A Cancellation made at a guest's request

[Stephanie54]

I had a guest who made a booking and then realized the dates would not work. She requested that I cancel the reservation, which I did. Now Airbnb have block those dates so that I cannot get another booking. The guest has since made a second booking for dates that work for her. How do I contact Airbnb to correct this problem. It is the first week in September, which at the beach is prime booking time. I have been unable to find a link where I can either email or speak to an actual representative.

[David126]

As a Host if you cancel a booking that is one of the penalties you pay, the Guest should have cancelled.

You can not get it unblocked.

[Allison2]

They should be able to see from the conversation that the guest initiated the request for cancellation - and they can see that your guest re-booked with the appropriate dates, so I think it's worth a call to customer service to see if they'll unblock the dates. This is the type of mistake a new host makes, so hopefully they'll grant some leeway.

In the future you should ONLY cancel on reservations for your own reasons - never on behalf of a guest, since the repercussions for hosts are pretty bad (no SH status for 1 year, calendar blocked for those dates, penalties after 3x cancellations).

[Brittany1]

Hi @Stephanie54

@Allison2 is right. NEVER cancel on the guests behalf. Hosts are penalized harshly. I hope this wasn't a seasoned guest taking advantage of a new host. Not cool.

host cancellation policies

I would definitely contact Airbnb to see if they will give you a break since you didn't know. I think every host should have to go through a mini airbnb entrance exam before hosting. There is so much to know!

contact airbnb

[Barry-John0]

i made the same mistake. its pretty harsh and unfriendly and short sighted!

someone in this thread mentioned "contact Airbnb" - how does one do that, they seem very elusive?? 🙂

Thank you,

Barry

[Allison2]

@Barry-John0 Click on the "Contact Airbnb" link in @Brittany1's post - it has a number of ways to contact them. It is frustrating that they hide their contact info so thoroughly on the web site!

The repercussions are harsh for good reason - if Airbnb hosts get a reputation for cancelling, guests won't risk booking their vacations through us. While some situations like the above happen (and can hopefully be cleared up), I've seen a lot of hosts cancel for capricious reasons - like they didn't do their homework to price for events & now want to re-sell at a higher rate.

[Donna53]

Ive had the same thing happen.... my calender had been blocked by myself as I had a booking through another Holiday Home site for those days  .... a guest Instant Booked within my blocked days... (How can they be allowed to do that?)... and I had to end up cancelling them with loss to S H status, etc.  Honestly... it dosent seem right.