Better Not Call Sol; And Don’t Call Airbnb Either
Sol, who ‘hosts’ among other properties “Prime carroll gardens chrming 2 bed rooms (Entire home/apt hosted by Sol)”, also known as *sensitive information hidden* , cancelled on us on a Thursday, five days before we were scheduled to stay at the property beginning the following Tuesday. His message: “Sport we need to cancel we had a major plumbing problem and can’t host.” No proof of a major plumbing problem. No explanation for why the problem couldn’t get fixed by Tuesday. No evidence of any plumbing problems in that block of Smith St.
What would the penalty have been if we had cancelled on Sol five days before the rental began? We would’ve forfeited our entire payment. What was Sol’s penalty? He still had to pay his 3% fee to Airbnb, about $10 a night for four nights. And he may have had to pay a $100 penalty for dumping someone on short notice a second time. Yes, that was my mistake, not paying attention to an automatic posting from Airbnb saying that Sol cancelled on someone else. Because Airbnb imposes almost no penalty on its hosts, Airbnb makes it easy for a host to find a higher paying rental and dump the “guest” who made the reservation weeks or months earlier.
And what recourse does Airbnb allow a “guest”? None. Airbnb posts an automated response – in this case “The host canceled this reservation 5 days before arrival. This is an automated posting.” – that the “guest” cannot modify.
Why is this? Let’s look at the economics. Although Airbnb may call you a “guest,” you are not a guest. Instead, you are the person from whom Airbnb makes its money. It does this by charging a service fee on each rental. That service fee is paid by the guest, who is, in reality, a service-fee assessment payer, or SAP. And like some other parasites, Airbnb protects its host at the SAP’s expense.
When Sol cancelled on us, Airbnb refunded our money – mighty nice of it – and offered a break on our service fee if we rented another Airbnb listing, but only if the next listing cost us SAPs at least as much or more. Here is its message: “We know this is tough, so we’re giving you a full refund and a $169.35 coupon to make sure you still have a great stay in Brooklyn. Use it on a new reservation of equal or greater value anytime in the next 30 days.” In other words, if the SAP finds a new reservation that costs a little less, Airbnb makes the SAP pay the full service fee. It offers nothing to help the SAP find something in a pinch. Bottom line: Don’t be a SAP by using Airbnb.
