cancellation

[Moe12]

Hi! i have been away and i asked a friend to rent out my apartment ! he did and found someone and , i wrote to the gust that i can cancel it if he does not like the apartment, and when he was there i called him and he took my apartment but after few days he sent me message that apartment is dirty and he does not want to live there and i told him that i pay back the money i got from airbnb, ! back and forward i have tired to send him money on airbnb but it did not go through now i tried to send him money with bank directly but now he is asking me to pay the service fee that he paid to airbnb ! i found it very unfair because he even stayed at my place few days and i was very nice enough to send him this money back! i only aggreed if he sees the aprtment and wont like it i cancel it all but not after few days

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Moe12

Oh dear, why on earth did you say that? It sounds as if you didn't read how Airbnb works before setting up your listing and taking bookings. Please read through the Community Guides on these forums and the Help Centre for information on host and guest cancellations.

1. It is up to you to prepare the apartment so it is clean and as described in the listing. NEVER offer to refund the guest if they don't like it. Airbnb has a system for dealing with these issues.

2. If there is a problem, then you talk to the guest - get specifics on what it is and then liaise with the guest to try and resolve . He has to contact you to try and resolve the issue first and then if it can't be resolved within 24 hours of arrival, the guest needs to cancel. Airbnb can then consider refunding the guest.

3. If your guest cancelled with Airbnb, then he should contact them directly regarding any refund. NOT communicate with you. Airbnb will then contact you about the cancellation. You can chose to let him cancel in line with your cancellation policy or if the guest has evidence that the apartment is dirty - photos etc you could offer a further refund. You should never offer to refund his stay to date unless he has provided clear evidence that is dirty or not as described and that you have tried to resolve the issue ie sent in a cleaner and this has not resolved the issue.

4. Stop communicating with your guest directly and never offer to pay him outside of Airbnb. (Airbnb will refund him and then he will be refunded twice and you will be out of pocket twice) Message him now on Airbnb now and tell him he needs to speak to Airbnb directly about his cancellation and any refund. It is up to Airbnb as to whether they refund the service fee not you. 

5. If you told him to let you know within 24 hours that there was a problem and he didn't do this but stayed for a few days, I would just agree a refund for any days he didn't stay.  However you have created problems for yourself by going outside of how Airbnb works and liasing with the guest regarding the cancellation.

By the way what evidence did he provide you with to show the listing was not clean/not as described?

[Moe12]

Hi! thanks for the reply! it was my first time so i had no idea how it is, i already payed him the money that i recived from airbnb , i have tried few times with airbnb and it did not work! so i felt bad and i sent him wiht bank here , he wanted to get the service fee as well ! 

How should i avoid to pay him twice through airbnb  ? 

about the evedince, he sent some pictures with bugs which well, windows were open and they came in of course ! 

now i found out other problem that if i knew , i would never send him a dollar to be honest! 

he said that they are company and they rent my apartment for the other person that is why when i rent my apartment friday, they messaged me monday when they openned the office! 

I never knew about that and i would never agree to that 

i was just trying to be nice by refunding all money i got from airbnb ! 

at the end of converstation he just told me that he would leave a really bad review for me and thats all but how should i be sure that airbnb would not take any money from my account ? 

cheers again thanks for the help! 

sorry ,i was very new to be a host and honestly i hated it 

[Charles153]

My home page says my account is at risk because I canceled a reservation during the last 365 days. Is there any way to retrieve the date of that cancellation from Airbnb?