new controls for house rules, can cancel reservation without penalty if guest breaks rules.

[Geff0]

Just received an email about the house rules update feature,and a message stating that:

"If a guest breaks a house rule, either before or during their stay, you can cancel the reservation without penalty."

However,

When you go to the "Cancel a reservation as a host" page  there is a section on cancellation penalties,and associated penalty fees,and extenuating circumstances.

This page should be updated to include the house rule without penalty clause. As it stands there is no mention of this new policy.

Or is is on another page??

Thanks for any info on this!

[Daljit0]

And what if the guest tells you to f**k off. Are you physically going to try to eject them.?..And get arrested yourself cause thats called asault.  There needs to be clear guidelines as to what the status of a guest is when the Airbnb contract is terminated...do they become trespassers for example..but if you had let them in the first place then clearly not 

[Letti0]

@Daljit0  In Texas they become trespassers and my property has postings No Trespassing Allowed and is fenced in. To be arrested a person must have had notice not to be on the property or received notice and refused to leave the property. To get a conviction the prosecution need not prove  intent by the defendant. They are only required under the law to prove the defendant’s unauthorized presence. So a simple verbal, text or a warning in the messaging system is all I need for police intervention to remove them. 

[Daljit0]

I'm from the United Kingdom and the police won't get involved in civil disputes. So in effect a Airbnb cancellation means nothing in real terms as it can't be enforced without first going to the court and getting a court order where the police and beliefs will enforce 

[Mike1034]

@Letti0 I like Texas' law!

[Craig178]

It is not true. I got severely penalized for asking Airbnb to cancel a reservation of a guest who broke 3 of my house rules when he/she booked my house. After this cancellation done by Airbnb on my behalf, the Instant Book feature on my account was disabled since October 31st. It is my assumption that there is no such thing as penalty free cancellation. Please see the explanation below.

I had a guest who booked my house at the end of October and broke 3 of my house rules by booking the house. I immediately called Airbnb and addressed this issue. I  asked the customer service rep. to cancel this reservation because of this. Before the reservation was cancelled, I double checked with a customer service rep. to make sure that I was not going to be penalized for this cancellation. I was assured that I would not be penalized because the guest broke 3 of my house rules. The customer service rep. told me that the guest would be contacted and the reservation would be cancelled.

The next day, the guest re-booked my house for the same date. I called Airbnb again. This time the customer service rep. told me that the guest's reservation was cancelled and the guest was not informed about the reason of the cancellation. I could not believe that Airbnb would cancel the resercation without ever contacting the guest. I was asked to write to the guest and let the guest know that Airbnb would be cancelling the reservation because the guest broke 3 of my house rules (in my message I explained what rules were broken). I was rerassured agai that I would not be penalized for this cancellation, which Airbnb did on my behalf. Because of Airbnb, this guest's reservation was cancelled twice, and I was penalized for that. Since, this cancellation, my guests can't Instant Book me. They can easily find my listing if they don't use the Instant Book filter, but the moment they turn on the Instant Book filter on, my listing does not show up.

I tried to contact Airbnb numerous times - no answers to my inquires. All my cases were closed within a couple of hours. Tried to call - was hung up twice in the middle of me talking, and when spoke to the manage (my 3rd phone call), he told me to wait for someone to contact me. No one gave me any straight answers.

It is my assumption that hosts will be penalized for any types of cancellation.

[Peacock1]

Airbnb, Can you explain to me why it says that guests can be charged for not following the house rules? Can you please send me the text copy that refers to that in detail, so I can know what specific things are covered by that policy? Because they broke the house rules which were listed in the listing and it was said how much it would be for each hour of extra cleaning if they did not follow the house rules to pick up after themselves.  You're basically telling people that they can come in and trash my house and receive no consequences for doing so.  This is unacceptable.  if they follow the house rules, it takes 4 hours to clean. That is what they pay for. When it takes 12 extra hours because they trashed the place, they need to pay.  I did not start having these party problems until you took away my ability to see the photos of people before I accepted the booking request. Now I can't tell how old they are. Twice in a row young kids have thrown rathje parties in my property and you are offering me no protection.  please will respond with how this can get fixed so I can continue using Airbnb services without the destruction of my property, unexpected expenses, and the wasting of my time.  If you allow people to continue to trash property and not pay, rates will have to increase.  what is the point of a security deposit if you won't give it to me. Please escalate this to the appropriate feedback channels.

