Short notice business bookings - delay in acceptance

[Sue824]

I use Air BnB for my company's business travel and often have to book short notice accommodation.  I booked accommodation for a recent trip, did not receive any email confirmation, nor did it show up in my account. When I checked the accommodaiton it was now saying my selected dates were  unavailable.  I urgently needed to find accommodation so I booked an alternative listing.  This confirmed almost immediately.  Then at about 7pm that evening the original booking also confirmed so I now had 2 bookings. I tried to cancel this one but from £1700 I would only receive £60 refund!

For business accounts 24 hours to respond is far too long.  We're all busy people and can't wait 12 hours and definitely not 24 hours for a response.  At the very least, could the host reply to confirm whether to go ahead?

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sue824 

You need to contact Airbnb about this. Sounds like a technical error.

They will be able to cancel the booking no longer required.

[Sue824]

Thanks Helen3, I have emailed Airbnb and let's hope they'll look into it.

[Alon1]

@Sue824 

re. 'At the very least, could the host reply to confirm whether to go ahead?'

Yes. But you can also contact the Host.

On booking page see  'Contact Host' below 'Response Rate' & 'Response Time'.

Most reliable those showing: 

Response Rate: 100% 

Response  Time: Within an hour 

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[David3267]

There does seem a slight disconnect here. Currently awaiting two responses from potential bookers. One query at midnight and one 1 hour ago, both queries I responded to almost instantly (within 10 minutes) and then total silence. The one 1 hour ago wanted to check in within 3 hours but when I gave her an hour to respond she didn't (we need to get over there and clean and set up the aprtment!) My point is that whilst we always respond withing 1 hour we so often hear nothing back. If someone is that concerned about rapid response and is frustrated  and needs an urgent instantaneous reply then perhaps for business use they should consider a business hotel or understand the premise of Airbnb?

[Sue824]

I did!  I made the initial enquiry at 11:15am, followed up in the afternoon and finally got a reply at almost 6pm, despite the listing stating response time within 1 hour.  Unfortunately as I finish work at 4.30pm I didn't see this until 7pm

[Alon1]

@Sue824 

Thanks for clarification, and with it confirmation that you contacted the Host and received a reply.

Thus it would have been more precise to query: why a Host with 1 hour Response Time takes 6 - 7 hours to reply?

The only one who can answer is that Host in person.

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