Guest cancellation

[Heloise10]

My confrimed and accepted guest just cancelled his reservation for 2 weeks March. I am totally OK with that but who has to cancel the reservation, me or him? He asked me to cancel it? 

[Helen3]

@Yvonne215 Oh dear sounds like you haven't read Airbnb's Help Centre before setting up your listing.

Even though the guest cancelled, you then decided to cancel the booking as well, and in line with Airbnb's policies are now being penalised as a result.

You need to call Airbnb now. They will be able to see the guest asked to cancel the booking and should sort this out.

If you look at the top of the forum you are posting in. A post called CONTACT AIRBNB has all the numbers.

[Yvonne215]

I cannot find any post called Contact Airbnb..... very frustrated.... feel very much like leaving and going with BB canada  or our local tourism association....true I should have been more aware of policy but what is most frustrating is not being able to contact Airbnb....  this is only my second year with Airbnb, however I have done  bed and breakfast for years and have not encountered such frustration...

[Zelda9]

Hi My guest missed his flight and let me know that he will arrive 24h later than planned. He then sent a message to say that the flight is fully booked and that he would arrive  2 days later. The following day I received a message that he decided to change his destination all together as he can not seem to find a flight to Cape Town.I have a strict cancellation policy Neither of us cancelled the booking and I received the payment. I am not sure if I followed the right procedure - what should be done in these circumstances?

[Helen3]

You don't need to do anything @Zelda0. If the guest want to cancel, they would have and they would have been refunded in line with your cancellation policy. They didn't. You get to keep the money.

[Vera168]

Just wondering how an "adaptive cancellation" policy would work with cities where the high season is the big part of the host income. I call adaptive cancellation once it would be programmed by the host to have a more restrictive cancellation policy in the high season without conflicting with the "book window" (under reservation preferences). Just a thought.

[Nancy644]

I have a property that has a "high season" of approximately 12 weeks in the summer.  I can have a 60 day cancel policy on vrbo but the most restrictive cancel policy on airbnb is 14 days!  The high season is so coveted most guests book at least a year in advance.   I have a very lenient cancel policy for the off season on vrbo but NO WAY to do a restrictive policy on airbnb for the high season and a lenient one on the off season!!!   I went 'round and 'round with a case manager on airbnb but with no resolution.

[Chef3]

Hi everyone 

Just had a guest request refund after cancelling the week of their booking , this was almost a month ago .. she did receive a refund based on my policy setting .. she is now sending a request for a full refund ... WHAT ???   advise ..because I don't plan on responding , should I let this go to Airbnb resolutions ?

advise ? 

[Matthew285]

@Chef0,

Did she provide a reason as to why she feels she deserves a full refund instead of what the policy says she should receive?

If you just let it go to Airbnb resolutions, it is a bit of a roll of the dice.

The best thing for the host is if the guest just doesn't pursue the matter further.

If you can provide a good response that might lead the guest to accept things are they are, that is good.

Or if you feel not responding would more likely lead to the guest giving up, then that is also a good plan.

You have met the guest, and so might have a better sense of what path would be best.

[Nancy644]

The guest will most likely get their money back since to airbnb you are just "inventory" and the guest is the paying customer.  I just had a guest cancel because of "extenuating circumstances" 2 weeks prior to arrival and the "extenuating circumstance" never occured.  airbnb gave them all their money back - case closed.

[Linda872]

I too have problems with cancellation and or requested fewer days. I host in a very seasonal Beach area and find this very discouraging. Does this reflect against the guest? My compromise is to offer to rebook at another time.

[Nancy644]

Before airbnb gave them all their money back my response was to give them another 3 day weekend next year for a reduced rate - virtually giving them 100% back.  They pretty much accepted my compromise then went to airbnb with the "extenuating circumstances" bit.  Every host needs to read this!  Did you know a guest could have a death in the family the day before check-in and get all their money back???  There are a number of other circumstances where the guest gets a refund in full and the host is left with zero. 

[Letti0]

@Chef0 Asking a month after cancelling is pretty strange. I would be inclined to just tell her: No additional refund as per the cancellation policy you agreed to.  I'm assuming she got 50% back already.  

[Jobi1]

My guest arrived my house, but want message me want to cancel, what should I do? I went through all the trouble to get cleaning lady and set it up, now she wants to cancel. My refund policy is full refund one day prior arrival. Not after arrived. 

Ehat should I do? Any suggestions? I also want to protect myself from bad reviews. 

Thank you in advance 

[Letti0]

@Jobi1  Either way she's going to be able to review you and just cause you give her a refund doesn't mean a good review. How long is she staying? You have a Moderate policy 50% 5 days before and 100% for 1st day and 2nd if she's booked for more than 1 day. Any days after the first 2 would be 50%. Why does she want to cancel? Need more info to direct you properly. 

[Stephen-and-Ivan0]

Hello we are Superhosts in Halfmoonbay , BC, Canada.

We have had several times now with Airbnb when a cancellation comes through and we are under the assumption that if the guest cancels then this is confirmed as the system notifies us of this. However in our situation what happened is Airbnb was trying to get final payment from our booked guest but the guest did not complete the transaction so the Airbnb system after sometime with automated notices to the guest and does not hear back from them just cancels the booking.

Moving onto what happned in our situations, the first time we cancelled the booking as Airbnb sent a message saying the guest cancelled, fortunately the guest sent a message asking something and we said we had thought they had cancelled and they said they had not but turns out the email or phone number of the guest was different , so whose to blame here. Fortunately the guest corrected the situation and the dates were not lost and they still enjoyed their stay with us. What concerns me is we send out a notice to all booked guests the day prior to their arrival but we would not have sent to this guest as they were no longer booked in our calendar.

Well this leads to situation number 2, same thing guest booked days and Airbnb was trying to get final payment and it did not go through so we got a cancellation however we just assumed it was cancelled by the guest for whatever reason, no it was cancelled due to not be able to process the final payment.

However we were not given notice by Airbnb this was the situation so the dates reopened in our calendar.

Day of arrival comes of this cancelled booking and low and behold the guests turn up thinking they have still a resevation, however i had rebooked those dates through another booking platform.

Now i am in a real situation, the guests don't believe me that their reservation is cancelled and i have to take hours out of my day to prove to them that it is . It turns out i put them up on our property for one night to help them out but informed them i could only for 1 night. I then helped them find another place for their second evening.

Ok so lets lead into what i am truly getting at here and that is we have a strict cancellation policy and the quests lost their 50% deposit and out of the kindness as a Superhost from what my payout said i was to receive the money. I was ok with that now so at least the guests had a place to stay and i was thinking i'd get the money from Airbnb and it would cover the night for these guests.

So, i received my payout notice and i did not see this payment , call the Superhost Airbnb hotline and spoke to the person at Airbnb and was informed the payment has been froze .

So please tell me what you would do as hosts in this situation.

My arms have been tied behind my back so many times with Airbnb and i am at wits end with having to spend hours of my valueable time and still have not received a followup email or call as promised by Airbnb helpline.

SS a Superhost for almost 7 years