Host Cancellation

[Brenda35]

Hi, I am very new to Airbnb as a host and at 65 I am considered elderly, not very computer literate as well. I switched on Instant Book and received a booking in Mayfor 7 nights for the peak period of December over Christmas. I did not realise how the pricing can be changed and needed to increase my price for that month, there is an option to change it but the guest rejected it so I cancelled the booking. I did this within 24 hrs of receiving it. My most valuable time is now not available (greyed out) and this with 6 months still to go ( at time of cancellation). Wow that's harsh. Is this normal?

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

You should not have cancelled the booking. When you do that it blocks the dates in your diary so that they are not available to other guests - it's one of the penalties for cancelling. It doesn't matter if you cancel within minutes or days or weeks.

As you are a new host I would suggest contacting AirBnB and explaining what happened and see if they will unblock the dates for you.

[Brenda35]

Hi, thank you for your reply, this whole experience has both taxed my brain and caused me so much stress. I have been running my cottage for 15 years and never had to go thru' this sort of thing. Yes I stopped instant book immediately but damage is done.

I managed to set rates per month soon after and now can't figure out how I did it. Yes I am trying to get used to it all.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

One more thought - I would suggest you turn off Instant Booking until you are more familiar with the way the booking system works. It will also give you more time to ask questions of potential guests, how many are coming, what for, etc...

All round it will be an easier and less stressful experience for you!

[Hugh6]

I have a similar problem. Instant booking is viscious. I've switched it off now but it has caused problems. I have spent 30 minutes trying to find a way to contact Airbnb. How?

[Brenda35]

Hi Hugh,

I also switched it off instantly. I have no idea how to contact Airbnb, it seems completely computerised. So good luck!

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

@Brenda0,  if Airbnb does not unblock those dates for you then the only way you will be able to book the space during those times would be to use a different platform (in other words, use a different website or different way of finding the guests.)  You would have been better off to let the guests stay for the lower price and then researched how to fix the price for all the other dates, instead of cancelling.  Airbnb has strict policies about hosts cancelling so that the travelers can depend upon the accommodation they have booked.  In future, if something comes up that seems a bit unusual or is confusing to you, you should come to the community and research the question before deciding how to handle it.  You can search your question by key words, or post your question as a new topic.  Kerrin

ps 65 is not elderly.

60 is the new 40 you know!

I'm 59 and no where near elderly yet.

[Brenda35]

Hello Kerrin,

You are right I am not elderly in any way, just not up to scratch with computer programmes especially the Airbnb one.

[Victoria73]

A few months ago a customer booked within 36 hours of coming to visit and then changed their mind and asked me to do the cancellation - I was too green to see the trap and so I pressed cancel. Now I get the 'Host cancelled within two days of arrival' which stays on my system for a year. I notice that the same custmer went somewhere nearby for that weekend.

Lesson 1 - Never Press Cancel. As this is a customer service based system try to get the customer to do it as they will not get the same penalties.

I think that the advice to hosts is don't have instant book until you have thought very carefully about your comms.

[Hugh6]

Victoria thanks for that. Eventually Airbnb came back to me and refunded me, which I thought was reasonable; but it was not fast and they very much keep you at arms length.  It was my first time, cancelling and it wasn't because I was be uncooperative. I have learnt the structure better and I have switched Instant Book off. Clearly there are some lessons we have to learn in the first few months and you are correct, one MUST look after oneself first otherwise you’ll be the victim. 

Thanks for your input. 

[Hana10]

My modest suggestion and request to Airbnb:

I am not new to Airbnb and quite computer literate. I have send a message to my requesting guest:  "Sorry I have to decline" and then oops pressed "confirm" instead "decline". I have realized it in a millisecond but could not go back. So I canceled that booking and now the consequences are as we all know... Now I have sent a message to Airbnb suggesting to give us a little time to withraw the confirm/ decline action. As an example I mentioned the known search engine and their emails platform as they recently offered an option to withraw sent email within a few second. This is comfortable e.g. for typicaly forgotten attachment mentioned in the email body or whatever else neglect. I have sent this to Airbnb and ironically a message popped up saying that I have been given 5 min to edit my message before it is been sent!!! 🙂  Wouldn ´t be nice to have such an option for our mistaken confirmation/ declination either reason it has happened? I understand this is business like any other and it has to be approached with responsability and Airbnb wants to be a reliable platform because it brings more clients to all of us. But ...Nobody´s perfect and the consequences of a simple mistake in this case are rather unnecessarily harsh.

[Hugh6]

Good idea  AND draw attention that Instant Booking is very complicated for Hosts.