Dear AirBnB Community,
My wife and I recently started our 2nd AirBnB listing, a restored vintage '67 Airstream which has been very well received by all of our guest so far. Unfortunately, a waterline broke while we were away for the weekend causing extensive water damage to the new floors we just put in as well as the subflooring. The time it will take to complete repairs will mean we need to cancel two booked reservations.
Separately, my wife and I have been hosting our house on AirBnB for over a year and have never had to cancel a reservation before, in fact at the end of this month we would be eligible for our first "super host" status. It would be an understatement to say that my wife and I were alarmed to see all the punitive messages that greet a host in an unfortunate situation of having to cancel a guest reservation’s.
Unless I missed it on the reservation cancelling process, nowhere was there an option for cancelling reservations due to damaged property making the dwelling uninhabitable, and being recognized for a situation beyond the hosts control. An option I might add, that when your already facing thousands of dollars of repairs, would be more welcomed than being penalized by AirBnB.
As noted above, we must cancel two reservations for October, with the first reservation now cancelled and the situation discussed with the guest amicably. AirBnB gives you a “warning” and no financial penalty for your first cancellation, but it appears for the 2nd cancellation we’ll need to make, we get financially penalized, removed from listing searches, and Im sure I missed some other penalties as well as our first shot at getting “super host” status revoked.
Honestly, I found the whole cancellation process and all its punitive language pretty upsetting given our situation and considering that we have always gone the extra mile to give all our guest the best “AirBnB” experience possible. Im not feeling the love in return at the moment.
For now, we have closed out the Airstream’s calendar for over 3 months to assure we have ample time to get the repairs done, but honestly, we’re considering leaving AirBnB all together if this is how AirBnB handles hosts situations like this, hosts that have done everything and then some to improve the companies brand.
A not so happy AirBnB host
