Penalties for cancellations by hosts...

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

I was financially penalised and prevented from continuing my business for several days because of an exceptional error relating to a cancellation. Because we had an agreement with a guest to get his money back for cancelling the reservation and to avoid being heavily penalised by Airbnb, we ended up suffering the consequences of an unfair system that penalises both those who abuse it and cancel dozens of reservations a year and those who make a mistake and do it once a year or less with 10 apartments. How is it possible for Airbnb to be so inflexible and yet ask its hosts to be flexible? We have a great example: the creation of the non-refundable booking fee, which hosts have been asking for for so long, was only created 4 years ago, after 15 years of activity. But the reality is that even this comes with impositions from Airbnb: to be refundable, we have to give up 10% of our revenue? And don't even get me started on what they did to hosts during COVID-19...

[Joelle43]

Hello @Samuel-And-Chiara0 

Did you cancel a reservation or did the guest?  Airbnb tightened up their cancellation policy for hosts over a year ago now and yes it's a double penalty for us if we cancel - financial and our calendar is blocked for the dates cancelled.  

You're right though, the onus is on us to be flexible even if we have a non refundable policy and it does seem odd that we should be put in this uncomfortable situation of feeling we have to accept the unacceptable.

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

Hello @Joelle43

First of all, we don't deny our mistake that led to the double booking, we agreed with the guest to cancel, first on the phone, and because they say today that words don't mean anything, in writing, so there were no more mistakes. So what do you think happened? When the guest contacted Airbnb, they saw our message asking him to cancel and that we would refund all his money, with our justification for what had happened.

Having seen that, we were told that they "had to" do it as if we had cancelled it on our end.

[Guy991]

@Samuel-And-Chiara0 

I was not able to exactly follow what happened to you, and of course it is easy for me to offer advice now that everything is already done.

Regardless of the reason, I am happy to know that you made an agreement with the guest and that they agreed to cancel the stay, but it should have been them who canceled, not you.

Let me share with you my practice.

Sometimes there are external reasons that require cancelling a stay. Here is what I do.

1. Never ever never ever never ever and again never ever press the cancellation button.
If there is any issue with the property and you cannot host, call Airbnb and explain. I know hosts who had problems with the roof after the major storm we had a few weeks ago, but they found creative ways to still accept the reservations they had.
If you are not available or your cleaner is on holiday, pay double or triple to someone if needed but keep your word and accept the guest.

2. Always always always always and again always if the guest wants to cancel even if you are giving them a full refund contact Airbnb support and explain the situation once, twice, and a third time if needed until they repeat your words exactly. The cancellation is by the guest, not by you.

Almost every time they say to me, "You called us asking to cancel the guest's stay."
I reply, a little impatiently, "NO. I do not want to cancel the reservation. The guest wants to cancel, and I approve. Please repeat it back to me so I know you understand."

Keep in mind that customer support follows protocols, and sometimes when they cannot find the correct one, they get lost in the communication. You must repeat it again and again. The cancellation is by the guest, not by you. Only when they repeat it correctly should you close the chat.

I see that you have a few listings. This is one of the benefits. If you cannot host the guest in one property, offer them an upgrade to another property of yours at no extra charge.

If I ever have a guest that I cannot accommodate, I will offer them to sleep in my own house if needed.

And most importantly, transparency. Explaining clearly why you cannot host and offering reasonable alternatives always helps to get the guest’s cooperation.

All the best, 

Guy

P.S. @Joseph2571 , I thought you would find it interesting.

[Helen3]

I would agree with you normally on this @Guy991   But if i understand @Samuel-And-Chiara0 correctly they made a double booking and therefore the onus shouldn't have been on the guest to cancel.

if you made a double booking as you indicated @Samuel-And-Chiara0 

I don't understand  why you asked the guest to cancel? 

The double booking from another platform I presume. 

in which case you should have cancelled paid the cancellation fee and accepted the other booking. 

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

Hello @Helen3 What I'm getting at is the proportionality of the penalty.

We're not Super Hosts, but we don't cancel on average even 1 booking a year, with an average of 10 apartments on and off. However, that doesn't matter to Airbnb. Let's use this example to clarify the double standards.

