Air BnB Once again refused to honor our rules, even though we have been a 9 time superhost!

[Julie534]

We have a published 6 person limit in our small 2 bedroom cabin and a guest booked over 2 months ago and just yesterday informed me they were bringing 8 people and 2 dogs. I told them that was not acceptable and to contact Air BnB to cancel as that did not follow our published rules. Air BnB sent me an email stating that I would only get a $97 payout and the guest would be refunded $253. Since I was driving I wasn't sure how many nights they had booked but was concerned at the amount they were being refunded. I called Air BnB and was told they only had a 1 night booking and we were receiving the $100 minus the $3 service fee. The $253 was their deposit - which also doesn't make sense as on my profile it says I have a $1000 deposit requirement. In any event I was satisfied with the $97 payout I was told I was receiving in both an email and by a rep on the phone.

I then I received a new email stating I would get NO payout, and the guest was refunded everything! I have gone back and forth with Air BnB they even threatened that I could lose me Superhost status because I didn't honor a guest who was clearly breaking the my house rules! My calendar now has had a Holiday night blocked for over 2 months and I get no revenue from that time. This with a home that is over 91% booked all year long! I have 222 five star reviews after only 2 years and Air BnB treats me this way? We will be moving to VRBO and joining in the class action suit against Air BnB. They are completely acting without any integrity.

[Jeffrey27]

All I can say is that we totally empathize with you.  As Superhosts ourselves we were recently stunned by the horrid customer service we have received regarding our efforts to book a place in Madrid.  Both places cancelled on us and then immediately turned around and raised their rates.  All we wanted to know is whether this will affect their Superhost status and we have yet to receive a response do to "host privacy" issues.  Now Air BnB blocks all inquiries about this issue.  We are definitely looking at moving our listing from Air BnB.  It's all been amazing until now but now I have completely lost trust in the company.  Class action you said??

[Julie534]

So after yet another call to Air BNB about the guest that cancelled I finally got a supervisor who said that the other reps handled my case very poorly and did not follow their own rules.  I am now getting paid for the cancellation. I am happy about this, but not happy about all of the phone calls and time I had to spend to resolve it. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and posts.

[Sarah977]

@Julie534  This seems to be fairly common- reps handle it wrong, finally, if the host is lucky, a supervisor takes over, says the rep handled it poorly,  and makes it right. Meantime you've spent many unpaid hours dealing with them. I believe this is by design- they hope the host will just give up at some point instead of demanding a fair resolution. So the reps are either trained to handle it wrongly in the first place, or they are employed without any proper training, which is inexcusable. If they don't know the rules, how can they be expected to give suitable responses?