Help!

[Lily79]

Hi! This is my first post so I don't really know how this works but I needed advice on a situation that happened to me today and I figured this would be the best place! 

I'm going to New Orleans at the end of October with 3 other people, and I booked a house about 4 months ago that fit a maximum of 4. Two other friends decided to tag along so now it's going to be 6 of us in total. I reached out to the host regarding extra guests even though the maximum amount was 4. She was helpful and offered to let me rent the bottom unit that was attatched to my original booking. I was happy that she was able to accommodate me and my extra guests, but she said I would first have to cancel my original booking and then rebook the entire house. I told her that it was fine but I would have to wait until I got my refund from the original booking because it was going to be an additional $600. She agreed and told me she would block those dates out that I needed. I got my refund yesterday and let her know that I was ready to book. She said it was unblocked but each time I checked it was still blocked on my end. I reached out to her twice yesterday explaining to her that I wasn't able to book, and I got no response. This morning she tells me that unfortunately someone already booked the top unit of the house that I originally had so I can no longer book the entire house, and that it was her mistake. She also said that she couldn't cancel the other persons booking because she didn't want to be penalized by AirBnb. 

So now I'm left with no booking, and anything else I've found that accommodates a party of 6 is $500 or more a night! I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now, and I don't know if I should reach out to customer service? I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out with this! 

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Lily79:
This is an unfortunate situation for you and there are no good answers. Airbnb does not have an option to reserve days for specific guests unless an inquiry is received which did not happen in this case. Under the current system, when a host unblocks their calendar the days become available for anyone to book. A host who uses instant book can recieve an instant booking at any second and becomes stuck. It sounds like your host unblocked her calendar for you and someone instant booked before you could book. Now if the host cancels that reservation they will bring the possibility of a fine from Airbnb and other serious repercusions.

What I have done in the past is get the guest on the phone, unblock the days and the guest immediately hits the book button to keep this scenario from happening.

As I said, there are no good answers to your problem. I understand that you are a group and would like to stay together, but perhaps you can find two houses in very close proximity to each other?

[Lily79]

Thanks for your response @Tim-and-Holly0! I understand that someone else may have booked it when it was unblocked, but this host had a separate booking for just the upstairs unit (which is the one she told me to cancel) and the entire home, which included the top and bottom unit. So she blocked the dates for the entire home, but what she said to me was that she forgot to block the booking for the upstairs unit. Sorry if this is confusing! I'm just really frustrated because she accepted a booking from another person even though I had been in contact with her about it. I know she's not obligated to accept mine, but she told me she would, that's why I'm upset 😞 I do appreciate the feedback though! 

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Lily79:
Yes, you have a reason to be upset and I'm right there with you!

[Helen3]

This is completely the hosts fault and could have been completely avoided. All she had to do was turn off Instant Book for a few hours to enable you to send a booking request for the whole listing.

Why she didn't do that I don't know.

I can't really suggest a solution.

Reach out to Airbnb and ask for their advice.

[David126]

I am always careful to say the current situation, I operate on a first come first served basis, you never know if an inquiry will result in a booking. Do not see what can be done now, move on and book somewhere else.

[Marzena4]

@Helen3 I would say, she should have done it but she didn't. Just like we, hosts, very often have to be understanding towards our guests because of ... (here goes a long list of excuses), now @Lily79 must be understanding towards the host. It was really hard to predict that such a coincidence happened.

And a good lesson for other hosts for the future.