Amendments: Reduced nights to less than my minimum

[Zoe65]

I’ve experienced the following twice in the last 2 weeks - guests booking my room for more than my 2 night minimum then actually turning up to check in or just minutes before, altering their booking to 1 night.  The reasons for the amendments were not related to my offering (1 guest thought the house was closer to his workplace than it actually was and the other hadn’t worked out how they’d get around without a car in the Alps!).

My question is, what do people do in the situation where the guest is on your doorstep asking to reduce their booking from say,  7 nights down to 1 or 3 down to 1?  If you say ‘no’ then you’ve got an unhappy guest but if you say yes to effectively, a cancellation in part then you are out of pocket and it’s unlikely that at such short notice the room will get re-booked to cover that expected income.  The cancellation policy covers full cancellation but not cancellation in part and I think this is unfair, particularly at very short or no notice.  I offer a budget room and a less than 2 night stay is uneconomical for me.

In future, would it be fair to ask them to amend to the minimum number of nights and then it’s up to them whether they stay for those nights or not and for me to decline amendments which circumvent my minimum stay?

I’ve sent feedback to Airbnb asking them to consider making the amendment system fairer so that guests can not amend their booking after confirmation to less than the minimum set by the host.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this or tips?

[Niel3]

I'd perhaps tell a little white lie and blame AirBNB - "Sorry but my account is set to 2 nights minimum with AirBNB and I am unable to accept the amendment down to one night, if you can make it 2 nights the site will allow me to accept it."

[Zoe65]

Yes maybe - am I also right in thinking that if I decline an amendment, I get penalized by Airbnb, even if accepting it could take the booking below my minimum stay? 

[Jan209]

no because you are able to decline because it violates you booking criteria...it gives you the option to say why, and you are not penalised then

[Mika8]

two options (jm2c)

- be honest, tell them that the minimum stay of two days is for ecological reason and therefore you could not accept an amendment below that. Point out the small price you have.

- let them cancel and offer (or not) a refund if you could re-book the days (or part of)

.. but it's not fair that you are out of pocket only because guests haven't done their homework in advance and checked out the place right.

[Fred13]

..."I also right in thinking that if I decline an amendment, I get penalized by Airbnb, even if accepting it could take the booking below my minimum stay?"

On that basis (fear) none of your settings mean anything, because you are not willing to enforced them.   Penalized how? Stick to your policies and worry less whether Airbnb likes them or not.

[Letti0]

@Zoe65  First off, you have a flexible policy so the guests can cancel penalty free any of the other nights and get a full refund. They still have the AirBnB fee's to pay if they cancel, but changing the reservation gets them back those too. Your minimum nights doesn't matter with your cancellation policy either. Change your cancellation policy to at least moderate, so the guest has something to lose canceling at the last minute. Also do not accept a change to a booked reservation to shorten the stay, decline as it gives them will them a way to work around a moderate or strict cancellation policy. 

FYI for the future:

DO NOT CANCEL a reservation, DO NOT ACCEPT any message about cancelling, changing or refunding DECLINE it a loophole that comes back to bite you and gives guests back their service fees and/or voids your cancellation policy (changing dates) or the cancellation is now on you, not the guests (accepting cancellation). DO NOT REFUND anything until actual cash has been given to you by AirBNB. If you refund they will take the money from you and a lot of times guests get refunded from both AirBnB and you if you do this, then you have a fight to get your money back. Tell the guest you do not deal with the booking funds that is all on AirBnB's end.

[Victoria567]

Hello @Zoe65

Really this guest is changing the contract you agreed to and all at the very last minute into the bargain which is really quite unacceptable.

How about you as a host changing a contract made with a guest at the very last minute?

eg your guest has booked 2 nights and YOU tell them, sorry I’m putting you out of your accommodation after one night!

Is that acceptable? Of course it is not acceptable just as it is for your guest to book 2 nights knowing full well they only want 1 night.....it really is not on.

You do NOT let them in, you do not give them a house key, you respectfully tell them to wait outside until you phone bnb immediately to advise you.

Air bnb must advise you as a host, on how to deal with this dishonest and entitled guest who thinks it is a smart way of getting around a hosts clearly stated booking policy of a minimum 2 night stay....it’s really not on.

[Victoria567]

@Zoe65

And DO change your policy to a strict cancellation policy.

[Sarah1702]

Hi Zoe

i had exactly the same experience last summer. A couple from the US booked my place for 3 nights Sunday-Wed. On the Sat evening, less than 24 hours prior to check in, I received an email from Airbnb stating the guests wished to amend their booking to only 2 nights arriving on the Monday. I'd never come across this before and didn't realise it was a way of getting around the cancellation process. I declined the request. 

