cancellation penalties

[Leanne35]

Hi fellow Hosts.

I have had to ask a guest to cancel their booking the day before arrival date. I cancelled another guest (1st cancelation was penalty free)

The reason for cancelations was the guest before had absolutely trashed my apartment. They booked for 6, then asked if another 4 could stay. Our house rule  is 6 max. We declined her request. 10 people then stayed for 3 days, furniture was stained, spare linen was ruined with wine stains, broke crockery etc.

We had a cleaner in for 2 days trying to clean back to standard, looks like another 2 days will be needed and new linen for two of the 3 bedrooms. There is no way I could have guests staying while in the state it is.

The guest that did her own cancelation has now requested money from us.

I hear there is an extenuating circumstances waiver on penalty. I am at a loss as to how I contact Air BnB to mediate.

Any suggestions?

I would really appreciate being pointed in the right Direction.

Cheers

Bradley

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

I have heard the quickest way is to contact twitter.  However, I don't tweet, and just had pretty good luck (at least I was connected to a human within a couple of minutes).

I was just helped by someone with this link:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165/h...

I would recommend that in the future, when this happens, contact Airbnb and have them make the cancellation.  This does sound like an extenuating circumstance to me (but you never know..), but it is always easier to avoid the penalty in the first place than to try to backtrack and have it undone.

I hope for you that there never  is an "in the future"!