Multiple nights booked through separate bookings

[Samuel235]

I had a guest who was originally booked for a single night. During their stay they decided to book a second night, but instead of changing their booking to two nights, they made a separate booking for the second night and it was accepted with instant book. I didn't want to cancel the second night then adjust the original booking because as I understand it cancellations will negatively affect my listings.

There are some pains with the fact that it's a separate booking--I had to refund the cleaning fee on the second night, and now Airbnb expects me to write two reviews for each separate night. I don't think it's appropriate to do that (especially because the guest hasn't bothered to give me a review), but if I don't it'll affect my review %.

Any recommendations?

[Lawrene0 · Accepted solution]

Guests say the system will not allow them to alter their stay after they have arrived. I haven't tried it, so don't know, but perhaps it was not possible for the guest to do anything but create a second booking to extend his stay. It was good of you to refund the cleaning fee for the second night. That was just through the resolution centre, is that right, @Samuel235? So it took only a minute?

It would be nice of the guest to review you, especially after all that, so if you think he might not, you could write him and ask. If you are low on reviews, it would not be out of order. When you say that if you don't review the guest it will affect your percentage, it appears you misunderstand the stats. Easily done, but percentage of reviews means reviews of you by your guests. We are not scored on how many reviews we write. 

I have no recommendations, though. This is just something that sometimes happens. 

[Samuel235]

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@Lawrene0 wrote:

Guests say the system will not allow them to alter their stay after they have arrived. I haven't tried it, so don't know, but perhaps it was not possible for the guest to do anything but create a second booking to extend his stay.

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I think it's possible. I did it myself as a guest a while back, but I don't think it's very obvious how to do it, so I can see why the guest booked separately. It would be cool if Airbnb could detect situations where a guest tries to book consequtive bookings and turn it into a single booking change instead.

@Lawrene0 wrote:

When you say that if you don't review the guest it will affect your percentage, it appears you misunderstand the stats. Easily done, but percentage of reviews means reviews of you by your guests. We are not scored on how many reviews we write. 

I have no recommendations, though. This is just something that sometimes happens. 

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Ah that makes more sense! Thanks for the clarification. I won't worry about writing a second review then.

[Ange2]

@Samuel    "as I understand it cancellations will negatively affect my listings."

The rule of thumb is never cancel. 

If you have to always call Airbnb, never do it via the site, not even for Instant Book, the penalties are many including fines and blocked days, no Superhost for a year and more.  If you ever receive an email from Airbnb asking you if you want to cancel click 'No', clicking yes will result in penalties. Never cancel if a guest asks you to - more penalties.  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reser...

[Brendon25]

Hi Team, just wondered if there was a way a guest can pay 1 booking fee if they need 2 seperate blocks of accommodation. Unfortunately I have a guest already staying for 3 nights between the dates the new guest wants to stay. She has messaged me and said she is being charged 2 x $250 booking fees. Is this correct and is there anyway around it ? Thanks for your help!!  

[Julie3388]

Hello All,

I had this same thing happen and lost three nights of rent due to my prep time setting and the guest not knowing how to extend stays.  I reported it to Airbnb and asked respectfully that it be brought to the attention of their tech team to resolve.  My guest did pay the cleaning fee and did not ask for a refund on that and I think I would not have refunded unless they had actually checked out, left the listing, and returned 24 hours later.  I don't know how to resolve this other than Airbnb identifying consecutive bookings and somehow asking the guest if they are checking out.  Maybe they can come up with something.