Contact Airbnb

[Arthur24]

One of my client asking to cancel the rooms reservation and he ask me to help for not charging the money. So I told him I agreed. I am totally new in Airbnb as a host so I ask him to do the cancellation. But he told me that he should send me an request and I should approve it to confirm this cancellation. So I did what he told me to do.

But after I click approve for cancel, the message appear said that it is me who are cancel the room and I should receive an penalty!

How come the fact can be get conversely???

It is the client who want to cancel, I just willing to help for not paying me for nothing, but finally it shows I am the person who cancelled and I will got the penalty???

How come the customer can sent this request to host if it is actually he want to cancel the room?

(how can a client send a request ask host to cancel the room and looks like it is the host who did the cancellation?)

it just does not make sense at all!

This is not right!

I would want some one help me to look at this case and make sure I am not the one who got penalty! It is actually the client who abusing Airbnb's policy! Please do pay attention to this case!

[Donald11]

It's all about the money air bnb does not care about you or the guest. The faster you realize that the stuff air bnb says is all a show. They don't give any concern about you. Your guest or your property. Your all just objects for revenue

[Kristen2]

I'm beginning to agree Airbnb must be making so much money by now they have lost sight of their "Duty of Care" to the people who are making it for them. The Automated messages and answers do not always cover the issues. I certainly won't be recommending Airbnb to other potential clients. As a Superhost providing Hosting through Airbnb since 2012 I am seriously thinking of going elsewhere. We used to get a personal response through Airbnb via a phone call from them but they aren't interested in doing this anymore. I say look for another Accommodation Provider

[Lejla2]

The same thing happened to me..I just joined Airbnb and was pretty happy with how everything was going until this penalty..

[Elena87]

If you are new, go and look at the AIRBNB toolkit for new hosts, this explains the basic rules including cancellation.

If you sign up to AIRBNB you should at the very least know what your are signing up to and what rules apply.

You clearly don't know the rules - your guest sent you the 'host requests to cancel' request ( big clue in the title here) and you accepted it and now you need to face the consequences. 

[Karen-and-Brian0]

@Arthur24 This is a new option that guests have now - they can ask the host to cancel for them, and like you, many have fallen for it wiht the same disasterous results. Never cancel! Always make the guest cancel. I hope you're able to get it straightened out with Air BNB - I've found them to be very understanding and have been really happy with the help I've received for issues similar. Best of luck!

[Andrea9]

@Arthur24

Here's a detailed very recent thread on this bad new policy and how to get around it:

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/keep-an-eye-out-for-CANCELLATION-REQUEST-from-guests/...

[Jude7]

I am aware that there seems to be an option for guests to request a host to cancel, @Andrea9.   For the life of me, I can't seem to come up with a single scenario where it would make sense for a guest to have the option to initiate such a process, especially one where the host becomes penalized. 

I can understand why hosts are so confused, as the message says something like, "please accept this request to cancel or the reservation will be cancelled after 24 hours."

Am I missing something here?

Jude

[Elena87]

This option is to protect a guest when the host wants to cancel and asks the guest to do it.. experienced hosts can pull a fast one too.

[Jude7]

That actually makes sense, @Elena87! Thanks for giving me another perspective. 🙂

Jude

[Andrea9]

@Jude7

Judging from what I've read it seems Airbnb has rolled this out and in the link there were a number of hosts that fell for it without realizing what it entailed.

Somehow as with other new ABB changes it works for a while until word spreads about how to handle or navigate the disadvantages en then it becomes powerless - except for the new hosts or those not on any forum. I would love to know statistics of how many cases this has worked in duping a host, and if and how much advantage Airbnb gets out of it.

In the link it was mentioned:

"Thankfully, I didn't accept it. The other option is "Continue with Reservation" and confirm with Airbnb that you can indeed host them.

The guest will then have to resort to cancelling the reservation themselves and lose their fees."

I can't say more to this really, because I luckily haven't had the experience.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

If your Guest tells AirBnb

"My Host, he wants to cancel Me!"

AirBnb will email you.

They'll  ask you if

This tale is true.

What should you do?

You should decline!

The reservation is quite fine!

Just tell them no.

If he wants out

Then he may go but there's no doubt

The Guest should have to pay the price.

You're quite the Host,  but not THAT nice.