About a month ago we had a gentleman who “made a mistake” booking one of our non-refundable dates with the obligatory 10% discount. The apartment is only for 2 guests, 1 bedroom with a double bed and no possibility of sleeping on the sofa in the living room. He didn't read the house rules and ended up deciding that he was going to cancel. We were flexible, there were 20 days until check-in day but the guest still wanted us to cancel. I told him that if he wanted to cancel, he should contact Airbnb and ask for a full refund, which we would accept. And so it was, we refunded the booking price and the guest didn't suffer any penalties.

The same hasn't happened to us (hosts)... where's the proportionality?

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

Hello @Guy991 I think that was the problem, too much transparency.

We've only been using our booking management software for a short time and that's what I said, that we'd had a problem with it and that a booking had been entered that shouldn't have been. I wrote this in a message to the guest on Airbnb and asked him if he would kindly cancel on his side and, apart from receiving the full amount of the booking, which we would refund, there would be no penalty.

Contrary to what happened to us, who paid half the value of the reservation that we didn't receive from Airbnb, we are left with closed dates that exceed the number of days of the reservation we already had and Airbnb still receives the money from the new reservation made by the guest.

It's not a proportionate penalty.

[Joan2709]

@Samuel-And-Chiara0 

If you at any time suggest the guest cancel due to a mistake on your part (double booking), Airbnb sees that as "encouraging the guest to cancel" and you will be penalized for it.

Switch to Another Property

@Guy991 had a great suggestion in that if you are able to switch the guest to another property of yours at no extra cost, and the guest agrees,and you modify the reservation on Airbnb, that would be one way to handle it.

Modifying a Reservation as a Host

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50

Extenuating Circumstances

If you need to cancel and qualify for extenuating circumstances (storm damage, natural disaster, flooding, personal emergencies, etc.), you need to contact Airbnb and have them handle the cancellation so as not to be penalized.

Cancellations as a Host Extenuating Circumstances

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2022

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

Hello @Joan2709 As I said, we do not cancel guest reservations, and when we are not faced with a situation we usually do not think about its consequences, I in fact did this "encouraging the guest to cancel" I explained to the guest why I was doing this and we reached an agreement, which I now know, should never have been written on Airbnb. We had a direct booking from a guest who had stayed with us previously and we had no other apartment to accommodate him, so it was necessary to cancel the booking as soon as possible so that this guest could find an alternative.

And I thought that Booking's system was bad, paying the difference between the new reservation's value, Airbnb's is much more penalizing.

My conclusion, unfortunately, is that we have to find ways to circumvent Airbnb's protocols, because in reality, it also all depends on who we have on the other side in customer support, it always seems that everyone has a different way of seeing things... In addition to the fact that none of them are direct employees of Airbnb.

[Helen3]

Hi @Samuel-And-Chiara0 

I'm a little confused as to why you would cancel an Airbnb guest because you had a return guest who wanted to book directly? . (You could have just explained to the direct guest the listing was full) .

It  seems unfair to the Airbnb guest who booked with you in good faith .

i can absolutely see why Airbnb imposed cancellation charges on you Im afraid.

it doesn't really matter whether you agreed a penalty free cancellation on one of your guests when you didn't need to.... Airbnb takes hosts cancellations very seriously as they are so damaging to its brand. 

I don't understand your conclusion that you need to find ways to circumvent Airbnbs policies . My conclusion would be that I shouldn't ever cancel a guest with a confirmed booking  who booked in good faith in favour of a direct booking. 

[Frances3408]

@Samuel-And-Chiara0. I can sympathise that it isnt fair but its trying to clean up its reputation after some shocking host behaviour so here we are. @Joan2709 has a great post on the policy.

Moving forward can I suggest you watch the calendar syncing carefully: even go so far as to immediately manually block in the other platforms(s) as soon as you accept a booking. I have been caught out by delays with syncing in the past.

Yes you could have tried to directly contact Airbnb and throw your self on their mercy, but never ask the guest to do it when its your fault imo as yes Airbnb sees that the power lies with us hosts.

When a guest needs to cancel weigh up refunding them versus offering a credit only if they cancel and you are able to receive another booking. Otherwise let Airbnb deal with guest booking cancellation requests.