instant booking cancellation

[Eva34]

Hi, I have just read somewhere that instant booking can be cancelled without penalty fee if I cancel because I feel uncomfortable about the guest. Is this a new policy? I had to cancel a booking at the end fo January 2016 as the guest made an instant booking less than 24 hours before the arrival date and when I tried to explain him that due to the short notice I will be pushed to organize someone to let him in and will get back to him later about the arrival time( we were abroad on a weekend trip), he immediately became very rude and treathening in his messages, so I called and cancelled his booking.  Couple of days later when I received the payment statement I realized that cancellation fee was deducted.  That time I accepted it, but now as I read about the instant booking cancellation I am not sure, maybe I should raise the issue, but not sure how and where. Thank you. Eva

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Eva34,

This policy has been in place before January.  You could contact Airbnb but you will probably need to show how you made to feel uncomfortable which can be done through messages through the messaging system.  It could be that they charged you because it comes across as a check-in issue.  

[Eva34]

Hi, thank you for your message. Yes, in the meantime I have received an email from the help desk as well, they explanation is that I asked the guest if he could consider not staying with us, as we were away for the weekend and I would have to get someone to let him in, just too much hassle to arrange it from abroad, but at the end I cancelled because he was swearing and threatening me in his messages ( all is in the message history) and I gave the same reasons when I called to cancel. There was not possibility to cancel earlier as he made a booking less than 24 hrs before arrival and I cancelled less than 3 hours after I received the booking. So even though I reacted as soon as it was possible I was still hit by the $100 cancellation penalty.