New policy accept or decline or be threatened to have calendar blocked!

[Rhonda21]

I'm not happy about the policy change of accept or be penalised. Decline, be penalised. Respond to to a prospective guests without doing either, is not recognised as contacting the guest.

Recently I had contact with a guy in Hawaii - I live in Sydney - different timezones. I requested he get verified with passport or license before being willing to accept the request. I then get a threatening email from AIR bnb saying that I would have week of my calendar blocked if I didn't either accept or decline. I take offence to this and I've had a conversation with an Air bnb staff member but it didn't seem he could do anything about this new policy other than pass it on. But how do I know somebody at Air BNB is considering the hosts position on this?

Once again I reiterate, if a host requires further information before they accept and the prospective guest does not get back within the 24 hr period, taking into account that sometimes there are different time zones which impact on the possible response time, then hosts are threatened with losing a much earned status of Super Host and potential earnings if the calendar is blocked for a week as punishment. Enquiries from the other side of the world means communication may take more than 24 hrs due to each person sleeping at different times. That a host responds by email without accepting, should be a clear indication that the needs of prospective guests is considered. Hosts should have the right to feel safe, a sense of security when booking guests and that may require more legitimate verification, especially when guests may not have used Air BNB before and are new, or have few reviews. I’m really not happy about this and think the policy needs to be reviewed quickly. Is anybody else aware of this?

[Terrie0]

I'm upset as well. I have a guest that cannot travel in January due to a heart surgery JUST scheduled for her husband.  She wants to cancel her reservation.  The system will not allow her to do that.

If I cancel it.  I am penalized.

Really!?!?!?

There goes my chances of trying to get another booking to replace it.

I've also posted 2 posts in the help community.  No response. Nothig is working with this situation.  Everybody looses and has a sour taste in their mouth on this.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

This sounds like an extenuating circumstance, in which the guest can contact Airbnb to cancel without the penalty.  I would instruct your guest to call Airbnb and explain her circumstance.

Also, Airbnb does not monitor the Community - this is just a community of hosts trying to help other hosts.  If you require Airbnb's attention, calling or Tweeting is always the best way.

[David126]

The only thing you can do is to ask the guest to withdraw their booking and make an inquiry instead, there is no penalty to a guest if the cancell the enquiry. If you have very few declinatures use one of them.

There are many oddities in the way ABB works, usualy there is less than obvious work around.

I was thinking that there is a book to be written about the system and work arounds. I am sure there are many I have not come across.

[Samanthe0]

I empathize with the challenges here, and hope the Airbnb systems are improved accordimgly. 

Relatedly, I'm under the impression that I need to affirm/confirm that I'll adhere to the new policy--yet find no way of doing that?