I then received an email from the guests basically imploring me to change my mind as they had left some personal possessions on a train and this meant their plans had changed. At this point I really didn't want to agree as I was going to lose a night's booking and hadn't been able to rent out the Saturday night as I don't do 1 night stays. I also felt that effectively I was the one paying for their mistake and isn't that what travel insurance is for? However, I also knew I'd get a bad review for saying no. So I agreed and then contacted Airbnb and complained I felt this was completely unfair on hosts and was a way for guests to completely circumvent the cancellation policies.

Things then took a bizarre turn as I told the Airbnb operative that I was thinking of cancelling the booking as I didn't feel comfortable hosting the guests.  I just got the feeling they were going to be trouble despite me agreeing to what they wanted. I had a think about it and reflected that maybe I was overreacting so confirmed by email with Airbnb that I wouldn't cancel the booking, that I'd honour it and put the episode down to experience. 

On the Wednesday my husband went to do the changeover to discover the guests had never arrived. I was furious so emailed the guests to complain they could have at least told me they weren't coming at all. They responded that I had cancelled their stay. It transpired that ABB had wrongly told them I'd cancelled. I did receive the money for the 2 nights as it was ABB's fault. 

What did I learn from all this? 2 things. 

1. If I receive a request to vary a booking, unless it's well in advance and am likely to be able to re-let the property, i won't agree to it. Simply contact ABB, state you're unhappy with the request and get them to sort it out. After all that's what we pay the fees for. 

2. Don't contact ABB host assist and expect much assistance. If anything they made a bad situation even worse. 

The only good thing was that the guests weren't able to leave a review, which without doubt would have been negative. 

BUT ABB should sort this issue out as it leaves hosts stuck with having to accept last minute changes to bookings to their financial detriment. Hotels wouldn't allow you to cancel less than 24 hours in advance and give a full refund so why should ABB?

[Zoe65]

Thanks for all your comments and tips.  I’ve tightened all my cancellation policies up but unless Airbnb do something to support our minimum night requirements  it’s down to us hosts to use our discretion with amendments.  

Interestingly, on this last reservation, the guests initially instant booked 3 nights a couple of days before they were due to arrive.   They messaged to say that they had paid for but would not actually stay for the first night as they’d be arriving ‘very early’ the next morning.  I was so miffed by this  - what on earth did ‘very early’ mean?!  I had visions of them expecting to rack up at 2am!! When I questioned them it turned out they intended to arrive at 9am on the second day (my check in window is 3-9pm).  I was pretty miffed that they thought they could dictate what time they could arrive and I was firm in my response.  I told them check in was 3-9pm on any of the days booked, however I was available for them to arrive from midday on the second day if they really needed to arrive earlier than 3pm.  I didn’t feel put out at all to offer that and, being a very fair person, I  suggested they could amend the booking to remove the first night - again whilst I lost a night’s booking, there’s no way I wanted them thinking they were entitled to turn up whenever they wanted!

I’m not into taking people’s money for time or things they don’t actually receive from me unless they completely cancel at short notice for their own reasons and then the cancellation procedure applies and I stand to recover some of my loss..  

These guys thought they were being fair by booking an extra night but actually they were trying to circumvent the check in time so that’s something to be aware of too!  

Airbnb advised me that the penalty-free cancellation option for an instant booking would have been available to me in the above circumstances.  If I had not received a reply to my questions about their intentions or if they had insisted upon arriving before my check in window, I would have been entitled to feel ‘uncomfortable’ accepting the booking on those terms and Airbnb would have cancelled the booking penalty-free.

[Fred13]

So they paid for extra night, in order for them to be able to check in at 9am? In such a case what is so important about the 3pm-9pm check in, since the place is already ready since the previous day?

[Zoe65]

Booking the room from the night before with the presumption that they could therefore claim the room from whatever time they deemed was unacceptable to me, maybe not to you and if that’s ok with you then good luck with that.  I had other guests ask if turning up in the middle of the night would be ok... again, not acceptable to me, try a hotel.  We all have our levels of tolerance and I’m not available with a 24 hour check in desk to welcome people into my home so please don’t presume that I will offer this

After making enquiries, on this occasion  it turned out that the guest wasn’t suggesting turning up at an unreasonable time however I simply wasn’t going to be home at 9am and I don’t wish to offer self check in.  

[Fred13]

    Of course, showing up at crazy hours is not acceptable, since you be on call around the clock. If they ask for a 9am check-in (original post) I would at least consider it and not find it automatically unacceptable. You are right, that is me; who would consider anything, as long it is somewhat reasonable.

   And yes, guests changing their stay at the last minute, and going below the minimum is definitely not cool.

[Helen56]

I had a similar thing happen.  I have a 2 night minimum and someone booked for 3 or 4 nights, I forget how many.  But she then  submitted a request to change it to one night.  I declined the request and explained that it wasn't worth my while to do all the laundry and cleaning for one night.  She cancelled so it was a non-issue.  However, I was not going to cancel due to airbnb's penalties.