Cancellation notice, but nobody cancelled

[Kärolin0]

Hey everyone! 
I'm quite new at this hosting thing, so maybe somebody can help me with an explanation.

I had a reservation for 2-4 May. Last night I got a reservation for 4-5 May. Which is fine, we have done that before and are able to react fast since the apartment is on the same street to where we live.

However this morning I got a notification saying that my guest has cancelled. And then a little while later I got a message from them asking why did I cancel? So apparently they had got a notification that I cancelled the booking. But I did not.

So my question is why did that happen, is it because of the new reservation?  They contacted airbnb and they havent been charged yet for the last reservation.

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Kärolin0  No, it wouldn't have anything to do with the next reservation and Airbnb won't give you, as the host, information as to why it was cancelled, only to the guest, so it's a good thing they made contact with Airbnb. 

It could be that Airbnb wasn't able to collect payment due to something wrong with the guest's credit card, it could be that this guest has been reported for bad behavior, or it could just be a system glitch.

[Kärolin0]

Thank you! The guest told me now it was their Banks fault. So i hope it is so and not for a bad behaviour. 🙂 

[Rowena29]

Hi  @Kärolin0 

I think I MAY  know why this happened.

A similar thing happened to me sometime ago.

Obviously airbnb has cancelled the booking ( since the guest knew nothing about it)

I can't tell you WHY airbnb cancelled and possibly they won't either, but almost certainly  problem with the guests account - either with verfication, or with payment, something of that sort.

I posted some time ago, suggesting that instead of the generic email which airbnb send out which says "we're sorry to let you know that XXXXX has cancelled their booking"  - which they guest hasn't done at all and often is none the wiser about to

"we're sorry to let you know that we've had to cancel XXXXX 's booking". At least that way you get a bit of a head's up as to what is going on. instead of confusion on teh part o the guest and the host.    I doubt this will happen however.   If the guest rings airbnb, and makes a bit of a fuss or still want to come, airbnb MAY reach out to you to try to solve ( if the dates haven't already been and gone).

Somebody more experienced may come along soon and offer more ideas or know more for sure,  but I'm reasonably sure it would be something along those lines.  ( so nothing to do with your bookign settings - if it was that, the guests wouldn't have been able to book in the first place).

Hope that makes sense!

Regards

[Kärolin0]

Thank you so much for the feedback! 
That actually is a really goof idea that you suggested. I wish they used that answer instead. So we actually know who cancelled the booking. 

Luckily the guest wanted to rebook and I hope everything goes smoothly now. 🙂 

Best regards!

[Christine1849]

This happened to me, Airbnb cancelled the booking, and not the guest, and now they charged me a cancellation fee. Can someone help me how do I go about contacting AirBnB?