Alteration Request Advice

[Zappa0]

So..scenerio. Have a guy who sent an alteration request to move his start date up a day; shortening reservation a night. He sent it 2 weeks ago on a reservation made a month or more ago. Strict Cancellation policy. 

When it came through, I as om vacation in an area without phone service. The little request got buried in the gazillion other airbnb emails. There was no message in the thread or follow up to the request. I noticed it the day before check in date and said I cant do check in that day. I have other things going on. No response on the thread. Not to mention alteration requests arent very clearly displayed and the app syncing sucks, but that is another issue. 

I texted his phone today to confirm if he received the directions and he calls back saying he saw my message yesterday but cant come till tomorrow. Also says he left a voicemail but I'm not finding it. 

My friend who fills in on occasion isn't picking up. 

What do I do? 

[Anonymous]

@Zappa0 If it's not possible for the guest to be checked in tomorrow, all you can really do is ask the guest to cancel the booking.

Generally the cancellation would be subject to the terms of your cancellation policy. Your confirmed booking did not entitle the guest to an alternate check-in date. However, it's not the guest's fault that you received the alteration request 2 weeks late, nor that you failed to inform him that you were going to be unreachable during your vacation. So I think the right thing to do here would be to override the cancellation policy and grant him at least the refund he would have gotten if he'd cancelled 2 weeks ago.

Of course if you can make arrangements to check the guest in tomorrow after all, that would be the better option. In that case, you're not obliged to refund the unused night.

[Zappa0]

@Anonymousthanks. I'm not sure that I agree about "failed to warn him that I'd be the unreachable by vacation part. " I have several listings and not sure how I have to message every future reservation to let them know my personal vacation plans. Unless Airbnb has an out of office message I dont know about...which would be awesome....it just seems a bit much to be expected of us. 

I am willing to accept fault for not noticing the message sooner, so perhaps I should just eat this one and refund him in full. But I do think Airbnb needs to address alterations better. Both in thr fact that it is a "request" and in how they display them. 

[Anonymous]

@Zappa0  Airbnb doesn't have any policy requiring you to notify your upcoming guests when you'll be out of reach. But travel plans are time-sensitive, and guests expect that you'll respond to their messages. Falling out of contact obviously has consequences - in this case, your inaction may have resulted in a guest having to re-arrange accommodation at the last minute and possibly suffer an unexpected extra expense. Neither the guest nor Airbnb is not to blame for that.

I'm not sure what a better alternative to a "request" would be. It wouldn't make any sense for one party to be able to change the terms of a booking without the other's consent. And we can all agree that the website is imperfect, but whatever tools we choose to run our businesses with, it's our job to be experts in how they work. 

[Sarah977]

@Zappa0  I would suggest you create a saved message that you can send to all upcoming guests when you are going to be unreachable. Leaving them hanging, just thinking you're not responsive, doesn't seem like a very good way to deal with your bookings when you are going to be out-of-communication range.