Host cancellation penalty ?

[Michelle1813]

I am a host. 

The prices that AirBnB set for my guest's one month stay is too low (from around $30 per night, to only $10 per night because AirBnB give discounts to this guest), and I told my guest I can't accept that. (My reason was my apartment isn't suitable for long term stay...)

I found out that my AirBnB account is set to instant booking mode, so it accepts guests automatically. I asked my guest to cancel, but it turns out my guest requested me to cancel. Sadly, I didn't read this correctly. I thought he requested cancellation on his behalf, not my behalf.

On the AirBnB article that I read, it said "hosts who have Instant turned on for their listing can always cancel, without penalty"

I am new to AirBnB, so I don't know all of AirBnB's features yet. My questions are :

1. How can I know if I got penalty for the cancellation ?

2. My calendar is blocked, and the cancelled booking was for a month ! Is there any possibility for me to unblock this ? And how ?

3. Is the instant book mode actually useful ? I am afraid that this kind of situation happens again and that I need to cancel, and my calendar will be blocked again.

-Please do give me tips on how to be a great host too !-

Thank You.

[Ann72]

@Michelle1813 You have no listings under your profile, so I can't look at it to see if you've offered the first three guests some kind of discount (this is common with new listings).  Airbnb doesn't set the price or offer discounts.  When you set up your listing, you set the nightly price, and then you probably set discounts for week-long or month-long stays.  You also chose to set Instant Book on.  Look at your listing and then look at "Booking Settings," "Pricing," and "Availability."

Because the guest booked according to the prices and policies that you set, you can't cancel without penalty.  It's not kosher at all to cancel a reservation because you want more money for it.  Your best bet is to accept this booking and learn from it.  Look carefully at your prices and discounts.  And until you get more experience, turn Instant Book off.

[Michelle1813]

Hi Ann72, 

Sorry,  I use another account for hosting. Yes, I did offer three guest a 20% discount, and i set the original price as $30. However, AirBnB discounted this person way more than 20%, and I can't discover what's causing it yet.

I will try to reset my prices and look carefully on the prices from now on. Thanks for that tip !

One question - How can I know if I got the penalty or not ? Since it's Instant Book and AirBnB said Instant Book host may get no penalties for 3 times...

[Sarah977]

@Michelle1813  If you cancelled, then yes, you will get a penalty. You need to contact Airbnb if you need to cancel, and let them do the cancellation penalty-free, but they will only do that for a good reason. Since you're a new host, you could try calling them to see if they'll forgive this one, telling them you didn't understand how to do your pricing.

It's up to you to have all your pricing set the way you want it. I 'd suggest you snooze your listing until you have all your settings correct.  Checking that all the settings are how you want them is important to do before  you put your listing up .Also read through all the information for hosts on the Airbnb Help pages on the Airbnb site so you understand how everything works.

Also, it is helpful, if you want assistance from other hosts, to post under the account you have your listing under, so other hosts can check on your listing to tell you how things appear to anyone who is looking at it. If you had done that, others could have told you exactly what discounts were applied. 

[Michelle1813]

Thank you so much for your help !

[Ann72]

@Michelle1813  Did they get a monthly discount on top of the 20% discount?