Airbnb followed their own policy

Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

Airbnb followed their own policy

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.

 

20 Replies 20
Jim-and-Marcia0
Level 10
Vancouver, WA

If the guest cancels online, they will  automatically be refunded (or not) according to the Host's cancellation policy.  It's when they call in and talk to Airbnb support that it can get dicey.

We had a Guest reservation for a four night stay.

In the morning the Guest messaged she would arrive 8pm - 830pm (we allow self checkin).

At 9pm I sent a message:

"Greetings! Hope you made it in and the house meets your needs!  I'll be checking the Airbnb app via my phone, so if you need anything please reach out."

She messaged back:

"Hi there, thanks for your message we actually had a huge change of plans and we will no longer be needing to stay at your home. Is there any way we could get reimbursed for the nights we will not be staying there? And so sorry for the inconvenience."

The guest cancelled online and was refunded two of the four nights. We received payment for two nights (flexible cancellation policy) plus the cleaning fee.

I messaged the guest: "Refunds are made in accordance with the cancellation policy. Would you be looking at rebooking another time? If so we could give you some credit for a future stay. We wish you well."

The guest replied:

"Oh that would be cool! We don't have a time in mind that we would be coming. If we do I will keep your house in mind. Thanks"

I was surprised we received the cleaning fee, since the guest didn't enter the house. I decided to refund the cleaning fee to the guest and spoke with Airbnb support about it, they even sent me a little Airbnb gift (I chose the watering can) for being kind to our guests! What I didn't expect was that the system allows the Host and Guest to rate the stay even in the case of a cancellation.  I asked Airbnb support to disable that for both parties, as I didn't feel it was appropriate to rate a stay that never happened.

@Jim-and-Marcia0yes but your guests were kind and @Paul154 s were not, they were lying. It's a big difference.

Jan209
Level 6
North Maleny, Australia

Good for you! And good that Airbnb supported you.   I do think in that case you were absolutely entitled to penalise and keep the fee.    

Adrian77
Level 1
Cartagena, Spain

Hi Paul,  Im going to explain something that for us is preatty obvious as host! But airbnb dont give anything for us. 

 

Airbnb is not ready for somethings that we really need support.

 

Thats the truth about it! 

 

Firstofall with ceeling funs,   subcategory must be placed!

 

And secondly  when airbnb host have experience and wants to help airbnb support center some of the support center are not prepared to help us, some of them are have more experience and read the airbnb legislation than support people and make a bad administration on case, who has to pay the price? 

Jennifer976
Level 8
Calgary, Canada

I'm new to Airbnb but the couple of times i've needed thier assistance they have been very helpful.  I hope it continues but am a bit concerned about some of the things i'm reading here. 😞

Don't worry Jennifer, I've had hundreds of guests groups and thousands of individual guests. Never did I have a problem with a guest or with Airbnb customer service. Airbnb customer service is the absolute best and people who use Airbnb are the trusting type of people. The rest of them stay in hotels.  : )