[Su56]

It's an absolute joke isn't it. I was in a similar situation and was slammed with an extra $2,200 cleaning fee. Air Bnb only offered to cover $481 of it. Missing Items and Damaged Property is no joke either ... 

[Katie1023]

Hi, I'm new host and one of my house rules is no infants. I have instant booking on and now one reservation has come through and then I get message to say they're bringing baby. When I pointed out the house rules she said well I await your cancellation. How do I cancel without penalty?

[Rebecca1555]

It's not true. I currently have guests in my home (that I also live in) who physically fought each other in the house. The police were called by another guest, who canceled their reservation because they felt unsafe, as did another guest. Police didn't do anything because the guests denied that they were fighting. The only way for me to cancel the problem reservation without penalty is for air bnb to convince the guests to cancel on their own. Since they aren't answering the phone, I'm stuck with violent people in my house until their reservation ends. There is no canceling without penalty. 

[Brian2036]

@Rebecca1555 

I think you should report the violent guests to Airbnb through the CS chat line before these guests have a chance to file a revenge review.

 I think you can expect them to do that.

 Airbnb cannot evict people for you but they can serve them notice to leave.

You don’t say how long they are expected to stay but if it’s just another day or two the easiest thing to do is just wait and hope they don’t kill each other.

A visit from the police should have calmed them down somewhat.

If you don’t want to wait you can serve them with written notice to vacate within 24 hours and tell them that you will ask the police to remove them if they don’t leave voluntarily.

[Rebecca1555]

@Brian2036 I have been talking to air bnb extensively for the past 2 days. At their request, I've sent screenshots of my conversations with the other 2 guests when I refunded their money after they both left at 1am.

I've also sent clips from my security cameras that show the police arriving and speaking with the problem couple, and the lady passing out on my couch after I told her that one of them had to leave that night.

I've literally spent hours doing what air bnb asked me to do in order to protect myself, and it hasn't helped me to get them out.

Air bnb apparently can't do anything unless the guests return their phone call. At that point, they can ask them to cancel their reservation themselves. Otherwise, they can cancel it on my behalf, with penalties, and those are the only options.

They are here until Friday. I am waiting it out, and cleaning the other rooms in fear. These will probably be my last guests after 3 years of being a superhost. It sucks, but I really thought my safety was more important to them then this, and I can't feel unsafe in my own home anymore. 

[Brian2036]

@Rebecca1555 

You are getting the run-around.

OF COURSE Airbnb can cancel any reservation at any time for any reason and they have done so many times for no reason that they are willing to admit.

 I would think that guests like yours would be so embarrassed that they would slink away as soon as they could pack their bags.

Obviously I’m excessively optimistic.

[Rebecca1555]

@Brian2036 yes, you and me both! I can't imagine staying somewhere after I've made a huge butt of myself and knowing I'm not welcome. But these are a special kind of guests. 

Before they decided to have a drunken boxing match in my house, they were stealing my food.

Never a dull moment...

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca1555  As a home share host myself, there is no way I would put up with this or feel unsafe in my own home. I would call several of my male friends, family or neighbors, the bigger and scarier-looking the better (even if in reality they were totally non-violent people), ask them to come over and then tell the guests to pack up their stuff and get out and stand there with everyone while they did it.

I certainly wouldn't faff around with Airbnb nor would I risk losing my good guests nor be terrified of the penalties for cancelling.

You aren't helpless in this, you are choosing to be.

[Rebecca1555]

@Sarah977  I don't have "several male friends" near me to call.

In no way have I claimed to be helpless. I simply stated that air bnb has informed me that there is no way to cancel without penalty.

Not that I asked for your opinion on how I'm "choosing to be".