Unblocking Cancellations

[Steve196]

I need some advice. I blocked some dates in my Airbnb calender for a booking from another accomodation site. That booking has now been cancelled. Between these two events I have started to utilise the services of a booking service to make sure all my calenders are up to date. My calanders are correct on the other sites but I can`t find a way to remove them on Airbnb, there is no Block/Unblock option on the right of the page as there used to be.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

Steve

[Alex380]

That's correct. All of this happened overnight, and if the pre approved option had been turned off it would not have been a problem. Guest A is alright with cancellation, and since I have never cancelled before there are no penalties. These things happen. But now the first guest (Guest B) cannot book their dates because they are blocked. 

[David126]

There is no first cancellation free on AirBnb, now what they will do or not I do not know, nothing in their policies.

[Dee9]

The solution is...you suck up the penalty and take it as a lesson learned. Your attitude "these things happen" is exactly why they punish people. 

You're paying the price for cancelling and that's just the way it is. I don't know what you're looking for from us. 

[Wendy-and-Frank0]

@Dee9, you're such a New Yorker!  😉

[Dee9]

Thank you! 

[Heather172]

Hi all, I cancelled a booking as the guest booked the wrong dates, now they want to re book some of those same dates and I cant seem to unblock the cancelled dates. Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers

[Dee9]

@Heather172

youre kidding right?

have you not been reading the thread? is this a joke?

[Heather172]

Actually Diane;

 I have read through some of the threads and have noticed that you're rather rude with your replies to some people and not very helpful. Id like to hear from friendly helpful people in the community, that can communicate on a mature level,unlike yourself!

[Steve143]

Hello @Heather172,

The information in all the other posts in this thread is that there are penalties for a host who cancels, full stop.

One of the several penalties is that your dates are blocked. I'm a host. What penalties apply if I need to cancel a reservation?

You should never cancel unless the reason is one of the ones listed in What is Airbnb's extenuating circumstances policy?

When a guest makes a mistake, like your guest did, they must cancel. There's no need for you to pay for their mistake.

If you feel like it you can refund them, after they cancel, any amount that's not covered by your cancellation policy.

It's just that hosts asked for advice on this forum see this question asked several times every single day by some host who thinks that their cancellation, done because of some calendar mix up "problem",  somehow deserves a special dispensation. The Airbnb policy is that those issues do not get any dispensation.

They also see repeated examples every single day of someone posting in a thread to ask a question that shows that they haven't got the message from the previous answers in that thread.

Steve.

[Heather172]

Thanks Steve for your informative reply, however I still do not agree with the ONE policy for every issue. I thought I was doing my guest a favour, now she loses out! Like I said with any business, policies do need to be revised from time to time. While I do agree it would be frustrsting to see the same questions asked again and again, I do not agree that a rude reply is needed. If you're a community member here wanting to help others, then one needs to tolerate others be respectful and helpful not belittle them, it's sure put me off coming to this community for help, however thankyou once again for your help. 

[Dee9]

@Heather172

I believe weve helped many guests on the same 2 issues over & over...How do i unblock?...and...How do I contact airbnb? There are soooooooo many threads on these 2 questions yet they keep popping up. We're just not understanding how they keep being missed.

Anyway heres some information that may be helpful...

If a guest books the wrong dates thats the guests problem. The guest needs to cancel/change/contact airbnb. And now you learned why!

You didnt have to cancel - you could have altered the reservation without canceling. You also could have sent the guest a 'special offer' which would have allowed you to change the dates.

If you dont like airbnbs policies you can let your opinions be known via their 'feedback' link. I believe that is under their Help section.

[James422]

Hi Heather, Yes Diane is quite rude and obviously doesn't understand the nuances of this scenario.  

I just listed my rental last week and am having the exact same issue you have with needing to cancel and rebook specific dates.  I'm seeking help on #airbnbhelp on Twitter.  They were able to help when I realized I had a typo in my listing address.  

[James422]

I understand the cancellation policy completely and am fine with it.  However, my situation is that I pre-approved a reservation request for a guest and placed a 24 hour hold on the dates.  Well within 2 hours, the pre-approval expired - NOT 24 hours and someone else managed to book one of the days the first person had requested.  I followed the rules here and I'd be interested in hearing how or why my pre-approval expired along with the hold I placed on the dates within 2 hours.  Something is not right with that and I can guarantee you that I followed the process correctly.

[James422]

@Heather0, if you want real customer service and not some snarky response from a bitter old New Yorker, I recommend contacting Airbnb customer service who will actually listen to your situation and evaluate it for an appropriate resolution.  

Their phone number is 1-855-424-7262.  

I spoke with a warm, friendly and understanding agent, and she followed up with a confirmation email regarding our conversation:

This is Kennedy with the Customer Experience Team at Airbnb. I spoke with you a few moments ago about your pre-approval issue. Thank you for contacting us about that. I know situations like this can be frustrating, especially when you are trying to honor a commitment made between host and guest. I just want you to know that we are here to help.

I will now send your case to the department that is better equipped to assist you in this situation. Once assigned, a case manager will reach out to you. I just want to make sure that you are properly taken care of.

I hope you have more luck going this route than on this forum. 🙂

[Heather172]

@James422 Thank-you so much for the info. People like that really put you off coming to the forum for help!

Good luck with your situation Cheers Heather