Airbnb followed their own policy

[Paul154]

Guest came (or maybe not, I'm not sure) , but decided not to stay at my place.

Good for her. She told me she was not staying, but did not cancel.

I immediately returned her cleaning fee and decided to see how Airbnb would penalize me.

Her review claimed I didn't clean (not true), smelt of perfume (I don't use) and did not look like the recent photos ( it does. I don't even use a wide angle lens)

Airbnb asked if I would return her fee. Normally I would, but it was a peak week-end AND she slandered me. I was not feeling generous.

Airbnb sided with me!  I'm still in shock, but good shock.

[Fred13]

<Stands off in applause>

[Sandra754]

Yes!

[Letti0]

@Paul154  Good for you! I can't see her review did you get it pulled.

[Bryan10]

Hooray! We hosts need good news and support these days. 

[Pete28]

Now you need to get rid of the review 🙂 The joys of Airbnb...

[Manasui0]

claps**

[Tueykay0]

@Paul154: Congratulations!

[Kathy33]

Paul nice going!!!!

[Lizzie]

Thanks for sharing your positive experience @Paul154. 🙂

[Rosemarie9]

Miracles do happen! Glad you didn't have to fight for your money.

[Marcy10]

So glad to read this right now.  I just had a very challenging conversation with Airbnb about giving a refund where none was deserved.  In the end they agreed that I was not under obligation to provide the refund but the first Airbnb person who called me really tried to make me feel guilty about it.  I was feeling pretty bad about saying no but it was a peak week and I couldn't fill it at such short notice, as it is I only have half of the payment.  We should not feel badly about upholding cancellation policies.  Glad to see you are feeling supported.

[Rebecca181]

Kind of sad when having our cancellation policy upheld by Airbnb induces shock. But glad that it worked out for you! It hasn't worked out so well for some other hosts here, however.

[Cathie19]

A good moment! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[Paul1105]

For the few times times that guests had to cancel or decided not to stay for one reason or another I've always called Airbnb to have their money refunded. It only happened twice. Once was a guest, a first timer, who thought he was renting the entire place for a romantic weekend with his girlfriend only to discover that I live there too. And the other was simply a last minute change in plans that made the stay not possible. In both cases I could have kept the money but called to have it refunded to them.  Why not? If I were the guest that made the mistake I would hope the host would do that for me.