Guest Instant-Booked my ultra-cheap listing and then warned me he's traveling with a germaphobe

[Emily145]

I'm not sure what to do here. Overnight I had an instant booking from someone whose message indicated that his friend traveling with him doesn't tolerate any dust and is a germaphobe "so heads up about that."

My unit is very small (<250 sq ft studio with no kitchen) so I rent it for $59-69/night in an area where most hotels cost upwards of $200. I have a 4.3/5.0 cleanliness rating over several dozen reviews - so it's clean, but not hospital clean. I charge a $20 cleaning fee, which means I can afford to bring in my professional cleaner @ $103/visit once a month. This guest's visit is actually scheduled for 11/2 with the cleaner due to come again on 11/9, so it almost couldn't be further out from the last cleaning. In betwen guests I change all the linens and towels, and scrub the toilet, shower, and sink in the bathroom. Other than cleaning up any obvious messes in the bedroom I don't clean anything there, and the floors/carpets are only cleaned/vacuumed monthly by the cleaner. 

I wrote back explaining this to him and haven't heard a reply yet but I'm worried he won't want to cancel and will just come here to take advantage of the low price and then slam me with a bad review for not being as clean as he expected despite my warning.

I'm considered canceling his reservation which I've never done before. I am not a superhost so I wouldn't be losing that, but I know ABB probably also punishes you in search results if you have cancelations as well. 

The other option is paying the cleaner to come a week early, but I'd essentially be losing money by bringing her in before I've collected enough cleaning fees to cover her fee, and at $66/night for his 2-night visit I'm hardly making gobs of money to spare. The cleaning rating is right there on my listing and now it feels like I'd be subsidizing this guest's unreasonable expectations and giving him something that most people just go to more expensive places to get, at my own cost. There are plenty of listings near mine with near-5-star cleaning ratings that cost $99, $109, $119/night.

Any suggestions? Is it better to cancel or to risk the bad review?

[Allison2]

Yeah, that sounds like a stressful situation. I'd call Airbnb and see if you can have them cancel on your behalf.

Your mantras should be:

*This person requires a level of service I can't reasonably offer at my budget pricing

*I'm uncomfortable with these guests

If Airbnb pushes for you to go ahead with the reservation, ask them if they can cover the cost of a cleaning prior to the guests' arrival.

[Olga464]

@Emily145  I rent out the apartment which are clean as a hospital ( i even review the list of moistures used for cleaning, they are the same as in ooperating room). They kill all the bacterias but do not have any additional smell. I got 1 star review because "the apartment was like a hospital" ))))