Warning: Feature allowing a Guest to request the Host to Cancel via the app!

[Jiw0]

I'm a co-host for a friend who I helped set up her AirBnB listing, teaching her everything I know.  Her place is a success and she gained superhost status as soon as she was eligible.

However last week that fell apart, due to a feature that I think his highly deceptive and unfair.  She didn't fully understand the consequences and I have pesonally not encountered this guest-cancellation-request myself. (I did encounter regular guest cancellations as well as change requests, and both of those are handled fairly I think.

The provblem is with the feature that allows a guest to request that the host cancels, usually becuase they don't want to lose (part of) their booking fee:

**Screenshot edited

She really did not want to cancel so she did not click the button.. which then results in the cancellation request expiring and.. BEING ACCEPTED!!  With the host as the party who cancelled!  So this means full loss of the income, penalty fees AND loss of her Superhost status.  The way this request was presented by AirBnB message and with no explanation of the consequences of inaction is completly inadequate. 

I feel really bad for her.  And actually bad myself for her having to experience this, after recommending AirBnb and working with her to make it a success.

I think her message to AirBnB sums it up very well.  

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Dear Support,

After check-in my guest needed to cancel, however as he wanted a refund he was able to use a feature to request *ME* to cancel. However I did not want to cancel because it was a confirmed booking, and I know that if I cancel then I will lose Superhost status.

So I did not accept his request and did not respond to the message.

However I then later found out that his booking was cancelled anyway, and -worse- it showed that *I* was the one who cancelled!

But I never cancelled. So not only did I lose the income from this reservation, I have now also lost Superhost status.

I do not agree with this, I never wanted to cancel, it was the guest who wanted to cancel. I don't like this new feature and I don't like that it's being pushed on me in this way.

I think the income can be considered lost and there may not be much that you can do about this. However I want you to reconsider removing me as a Superhost. I should not be to blame for a guest who wants to cancel himself.

I can provide detailed screenshots and more information if required.

Thank you for looking into this.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jiw0 yes, we all agree that this feature is misleading and many hosts get punished because they didn't understood it correctly.

However, if you take a better look at the second screen shot you posted it is written that you have 48 h to respond and if you don't then this reservation will be canceled on your behalf ( it means the same as you canceled )

[Jiw0]

Responding or not is not the issue though, the point is that if as a host you agree to cancel then you get a major penalty.   The guest initiates this one, not the host.   Penalties are due when you're just a crappy host who cancels on guests.   That's what the penalties are for and everyone + common sense agrees with that. 

But here the guest requests that the host cancels, and anything other than major warnings in blood red and flashing lights are completely inadequate to describe the enormous conseqences of either thinking that the guest already cancelled and taking no action, or to agree to the cancellation.