Cancellation of a long term stay without compensation or penalties

[Paresh3]

I have a guest who made a reservation request for a 3 month stay, some 6 weeks before arrival.

Based on the request and other considerations, I accepted the booking. I have a strict cancellation policy, but was not aware that any another policy overrides my policy.  Most of my past guests have normally requested to extend their stays, so was not aware of the cancellation requests procedures when they wanted to shorten their stay.  

The guest was at the property for about 3 weeks, when I received an email notification of an amendment. There was still 9 weeks of the original booking to run, but the new dates will reduce the stay to a total of 7 weeks (3 weeks already stayed, plus 4 weeks of cancellation 'penalty') compared to the original 12 weeks.

I clicked on the email to message the guest and was surprised to see a note at the bottom of the guest's messages that the amendment was accepted. There was NO OPPORTUNITY to review or make a decision about the amendment. Having raised this issue with 'support' I am afraid it is not so far yielding a positive response, with a proper explanation of what is going on. 

Having read the cancellation policies, I read that as a penalty of 30 days if the guest cancels during their stay, and that the 30 days would be over and above the new dates. In fact it appears airbnb count the 30days FROM THE DATE OF THE AMENDMENT. So effectively if a guest makes a reservation of 90 days (and perhaps not really intending to stay the whole duration), and then submits a cancellation / amendment request to end 30 days from their request date, THEY INCUR NO PENALTY. I suspect the amendment request was AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED BY THE airbnb system, but they appear to not acknowledge that so far, or give any explanation of why / who accepted that. In fact I am disappointed to get a response that suggests MY ACCOUNT MAY HAVE HAD A SECURITY BREACH AND SOMEONE ELSE ACCEPTED THAT CHANGE REQUEST ON MY BEHALF. That is just so ridiculous. WHO would gain from that? Certainly not the HOST, me in this case. The guest, and potentially airbnb gain in this situation.

This is grossly unfair on the hosts.

The guest has / was probably advised by 'support' that they would incur a penalty of 30 days if they changed the reservation, and I suspect on that basis the guest has made the amendment to reduce the length of stay without personally incurring any penalties. Meanwhile, I will lose 5 weeks revenue that I expected to earn and was an incentive for me to host this person. 

airbnb will earn THEIR commission whether the guest stays the full term with me, or with another airbnb host so they don't care to re-imburse me for my potential loss, as far as I can see. The guest can cancel without any penalty, and unfortunately the HOST loses at every stage of this booking. 

1. If the HOST had not accepted this reservation, airbnb would count that against the host for turning down requests.

2. If the HOST had cancelled the stay, the HOST would incur a PENALTY, and probably also count that against the HOST.

I am disappointed at the support for hosts (and I am a Superhost), and the grossly unfair nature of this situation. Yes, of course, I know that I MAY be able to host other guests, etc. but THAT is not the point. I went out of my way to accommodate various additional requests for the guest, at my own expense, considering the length of stay. The guest also benefitted with discounts for their stay. A CANCELLATION POLICY is supposed to deter hosts and guests alike from making changes and so should be a compensation for the 'loser' in that situation. THIS current situation will only encourage guests requesting a long term stay with the intention of getting their reservation accepted, and then cutting short their stay to suit their 'new' duration, WITHOUT PENALTIES. It is unacceptable.

The guest is not shortening their stay because they are not happy, but only because they claim their circumstances have changed.

I would like to know of other hosts experience.

[Helen3]

Have a look at Airbnb's long term cancellation policy @Paresh3  this is what your booking is governed by not by your strict cancellation policy.

[Colleen253]

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/1361/cancellations-of-longer-stays

See particularly “Host Approvals”, @Paresh3 

[Paresh3]

Thank you @Helen3, @Colleen253  . I did read that after the change was made and am now aware of it, which as I said I was not before. 

However, my point is that  the guest can cancel at least 30 days before their departure date and incur no penalty. In my case the guest amended their dates 60 days BEFORE their original expected departure date to depart in 30 days time, so they will not be penalised, and I will potentially not get any payout other than for the shortened stay. It is only going to encourage guests to request longer stays than they intend in the full knowledge that as long as they cancel at least 30 days beforehand they will not pay any cancellation charges. Hosts should be alert to this. In my case I will no longer take on any requests for stays longer than 27 days. Unfortunately, airbnb policies which always seem to work against hosts in my experience will see a reaction from hosts who will offer less flexibility for the guests.

