Our Upcoming Guest Passed Away Last October !

[Ann678]

*removed comms in line with the Community Guidelines*

THE BACK STORY.

A French lady messaged us on 19th July 2018 and requested to book our villa for herself and her family members ( 8 persons) for 28 days starting on 16th August to 13th September this year. We accepted and she went ahead and made the booking.

Last Friday morning we sent her a welcoming email about her stay and our check in procedure. On Sunday we tried her telephone number and were told it no longer existed. After dithering a bit, we went to Google search (she was a well known architect ) to try to find her through other means and discovered the above link.

So now,  first of all, after the shock of this lady's death, we're now reeling in shock at the thought that we've lost 4,200 euros from this booking. And the reality is that we're never going to be able to attract new reservations at this short notice. This is our high season and seeing as we only operate for 3 months of the year  - tourist season on our island runs from midJune to mid September - we are essentially screwed!

Questions are swirling around in our heads, but we're confused...  Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,  

Ann & Vassilis.

[Rowena29]

Oh dear @Ann678 

What a bizarre situation to find youself in.

I'm so sorry that you have lost money over this.

It's easy to be wise in hindsight, but I think I would have kept this to myself instead of ringing airbnb - given that she died last OCTOBER.  I'm not absolutely clear when airbnb collect the money from guests, but I'm thinking they must have had at least some of it, if not all of it.  If her executors were  going challenge for a refund they would have done so by now I would have thought.

Equally , I can't for the life of me see HOW airbnb will refund the money. It's most unlikely this persons bank accounts are still open to do a reversal.

I strongly suspect airbnb will end up with the extra cash - or it will end up sitting in cyber limbo land and never be cashed.

At least your dates are open - I know it's not likely you will get another booking but at least it's possible.

Other more experienced hosts may have actual advice to offer.

Good luck!

[Ann678]

Thanks, @Rowena29 we couldn't agree more with you. It's almost surreal if it wasn't so tragic.Abnb had all the money -we've got strict cancellation plus 28 day booking comes under long term policy. Our lawyer, poor babe, is trawling through t&c as I write... we've since found her daughter's whereabouts but are reluctant to call her. It feels insensitive somehow so the mystery remains. What do you think? Like you, wondering if that money is somewhere in limboland.

Thanks again for your input.   

Best,  Ann & Vassilis

[Elena87]

@Ann678 

It there ever was an extenuating circumstance, this certainly is it.

I disagree with Rowena about keeping quiet about this, it doesn't sit well with me. It's the honourable path to report this information.

I think you should contact the deceased daughter after all and gently explain, I think she would be glad to know. In some cases it does take a period of time to wind up an estate.

Operationally, with such a short season, you increase your exposure to risk if you allow potential long term bookings. It's an unfortunate sequence of events, but who knows with the extenuating policy, you might end up on the wrong side in the future.   You will know best though if this booking exceeds your usual expect duration, perhaps to suggest to cap the potential booking length to lower the risk.

Good luck, and hope you do manage to catch some bookings to cover some of these days.

[Ann678]

Hi @Elena87

Thanks for your reply, it's interesting what you mention about long term bookings, we'll likely follow your advice.

Funnily enough, after I'd said we probably wouldn't get new bookings at such short notice, well, it happened.  Last night.

We'd greatly reduced our nightly rate ;-(  ;-/ at the villa but not at our Sea Suite, it's cheap enough as it is for what we offer, in a desperate attempt to attract customers and, lo & behold, 2 people are coming in September. So we are managing, so far, to claw back a wee bit of the original amount. Fingers and everything else crossed.

We're still debating whether to contact her daughter or not. I suppose she, at least should benefit and we'd know that the money had gone into her pocket!

Thanks again, Elena. Greatly appreciated.

Ann & Vassilis.

[Lyn3]

@Ann678 

Hi Ann,

Gosh this is an unfortunate situation all round. I am wondering why not one person in the group (the other seven who were going on the trip) ever thought to let you know what had happened ??

[Ann678]

Thank you for your reply @Lyn3 . Yes, it does make you wonder... All we can surmise is that they don't know the ins and outs of Abnb. ;-/ But wouldn't you think they might want the holiday anyway seeing as it's already paid for ?

Or, with a simple phone call to notify us or the company then cancel, sometime after a decent length of time , November, let's say, we could then have gone ahead and opened our calendar for new bookings which were bound to appear?  All these thoughts are hypothetical, of course. 

Thanks again.

Ann.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ann678 

As @Elena87  said, it is too risky to accept more than 1 week reservations if your high season is so short. Maybe you could set up your max stay at 7 nights in the future. And accepting bookings 1 year in advance is also risky, my calendar is open just 6 months in the future

[Ann678]

Hi @Branka-and-Silvia0  Thanks for your advice, it helps a lot. We'll also go with the calendar open 6 months in the future. We have had guests who booked about a year in advance before and all was fine, so we thought nothing about it this time.

Anyway,  sigh  ,  a hard lesson has now been learnt!    ;-/  ;-(

One tiny tiny good thing to come out of this nightmare ...    we now know how to take screenshots !!

 Oh, one weird thing, too  -  on accepting her booking we checked out her gorgeous apartment in Paris - yes, she was a host! Then at some point , but dammit, I don't remember when, I looked again and it had been removed from her profile.  ( It still says 'host' with reviews as well) 

Hhmm !     Fishy, or what?

Thanks for your suggestion, Silvia and Branca, it makes great sense.

Best wishes,    Ann.

[Melanie33]

@Ann678  It is very sad about your guest but of course is possible that the other seven intended to stay with you. If they are not Airbnb savvy then they would not know that it would constitute a third party booking.  

Glad you have at least filled some of your vacancy.

it is difficult to know the right thing to do in these circumstances. You have a business but of course want to be sensitive to the situation.

[Ann678]

Hi @Melanie33  Yes, I agree with you about the other 7 guests, as I mentioned in my message to @Lyn3 above. We're trying  to be philosophical now that the initial shock is starting to wear off. But...

With my best Miss Marple hat on,  I'm wondering if her last review as a host in July 2018 possibly indicates that her lovely listing in Paris was taken down a few months later because after a period of time I could find no trace of it. I've been wracking my brains to try to remember when I last looked at her apartment, as you sometimes do when a place catches your eye... Which leads on to some big questions, when and why WAS it taken down and who did it?

Thanks Melanie, for shaking up my brain cells a wee bit.

Ann.

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Ann678 ,

So sorry to hear you're in this dreadful situation. Could I please ask you get in touch with CS? I have let them know about this thread and they have a note on your account - they will be able to help you through this tough situation.

You can reach them by using a viable method from this link: Contact Us.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Ann678]

Hi @Stephanie

  Thanks for getting in touch with us about this issue. We'll get back to you when we've been in contact with CS.

Best wishes,

Vassilis & Ann.

[Stephanie]

@Ann678  Thanks for letting us know, I do hope for a successful resolution!

Thanks again,

Stephanie