Instant booking and cancellation

[Jill184]

 Hi. I'm pretty new to Airbnb and I find some of the settings tricky and information not easily accessible. I just put my main house back up for rent and before I have a chance to even go into  The settings for the holidays, someone went in instant booked.   They were very gracious when I was honest with them about the booking.   He wrote me go tonight and asked for me to return the deposit but I have no idea what he is talking about. I have so many questions I could be asking as I can't find out how to change the price for the holidays. I was able to do it on my guest house but  for some reason on my newly listing my main house, I can't find it anywhere. Nevertheless, for right now, this man that instant bowl is asking me to refund him the deposit. If he chest cancels, won't he get a full refund?

Thank you!

best!

jill

[Steve143]

Hello @Jill184,

Hosts really should have all aspects of the listing sorted before the listing is public as guests expectations and money are involved.

If this guest has booked your "Designer house in the heart of Sherman Oaks" listing then, if he cancels, he won't get a full refund for, two reasons.

First, you have a strict cancellation policy so he'll get back at most 50% of the accommodation fees and may not get any back, depending on whether his cancellation is done more than or less than 7 days before the checkin date.

Second, he won't get back the fees that Airbnb charge him, which are about 10% of the accommodation fees.

So if he cancels he looses money, all because you didn't have your listing's setup ready.

He'll get a full refund of accommodation fees and Airbnb fees if you cancel but there are host penalties if you cancel.

You can either honour the reservation as it stands, contact Airbnb and plead your case or cancel it unilaterally and take the penalties. I'm a host. What penalties apply if I need to cancel a reservation?

These articles, found when I typed "price" in the search box having clicked on "Help", describe various aspects of price setting.

How do I set my nightly price?

How do I set a custom price for specific nights, weeks or months?

How do I set custom prices for weekends or holidays?

How do I choose my listing's price?

You have a security deposit set on the "Designer house ..." listing. maybe the guest is asking for that to be returned. If so there's nothing for you to worry about. Tell the guest two things. First that all payment issues are between him and Airbnb as he pays Airbnb, not you. He should contact Airbnb support. Second, Airbnb does not actually charge him that deposit in the normal sense of a deposit. It's just an ammount that Airbnb may charge him in the case that a host makes a claim for damage and if Airbnb supports that claim.

The "Help" search box came to the rescue again when I typed "deposit" there. The following article showed up.

How does Airbnb handle security deposits?

Steve.

[Jill184]

Hi Steve.  Thank you for the information.  I agree with you on everything.  Where the line is gray is the site itself doesn't easily or maybe even at all (I don't know) allow for a mistake or anything mitigating unless it's catastophic.  Adding a simple layer protects both a host and guest should a booking error occur, like adding if cancellation of booking is within 24 hours or 48 hours there are no penalties, which is reasonable and customary in the travel world, it would be much more advisable.  To not have that layer, is a design for airbnb, not the customers whether they are or guest. Plus, what we are "clicking" as host is not always well explained. I have more than once had to search and spend alot of unnessary time trying to make a change to parts of my listings.  There is little individual design to hosting a listing.  There are usually no addtional options within clicking on a choice, in order to individualize what is best suited for a listing.  For my small guesthouse, airbnb is great - the best, but with my bigger property, it's tricky.  

Airbnb does everything to encourage "instant book," saying there will be no penalities for cancellation, so when I tried to have control over the bookings for my home when  I just recently put it up, when I went to take instant book off, that pop window came up, saying I would recieve no penalty or negative mark for a cancellation and so I left it on, but when I actually did cancel on that very same day, a pop up then said I would get a penalty.  Such misleading encouragement and pop ups does not appear friendly.  

Thank you!

Jill