After No Show and constant "will be late" messages, Airbnb decided to give a guest full refund

[Hitomi3]

Just thought I would share this terrible experience that happened today for other hosts for future reference...I knew hosts should not cancel bookings from their end, but I really didn't have any other healthy options, and Airbnb made it sound like I wouldn't have any loss. And of course, I did.

This guest was supposed to stay at my place for five days since yesterday (Monday). We had confirmed her check-in time. The night before her arrival I sent her a message, and she goes "I'm stuck in Montreal, so I will check in on Tuesday". I was surprised but accepted it. I messaged her today explaining the self check-in instructions and asked her to message me when she has checked-in or has any trouble. I was checking my phone all day to make sure she was okay. At 6:30pm, she told me she "may be" here at 11pm, which is after my check-in hours, without any explanation. I tried to confirm with her what time she would be actually arriving, but no response. I was worried if she would show up really late and wander around my neighbourhood, so I called Airbnb and explained the situation. The customer service rep was very understanding. We discussed possible options, and since it was not my fault, she said she can cancel it on my behalf and I would not get any penalties or loss. She advised me to send her a message saying "I can no longer accommodate your stay", which I did. She escalated the case to a case manager.

Now, I see the cancellation has happened and my dashboard says my earning is $0, and the money was fully refunded to the guest. My calendar is still blocked for those five days, and I can't even take other guests for the rest 3 days. I waited for two days, prepared her room for her arrival, was checking my phone all day, and they refunded 100% to the guest?! Then, this case manager Hayden contacted me and said he can waive the penalties for this one time only as a "courtesey" but will not refund me as the cancellation was made because I could not accommodate the guest's stay. I told him I was only advised by the rep to send that message and was assured I wouldn't get any penalties. He still insists that he's very sorry that their rep advised that, but that was still my decision. I lost about $200 for an irresponsible guest and a customer rep who told me a conflicting advice with their case manager's policy.

Looking at other hosts' posts I knew I shouldn't have made the cancellation. It was stupid of me to trust Airbnb agents and followed their advice. But honestly, if I hadn't canceled, I would have had a guest who kept telling me she would arrive later and later, who might even show up when my neighbours and I are asleep. I'm still not sure what the best thing to do here was, but to other hosts, try not to cancel as much as you can. Even if a rep from Airbnb tells you it's going to be okay, it's not. You will lose.

[Marzena4]

@Hitomi3, if you were a frequent visitor to this forum, you wouldn't trust Airbnb reps or kind messages from Airbnb to 'agree to cancellation', which, in fact, would be as if you cancelled yourself. 

When dealing with Airbnb CS, naivety is not a good advisor. What's more, the CS sides with the guest rather than the host in a vast majority of cases.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Hitomi3

One of the first things I learned from the CC is to NEVER trust what an Airbnb rep says.

You would have been better off just letting the reservation stay as is - at least you would have been paid - and it would have been up to the guest to request a refund later, which I think you would have had a better change of fighting to your advantage.

Airbnb is JUST a platform that connects hosts and guests, and handles basic payment, nothing more. It's better to assume they will almost NEVER have the interest of hosts in mind, whatever they say or do.

[Hitomi3]

@Jessica-and-Henry0

Thanks for your reply. I mostly agree. In fact, I have had a no-show/no-response guest before where I didn't cancel and kept messaging her multiple times before and the day of. I got paid (although I really don't know if it's worth the stress).

This time it was different. This guest was constantly telling me she would be late, and at the end, she told me she would arrive "early morning". Her messages were getting more immature, saying like "Hey! Yo! I'll be late again", so at this point I couldn't trust her words. My biggest fear was that this irresiponsible person showing up at my door at 3am, waking me and my neighbours up. Also I would have had to stay with this person for 3-4 more nights in the same house. And still could have got a bad review.

I did consider letting the reservation stay as is as long as I could. However, when I did more research I also saw multiple hosts on this forum saying that after a case like this with a guest staying for some parts of the reservation, the guest opened up a case and Airbnb refunded them fully or partially without even confirming with the hosts. That's a lot scarier, isn't it? They wrote that NEVER let the guest open up the case first, because Airbnb won't even try to listen to you. One person also commented that they were told it is hosts' responsibility to let Airbnb know if a guest doesn't show up. If we failed to do so and a guest complains, we wouldn't get money.

About the rep, I wouldn't blame her as she confirmed with her supervisor multiple times on what she could do. She wasn't trying to trick me into this position. It's a bigger organizational problem at Airbnb.

[Fred13]

Exactly what Henry said. Never, ever cancel, if any CS reps thinks is a grand idea, then let them do the canceling.

Also, perhaps next time you encounter a guest that doesn't show up, stay passive, sure message them and try to find out what is going on, but it is up to them to show up.

[Hitomi3]

Thanks @Fred13, I did let them (Airbnb) cancel. I knew about the penalties the host can get if we cancel from our end, and this still happened.

I learned that there's a huge gap between the call centre and case managers. They don't have a coherent communication system nor the policies implemented throughout the organization. So basically, depending on the department you talk to, you get different answers. I actually got an update on this matter which I will post shortly!

[Hitomi3]

UPDATE!

I found some hosts saying posting a comment on Airbnb's public Facebook or Twitter accounts would trigger immediate responses. So, as soon as I got the cancellation done, I contacted the Twitter AirbnbHelp account, because I know case managers' response could take ages. 1 min after, I got a message from a case manager. After talking to him who just copy-pastes his answer, I contacted the Twitter account again in public. Basically, I went back and forth between those two departments. Every time I talked to the Twitter person they put an alert on the matter, and the CM responded in a couple minutes.

The Twitter rep eventually told me the CM is the best person to talk to and they would do everything to help. So I said, "I have responded twice already, and he just insists it was my fault even though the rep assured me it wouldn't be my loss. I don't know what else I can say to him. It's the organization's responsibility to have a consistent policy implemented throughout." I stuck with the point that I was advised by a rep before making actions, and the promise was not kept.

Guess what? They sent another urgent alert to the CM telling him to contact me directly. He called me at 1 am when I was asleep (obviously I couldn't answer). And while I was asleep, this CM decided to refund me for the two nights the guest didn't stay. They even sent me "Airbnb Love", from which you can choose a gift like yoga mat, which made me laugh...! I have lost about $90 and they want to send me a yoga mat, playing cards, or candle! Oh well, at least, I got a partial payout. I will ask them to at least unblock my calendar for the remaining days, knowing I have like 2% chance. 

Bottom line: If your case manager is not making sense, try contacting other departments. It seems like the PR accounts on Twitter or Facebook have a little more authority.

[Fred13]

Good show all around Hitomi. 🙂