cancelations

[Frank93]

I had a guest book a reservation through the instant booking feature.  Within the hour the guest contacted me and said his travel companions can't make the dates requested and due to the high cost to him (non-refundable fees) of this cancelation he asked that I cancel the reservation from my side.  If I do this the guests gets his fees back.   I figured OK - I can do that - however, after seeing the fee(small) that I will pay and the other "punishments" from AirBnB (no superhost status for a year plus a notification on my review page stating that I canceled the reservation) I now wonder if I should cancel from my side.  This is the first request from a guest to have me cancel so that the guest is not monetarily punished.  How have others hosts handled a request like this?  I have had to cancel one other reservation request so my superhost status is already compromised.  Thank you.

[John738]

I have just spent 2 hours trying to cancel a booking.  I believed our calendar for 2018 was blocked as our unit will not be available and last night received a 6 day booking for January, not even at our current rate.  Did not receive a text message, just an email, opened this morning.

I have followed the prompts to cancel the booking but nothing happens.  

I have contacted the guest direct but of course he wants a refund.  Surely the "alter or cancel" section should generate this refund?

I am extremely frustrated.

JOHN

[Maureen98]

Hi Everyone,

 I need some quick advice. I had a guest who book for 12 nights.(departing Aug. 13). He just informed me today that he wants to leave early on Monday. I've never had this happen to me before. How should I handle this. I've read a lot about cancellations before arrival, but not much about early departure. Do I refund guest for unused days or do they handle that through Airbnb. Please advise. Thanks.

[Clare0]

@Maureen98 You have a choice here.  You may alter the reservation to shorten the stay or ask the guest to cancel.  Depending on the reasons given by the guest for wanting to leave early, many hosts would simply make an alteration to the reservation so that the guest would be refunded for the nights not used.  

Here are some helpful articles on this: 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1499/what-happens-to-my-payout-if-my-guest-cancels-their-reserva...

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50/i-m-a-host--how-do-i-make-a-change-to-a-confirmed-reservation

I hope this helps!

[Julie620]

I have always found Airbnb so easy to use, however, I need to cancel some bookings. I am a host but every time I follow the proceedure, the end cancellation button it comes up with a message: unable to perform action. Please try again or contact support... 

Any suggestions?

[Cormac0]

@Frank93

Maybe I've been in trenches to long, but surely you must smell a rat when your potential guest asked you as Host to cancel, the first thing I would think is "but I don't want to cancel you do, so cancel yourself" and I would proceed on that basis.

Regards

Cormac

The Explorer's Club Krakow III 

[Mike436]

Ok have guest that booked 2 weeks stayed 1 week now wants to cancel due to moving south for a job. Should I refund guest or is this his bad luck..

Don't want penalty and can he cancel 1 week in? Thanks 

[Kay103]

@Mike436 It all depends on which cancellation policy you picked. I’m having the same issue. The moderate cancellation policy says 2 different things. (100% refund with 5 days notice or... 50% refund for remainder of stay, excluding the first night)

[Kay103]

I wrote this as feedback (as I didn't have another way to contact Airbnb):

"Hello, we had a guest book for 9/11 to 10/31. His employees unexpectedly left town on 10/11, but did not revise the reservation. We cannot book guests and recently lost a month long stay because of it.

They just now said they want their money back for the 20 days they skipped out on. We have a 5 day notice cancellation policy, so they would only get 15 days worth, not 20. They haven't confirmed the change of dates, so we are losing more potential guests. I believe they don't want cancellation fees on their end, which is why they are pushing us to do it. I've read, to be a super host, you cannot do cancellations though.

It's becoming a hassle, especially with how we went above and beyond for his employees that stayed. Can you please open up the rest of October? Also, how much do we refund for the 15 days (with exception of some kind of hassle fee), since they won't help fix this, causing us to lose more guests. Thank you so much!"

I just recently read that me changing the dates for them on my end will also cause a penalty for me as well. Is this true? This is my first set of guests & it has been problem after problem. The employees of his that stayed were wonderful (and they loved their visit), but the owner who reserved it is making it more work than it has to be. We've already lost a month long booking & may possibly lose World Series visitors. Any advice? I was thinking of getting a Twitter page so I can write Airbnb on there... Though I was hoping a representative would find this message. Thank you!

[Jeff158]

Hi @Kay103

For any stay's longer than 28 days your cancellation policy is automatically set to the long-term policy, your guest gets no refund.

Never ever cancel for the guest, the guest has to cancel and you are getting paid if they do or don't.

[Kay103]

@Jeff158 

I was able to finally get a hold of AirBnB through twitter and they had a rep call right away. I told them the guest left 20 days early (Oct 11 instead of Oct 31) and wanted a refund. Though the guest didn’t contact us until 15 days after the fact (Oct 25). I told the rep our cancellation policy is moderate and they didn’t give 5 days notice, so we should only refund 15 days.

Last week, I read in the moderate cancellation policy that it was only supposed to be 50% of the days they cancelled, not including the first night. I’m assuming also excluding the 5 days without notice. So 50% refund of 14 days, not 100% refund of 15 days.

I did not know long stays do not get refunds and the Airbnb rep did not mention it. We lost out on 2 weeks of rentals during the World Series in Houston. I thought about contacting AirBnB on twitter, but the cancellation policy contradicts each itself in each new paragraph. That’s almost $800 I really need for medical expenses as I am disabled. I also fear rebuttal from the guest and they know where our house is...

Oh and one more thing, the guest was our first, so they got an additional 15% off our already 48% off monthly rate, so 63%. Plus we bought a new tv & a cable subscription for them that we are now in contract for. They said they may stay Oct 11 through the end of the year. The only reason we got cable. I’m not sure how to handle this or what to do next. Can you even get refund back? Thank you so much!

[Wendy45]

Basically, AirBnB sucks. ;>)

[Wendy45]

AirBnB has changed and I think needs to be reported to regulatory overseers regarding the way it withholds and disburses payments. It has suddenly taken $125 out of a new booking for allegedly paying a prior guest - months before -for seeing a cockroach. But never paid me in 8 months the $30 another guest offered to pay for extra cleaning after they left a mess. Overall, the bias is toward guests, which I don't like because I spend a lot to make my guest experiences perfect and guests have zero skin in the game. But I also question whether they are engaged in unregulated lending or something like that with the whimsical ways they payout or not.

[Sheila122]

Hi,  This is the 3rd time in 2 weeks that guests have cancelled.  What is going on?  and how can I prevent this?  This is something new for me...  Do I have a terrible review that i don't know about?  What does it usually mean, when  guests cancell? Boo- hoo!  Sheila

[Kay103]

@Sheila122 I’m new and have only had 1 cancellation myself. I would suggest the strict cancellation policy if it is a recurrence. Best of luck. So much goes into preparing our homes that the guests do not understand when they cancel on a whim. 

[Miss2]

I am new to this and recently agreed to cancel from my end. Guest had booked wrong month on instant book. I naively decided to be nice and save the guest his $600 cancelation but didnt realise I'd get penalised for it. Is there any way to contact Airbnb direct to have this rectified??