Also, it appears the airbnb system AUTOMATICALLY accepted the request from the guest, so I had no say in it.

What's more when I was surprised that I had no opportunity to review the amendment and raised my concerns, airbnb  'support' practically said I was to blame somehow and that maybe someone else accepted the change on my behalf, or that my system login was compromised!

I can now make out what has happened, but I am appalled at the response just received from airbnb support, as follows:

"Upholding the policies and standards that protect our community is very important to us. We’ve given your case and its details careful consideration, and we determined that the alteration was accepted on your behalf.

We understand that this might not be what you’d hoped for, but we came to this outcome because we saw on our system that it was accepted by you.

Our review is complete now, and we won’t be able to offer additional support on this case at this time"

CLEARLY if they had done a proper review THEY would have realised and advised that the amendment was AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED BY the airbnb system, and not try and blame me for this in the manner that they are doing. It is disappointing and poor that airbnb say "....we saw on our system that it was accepted by you.", which is a blatant lie! This is unforgivable. One tries to do their best as a Superhost and this type of attitude from airbnb is not constructive.

It is time for airbnb to introduce some formal, independent and impartial complaints escalation process, and treat hosts (let alone superhosts) with some respect.

[Colleen253]

@Paresh3 Yep! You've made some important discoveries through this situation, and have touched on some of the reasons why Airbnb is not a good platform for long term stays. There are many, many more, some of which can create much bigger headaches for hosts than what you experienced. You've also discovered the danger in discounts, which can be manipulated by guests even for mid term stays, if a host is not aware of the pitfalls. 

Spend some time browsing this forum (it's a great way to gain some hosting 'street smarts'), and do be sure to familiarize yourself with how everything works by reading the Help pages on Airbnb, to save yourself further grief.

You've also learned that Airbnb Customer Circus is just that, a circus. 

[Paresh3]

@Colleen253 Thanks again! Live and Learn:) I have been 'loyal' to airbnb, but I suppose I should look wider, although I am not particularly looking for guests wanting long stays. I do expect honesty and fairness though. I appreciate your advice, and will be taking your comments on board.

[Colleen253]

@Paresh3 It’s upsetting to be taken by surprise like you were. However, all Airbnb policies are there for our reading pleasure.  You were unfamiliar with the policy, and so you were unprepared for what happened with this cancellation. In this case though, procedure was followed as laid out in the policy. I don’t see anything unfair or dishonest. 

[Paresh3]

@Colleen253 So the response from 'support' stating I accepted the changed booking is not dishonest, when clearly I had not? Clearly it was automatically accepted by the system!

You don't think it unfair that they should then attemot to blame me, knowing that it was not accepted by me, and try and make out I had done something wrong? 

What is also unfair is that cancellation policies should 'penalise' the person, but in this instance, there is no such penalty for the guest, and no compensation for the host.

If the host had cancelled the booking during the stay, they would be penalised.

In my opinion that is an unfair policy.

[Colleen253]

@Paresh3 "So the response from 'support' stating I accepted the changed booking is not dishonest, when clearly I had not? Clearly it was automatically accepted by the system! "

The policy says Host approval is not needed in certain circumstances and the change may be accepted automatically (which it seems did apply in your case). So, yes, it was accepted by the system (on your behalf), and no this was not dishonest. Whether someone says it was 'you' who accepted it or the 'system' is immaterial.

My point is, you accepted the policies that were in place when you signed up to be a host, and the onus was on you to familiarize yourself with them. It's beside the point what you think about them. You can always send your feedback about policy to Airbnb.

[Adam791]

Yep with you all the way! Leaving Airbnb as have sold the business and I definitely won't be recommending to the new owners that they reinstate Airbnb. They owe me money which they are refusing to pay because I refuse to update my 'security' details. My opinion is that I have been with Airbnb for 9 years and have had numerous guests with no problems with payment etc. Now they want more security details after all this time. I'm refusing to give them more information as I don't feel that they need this 'update' due to our length of relationship. So what do they do, they suspend payments. This is extortion and against the spirit of the original contract. They can get stuffed!!