Airbnb cancelled a guest's booking due to quality assurance. What could cause this?

[Elaine223]

We had a guest get cancelled by Airbnb due to "quality assurance." Could this be the result of bad reviews from hosts/owners?  Maybe damaged the property?   I'm curious what constitutes a cancellation due to quality assurance.

[Pete28]

I had one of these a while back - they were also local which worried me to start with, so I was happy they got canned. Probably stolen credit card, or property damage. You dodged a bullet 🙂

[Melissa891]

I got the same thing from abnb support. The guest requested again saying he has no idea why he was canceled and ABNB couldn't tell him either. I'm not sure what to do. 

[Susan151]

@Elaine223 I have always assumed that it was payment or identity elated when I get this type of message. I have had three such cancelations, and have been lucky that they have occurred at least a month before the check in date. [This is one of the reasons I am generally reluctant to do same-day bookings.]

[Alon1]

@Susan151 

In 6 years I've not experienced a 'Quality Assurance' issue.

I don't do Instant Book, but routinely do same day bookings, and rarely any problem with payment.

  The only one has been the same as any other Request days, weeks or months ahead, namely 'Pending Payment' which usually turns out to be out of date card.

In April I had 6 same day bookings. This month 2. And this past afternoon, 2 inquiries who chose to book elsewhere.

I treat same day requests as any other, applying similar screening / vetting and what might be deemed common sense approach:

For example, two of the six from April:

- One was a pathological user of Airbnb with over 50 Reviews. He travels a lot for his work, and seeing a string of bookings month after month up to the present, it's a cert that his payment method is guaranteed.

 - The other was a young family living close by, in distress due to suddenly collapsed ceiling. They stayed 3 days and ended up requesting contact with my solicitor (lawyer) for claims v. their landlady. 

Yesterday, I took a first time user whose Reservation Request solely stated: 'I'd like to book a room'. 

I probed a little, and he obliged with responses, so I accepted within a few minutes, and he was here in less two hours. He turned out exactly as I envisaged from his responses, a very nice person.

[Susan151]

@Alon1 I have had Quality Assurance cancelations three times, and Trust and Safety cancelations four timesand I have only hosted about 280 groups!

The same day thing with a new account is my worry, except I rarely have two open nights in a row, so not accepting same day reservations doesn't hurt my business. For some reason, people seem to plan their trips to Boston well in advance.

It is reassuring to know that all the same-day horror stories are balanced out by stories like yours. Thank you for sharing.

[Susan151]

@Alon1 And my concern isn't that they are nice or will trash the place, but instead that AirBNB will not have secured a payment in a timely manner.

[Alon1]

@Susan151 

Yes, I understand your concern, more so as CC is littered with payment issues.

But I can only cite my own track record, over 400 bookings and never an issue with payout!

Moreover, payouts have become swifter in the past couple of years. For the first 4 years or so it took 3 woring days to clear into my bank account. In the last 18 - 24 months just a single working day. 

- Payments in certain countries like UK clearly function far more efficiently than others.

- Is it just good fortune that I've not had any problems such as Q.A?

  Your guess is as good as mine.

- The confidence in yesterday's booking can be gleaned from the gentleman's reply to my queries:

                Dear Alon, Thanks for your email. First of all, I don’t smoke. I stay in London to have meetings with my academic colleagues and bankers. I hope that is sufficient information for you. Many thanks.

He arrived Friday evening. Payment was sent Saturday afternoon. It will be in my account on Tuesday, a day later than usual because following today Sunday there is a Bank Holiday on Monday.

[Doug793]

We had a similar situation, and I was hoping for some input from more experienced hosts: We received the standard email stating "Joseph is arriving soon ... reach out."  Then just a couple hours later, that "Joseph" was cancelled due to quality assurance. My concern is that he was coming to the area to visit his son, who lives nearby. Our property is pretty easy to find just based on photos, so we are worried about retaliation of some type. He seemed like such a decent guy, but I am VERY happy Air is looking out for us hosts. We are new to hosting, and would just appreciate any input on how concerned we should be that he may have our address and retaliate somehow. Not so much a question, as just looking to chat it out a bit with someone cause I feel nervous now. 

[Sarah977]

@Doug793  I have read many hosts saying this, that they are afraid of some physical retaliation for whatever reason, but I have never read of such a thing actually happening. And you can be sure if it did, hosts would be posting about it. So it seems to be a common, but unfounded, fear.

Occasionally a bad guest will post nasty things about a host or a listing on social media to get even for being called out on bad behavior during a stay, but there's nothing you can do about that, and I doubt it affects bookings.

Besides, in this case, it isn't as if you did anything- Airbnb cancelled the booking, not you, probably because the payment fell through or the guest was reported by another host for unacceptable behavior. Or sometimes it's just a tech glitch and the guest is innocent and bamboozled.

[Karol22]

This has happened to me before, on very rare occasions. My guess is that the user flagged Airbnb's algorithm for detecting those looking to start parties, occupants with possible fraudulent behaviors, etc...

Airbnb notified me as well. The cancellation took place and I was able to fill the room quickly again each time. I'm happy they do this.

[Jan9830]

I have the same concern having received one of these emails as well. Weirdly it was on a guest who had stayed here a year ago. She Was a model guest and left a glowing review. This was their anniversary so they wanted to come back. If their is something fraudulent going on I would want to know.  All  "her sides" of conversations we had have disappeared as well. What is to keep her from using another instant book from another service? Of course if I cancel her I will get dinged on my host rating!

[Patti4]

I've been hosting for many years and got the first one of these quality assurance cancelations last night. It was disconcerting. The guest had booked only a few moments before the cancelation came from ABB which said the guest has been removed from the platform. They had 2 reviews, both positive, and communication was good so I felt my due diligence had been done and I accepted the res. for a few weeks out.

Thank you for all the perspectives. Happy to have found the discussion on the topic and no posts about retaliation! Glad ABB has this safeguard for hosts. I'll be on the lookout for this guest to reappear under the same name or similar with a new profile. They may be innocent, or they may be sketchy. Anyway, I'll move on.

One tip: keep all communication with guests on the platform. No phone calls (unless emergency during the stay). Documentation is key.