Need to cancel all future reservations

[Melissa229]

We were doing Airbnd in our rental but our landlord has now said we can not do this any longer. Unfortunately we have reservations booked through August. At least 30 of them. What do we do? Deactivate listing? Contact Airbnb? We don't wnat to be charged cancellation fees for all of those bookings. Please help us folks! Thanks

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Melissa229 For that number of bookings, you will need to contact Airbnb. With any luck, they may see it as an extenuating circumstance, which is what it is IMO. All ways to contact Airbnb are HERE. I think Twitter gets the fastest response these days. Best of luck with that! - Karen

P.S. You need to snooze your listing or block your calendar as you still show dates available in July and August

[Melissa229]

Thank you! I hadn't realized I didn't already block everything, omigoodness. Yes I agree it's an extra ting circumstance. I'm. It sure what to offer as proof except a letter from landlord?

[Marit-Anne0]

@Melissa229

Perhaps you could negotiate with your landlord to honour existing bookings ?  Try and explain the consequneces for those who have already booked.  

[Melissa229]

Yes we sat down at the negotiating table and no luck. So in meantime for anyone about a month out I have offered a suggestion of alternative booking in same neighborhood same cost about and I think that helps. But some are worried about refunds. Isn't it true if they cancel as the guest, given our flexible cancellation policy that they would all get there money back? Should I just message with, hey we have this problem, we re sorry we suggest you cancel as we are still trying to resolves with Airbnb and they will charge  us 

[Marit-Anne0]

@Melissa229

The letter from the landlord should be a good a proof as any.  

If guests cancel, they will refunded according to your cancellation policy, less airbnb charges.  Well informed guests will ask you to cancel and face the penalties as this is no fault of the guest.  If you have some very recent bookings that are within the new cancellation policies, the guests are able to cancel and get a full refund, airbnb fees included.  

I would suggest you inform all your guests asap as they need to make alternate plans.  

[Rachael26]

@Melissa229

At the risk of being the mean voice here - I am assuming from your post that your landlord never knew you were hosting guests through Airbnb - and when they did find out they asked you to stop?

If that was the case - it was SO irresponsible of you and your partner to set up a listing. Airbnb make it very clear in their conditions that you must make sure that your property, and the local town/city/county, have authorized you to rent out a space.

I have never seen a residential rental contract (the lease you signed with your landlord) that allows additional paying guests or permission to sub-let WITHOUT the express written permission of the owner. There are all sorts of legal issues that could result - including a guest who refuses to leave and ends up with housing rights, someone injuring themselves as your guest and wanting to claim on a public liability policy, extensive accidental/deliberate damage to the property that needs insurance compensation being disallowed because you were not legally permitted to have guests. Although these things are rare occurances, they do happen, and you have lost the backing of Airbnb because you had no valid permissions in the first place - therefore you would personally become liable.

So there shouldn't be any extenuating circumstances here. You will be fined and your guests, and/or Airbnb, will have to find alternative accomodation which is not only disruptive for them as travelers, but a bad mark against Airbnb as the booking company.

So best advice - delist your property immediately, and cancel your profile if you do not want to pay the fines you should pay as it is unlikely Airbnb would chase you down for them - often they just add them to your account to be taken from future booking fees.

Sorry to be the voice of doom. And apologies if you did indeed have written permission from your landlord and they have just decided to take that permission away. Oh, and your landlord will also be responsible for the State sales tax, and local occupancy tax applicable for the guests that have stayed with you since the beginning of your listing - so make sure you give them all the details and your gross earnings for 2016 and 2017.

Wouldn't it be nice if it was all just as simple as taking money from some nice people who stayed for a while in your spare room. Unfortunately it's not.

Best Wishes.

[Melissa229]

Hi Rachel. Thank you for your message. Our landlord did know and did approve. However neither party did proper research into the insurance implications and for that we are responsible. I want to communicate clearly with our guests but I imagine some might panic about their money not being refunded. Do you know if we delist/deactivate without  one by one cancellations if Airbnb will refund those guests?

[Rachael26]

@Melissa229

Thanks for clarifying the landlord permission thing. It's too bad that this hasn't worked out for you both as it is obvious that you are VERY good hosts from all the great reviews you received. I do hope you get a chance to do so again.

But the bottom line is that, with so many future bookings (you mentioned 30 plus) you really need to contact Airbnb. And do so immediately. To be fair to your future guests, some of whom this will be their one and only long awaited vacation, they need to be informed as soon as possible. Not wait until you figure out a way not to be culpable for any cancellation consequences.

I am not advocating this suggestion here - but I did read of one experienced (community expert) host give advice to another in your similar circumstances to go ahead and let Airbnb take charge, cancel or rehouse the guests, let you off or indeed fine you for the cancellations - and then go ahead and remove your profile and 'disappear'. He said that it was unlikely that Airbnb can, or would, come after you for the fine amount.

But I do advocate being responsible for whatever actions you make, knowingly or unknowingly, and to accept the consequences.

You made money hosting, and are now costing many guests (and Airbnb) time and trouble as a result. So take it on the chin, own it, and move on.

Best of Luck to you both.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Melissa229

The rental contract is between you and your guest and airbnb does not really have any responsability at all - it is more or less just a listing service for private owners.

If your landlord approved to begin with and you have proof thereof, you are both at fault and it would be fair that you should share the cancellation expenses.

[Melissa229]

Ok. That seems to make sense. Shared responsibility is definitely the case here. We will look into this possibility.  Thank you!

[Rachael26]

@Melissa229

Stop delaying the inevitable and CONTACT AIRBNB!

You are being selfish. This isn't about you and hoping to save money and not pay fines - you don't even know if you will be fined or for how much! Just get on with doing the right thing and allow someone to start helping all those 30 plus guests you will no longer be able to host.

[Susy23]

Any updates as to how this panned out? We’re in a similar hosting situation, and while I have a message in to the admins, I’d like to hear from this side as well.  

[Melissa229]

Hey there, it was a lot easier than I'd expected. I called up Airbnb (sorry don't know which exact number, but it was a real person I spoke to) and explained that our landlords insurance policy had changed up. We worked on a plan where we kept reservations within 4 wk time block (hesitant ok from landlord), notified all the future guests of the change and heads up on us canceling their reservation, along with a suggestion of another listing in same neighborhood (a trusted friend) and this very message which I've copied and pasted in from our original messages (shows action Airbnb took on guests' behalf). Most folks were really understanding. Airbnb basically paused our host status (sorry I forget the actual term but essentially or listing no longer appeared on the site) and told us this would not hurt our ability to host in the future should we want to. Good luck!!!

-Melissa

"I have already contacted Airbnb and they are processing the cancellation. You will not incur any penalties whatsoever. In fact your money will be available on the site, to either apply towards a new booking or request a full refund. You should be receiving an email from Airbnb soon."

[Melissa229]

@Susy23 one more thing... We knew that fines might be possible so we also had our landlord sign off on a letter to Airbnb just in case, explaining his insurance company's policy/change in his okay for us to host. When I called Airbnb I let them know we had x letter, asked if we should send and they actually said "no need".