Airbnb Makes money on cancellations- case study

[Inna22]

Let’s break down this specific reservation. All numbers rounded

A guest made one for $2130. Out of that amount $1550 was my portion, $360 in taxes and $220 Airbnb fees. The guest paid in November. She just cancelled her may stay and was offered either a store credit or refund per my cancellation policy which is half. She selected credit. I will get 12.5%, guest got nothing (credit), Airbnb keeps the money. Now, they have had $2130 for 6 months. This contributed to their working capital and earned them interest, approx. $40. They will continue keeping this money until another host needs to be paid, I would assume these people will not travel till next spring so let’s say another $80 for a total of $120. Now, about 10% of all credits are never used. That gives them average of another $210. Not sure if I am paid on my total (cleaning fee plus reservation) or just reservation. Safe to assume reservation only, making it $175 to me. I also do not know what they will do with tax in this case but somehow I have a feeling they will find a way to come out ahead. I will leave it out of my calculations though. Therefore, Airbnb keeps $2130 credit, makes another $310 on the reservation, pays me $175. So they actually come out $135 AHEAD if the guest cancels! Let’s say the guest did not pay that long ago or will travel again soon reducing interest equivalent from $120 to $20. They are still ahead by $35. No wonder everyone is getting an email with a reminder to cancel their May bookings!

[Will2051]

I was responding bit I guess they did not like my response

[Sarah977]

@Will2051  Posts don't get censored here unless they contain discriminatory comments (racist, sexist, etc), personal attacks on another poster, or profanity. There's endless posts here raking Airbnb over the coals.

The forum tech can be glitchy. Those of us familiar with the glitchiness often remember to copy our posts before pressing the Reply button, as the posts sometimes disappear into cyberspace. Also, if you try to insert symbols to indicate a happy face, or other emoji, the post gets marked as "Correct the highlighted errors".

Try again. It's not at all likely that your post was rejected because of the content.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 @Will2051 I definitely have posted just to realize nothing came through. So many of my brilliant thoughts just floating out there in cyber space. What a waist 

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Perhaps there are extraterrestrials that can see them and have an entire religious cult built around them- The Missing Hosting Gospels. We may unknowingly be considered to be some mysterious gods sending disembodied missives out into the ether. Religious scholars trying to determine the meaning of "mattress pad".

[J-Renato0]

@Inna22 

I hear you ! Great thoughts and very enlighting. The more I see what is happening, the more It let me down. 

[Robin4]

@Inna22 

Inna, it's not just that Airbnb 'undo' a confirmed guest/host reservation leaving the host with nothing, they are telling guests the only way they can keep all the value of that money they paid the company is to take it in the form of a travel credit.

If the guests wants their money back they are told that the host will not allow that and will retain a portion of the guest payment. Airbnb are blaming hosts for any refund shortfall even though most hosts via their cancellation policy have elected to grudgingly fully refund a guest cancellation.

Other social sites are full of just this issue, post after post. In the past fortnight I have seen at least 300 just like this.

Now granted some of these may 'slip through the cracks' but the sheer volume of these complaints is mind blowing and the common theme is, Airbnb are misinforming guests and are not refunding guests.

Airbnb are temporarily not doing badly out of this, they are making money that is way beyond their commission rate and blaming their hosts for it . This ruse will come to an end shortly because they will run out of existing reservations to cancel!

God knows how they will keep that money chocolate wheel spinning when that happens.....maybe they will start charging their hosts an annual user subscription fee!!!!

That would make it interesting, wouldn't it?

Stay safe Inna....and keep an eye on Nancy for me!

Cheers..........Rob

@Louise0 

[Inna22]

@Robin4 very thoughtful reply (as always). Airbnb's endless ability to find a way to blame hosts for anything is fascinating. 

[Gary_Judy0]

Well stated.  And as I put it in my similar post, Airbnb is the one entity among the host, guest and company that comes out ahead.  In other words, Airbnb's concern puts the host in last place.  It's been shown in many issues, but none so clearly than this COVD!9 policy.  Did they really think we would be that naive?

[Alba160]

Between Covid and Airbnb are making my life very challenging  these days. At least this virus is not ones fault. While Airbnb to me is feeling like sleeping with the enemy. 

[Mountainside-Getaways0]

I recently had a guest book in March, on April 4th our area put a mandated order on us for 14 day stays only. We tried to communicate with the guest who was fine to cancel and not travel at this time- However airbnb is trying to keep over $500 of their money and penalize me as a host for the cancellation- Now I'm left to do bear even a larger financial debt and through being ethical I'm refunding my guests out of my own pocket. Not to mention how they already took superhost status from me because I have honored guests inability to travel and our state laws. I feel terrible for guests and hosts that have become a victim of airbnb. Not only are we all faced with the pandemic, COVID-19, but we are now faced with this platform too! 

[Marianne353]

I had guests cancel due to Covid 19, I refunded their money through the Resolution Center, unaware that these monies returned will come out of my future Payments. When calling the Support all they said was: Sorry.  I was unaware that I should have called Airbnb and had them deal with the Refunds. Any advise?

[Cabo-Platinum0]

We're going through the same thing.  There is no easy way about this.  Class Action: 

https://www.change.org/p/airbnb-airbnb-breach-of-contract-class-action-lawsuit-violate-cancellation-...

[Inna22]

@Marianne353 please clarify- were you expecting Airbnb to refund instead?

[Cabo-Platinum0]

These stories are mindblowing.  We the same concern as @Inna22 , for 10 reservations and add another "0" to the amounts of money lost..... 

Class Action: https://www.change.org/p/airbnb-airbnb-breach-of-contract-class-action-lawsuit-violate-cancellation-...

Now we've actually accepted a new booking (March 28th) and had the guest come and go, still no pay from Airbnb.  And they keep telling me to "be patient..." 

Anyone else having problems getting paid for reservations that actually came through, regardless of what's going on in the world?