though we replied to the guests within that time, as the CM did not specify WHOM to reply to within that given short timeframe).
Here is an abbreviated conversation between us:
Me: May I know why you cancelled the reservation after the guests checked in, and also penalized us by blocking those dates?
CM: They claimed that the price was too high, and you did not respond to me within the 15 minutes I gave you.
Me: So it's against AirBnB's policy to price according to the market rate around the busiest time of year?
Case Manager: Um... the decision is final and cannot be reversed now. We can reimburse you for one night, but you are on your own for the other three nights.
Me: How do we find fill our place so last-minute?
Case Manager: Just make sure you don't price it too high.
Wow. I did not know we have no freedom over how we price our rooms, especially when the booking was previously acepted so the guests obviously know what they are paying for (Incidentally, this CM is located in a communist country, but that's neither here nor there)
Advice to the AirBnB management and to Mr Chesky, whom I have the utmost respect for as an entrepreneur: Here is what you can do to improve your customer services: 1. Hire better Case Managers. 2. Put in better guardrails around managing your Case Managers, who wields enormous power over hosts as judge, jury, and executioner. A quick glance at this forum would show that such errant incident involving Case Managers is becoming more and more common.
It's clear your policy favors guests over hosts, whom you have a captive hold over, but such arbitrary decision process will only harm your pursuit to provide world-class hospitality services.
