What does this review mean?

[Annette76]

I’m not a host yet, still renovating my cabin, but hopefully it will be done soon! 

Anyway, in the meantime I decided to look into staying at a few Airbnb places in some of my favorite easy to get to weekend getaways. 

One of the listings looks really cool, right where I want to stay, etc. It only has 7 reviews as I think it is a new listing. However to host seems to have other properties you can review. Anyway of the 7 reviews 5 of them said host had cancelled. Should this be a red flag? Am I going to book it only to get randomly cancelled and have no place to stay? 

[Alexandra316]

@Annette76Yes I'd sat that's not a good sign. Maybe they had instant book enabled when they didn't mean to, but cancellations are generally a red flag. At the least, I would message the host before booking to try and ensure you won't be cancelled: I wouldn't book without talking to them first. 

[Annette76]

@Alexandra316, thanks so much for your quick response. I’ve been looking at reviews and didn’t recall seeing that, much less 5 times in one listing! 

I will send a message. 

[Alexandra316]

@Annette76It definitely does happen, but it's not common because Airbnb really doesn't want hosts to cancel and enforces all kinds of penalties for those who do. You can't get Superhost, you are charged a penalty, and you get that message auto-posted to your reviews. 5 out of 7 is really bad. 

[Steve143]

Hello @Annette76,

The "Host canceled ..." review is automatically posted by Airbnb. It's one of the penalties Airbnb can exact on hosts who unilaterally cancel guests' reservations. In my view it's definitely a red fclg when a host does this, not to mention when they do it more than once. In this caes it means that they're willing to accept the penalties irrespective of what it means for guests' plans so I would not book with them.

One option when searching is to look for hosts who are super hosts. There is a filter for that if you click on the "More options" button. It doesn't guarantee no cancellation, as emergencies can occur with any host, but it does ensure that you see hosts who haven't canceled in the past year.

I'm a host. What penalties apply if I need to cancel a reservation?

Of course guests also cancel and hosts can see if guests making a reservation have cancelled in the past year.

Steve.

[Annette76]

I may have figured it out. I went back to the listing to send the host a note and when I put my dates in again, it blocked me saying that minimums vary or something to that effect. I’m thinking he put it up and got a bunch of short stays but really want week long bookings. Oh well. 

[Alexandra316]

@Annette76Yep sounds like someone who didn't set up their listing correctly. Unfortunate.