Cancellation and Host penalties

[Carl81]

"These policies help further our commitment to providing a fully transparent marketplace and help us provide guests with additional assistance finding other accommodations"

What a load of rubbish compete discrimination against the host.

If I allow my guests to have Flexible Full refund 1 day prior to arrival, but I don't have the same right? A lot of hosts are families in their own homes, they are not professionals or own/manage a motel / Hotel/B&B. What about our rights to cancellation with out penalty? Even if all reviews and feed back is good you still wont award Super Host for a Host canceled reservation within the last 12 months.

Airbnb needs to be more accommodating toward hosts, who do all the work and create the revenue for the platform through bookings received.

 We are pretty much forced to have instant book on, to just get the reservations

"You’ll only have 24 hours to respond to requests without penalty.

Your listing won’t appear higher in search results so you may get fewer reservations.

You’ll lose exclusive Instant Book controls like penalty-free cancellations or guest requirements.

Staff at the call center need to be more empathetic and more respectful of who they are taking too not robotical and transactional, taking over the customer when they try to say something is  really poor and unacceptable.

Why would/should I recommend others to Host on this site, when the host cant even cancel penalty free due to what ever extenuating circumstances they may have, not dictated under some sub clause Airbnb has. (even though the guest can)

Regards'

Carl 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Carl81 

You can cancel in case of any extenuating circumstances but not by yourself, you have to call Airbnb and ask them to cancel without penalty for you. 

[Gemma86]

I am trying to cancel a reservation. The day before my guest arrived a gas pipe broke on my road leaving me with no heating or hot water. I let my guest know about this and they decided to cancel the day of. 

I called air Bnb and they said I will have a penalty for this cancellation however it’s out of my hands as the council won’t come to fix it till Monday morning and there is nothing I can do about it. 

I believe I should incur a penalty, anyone had any experience with this and know what should happen?

[Matthew285]

@Gemma86, this is a clear case of Extenuating Circumstances. Perhaps the customer service person was not aware of the situation at your listing?

For the host, Extenuating Circumstances includes:

• Severe property damage or unforeseen maintenance issues that directly impact the ability to host safely

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoid...

If having no heating or hot water doesn't fit that, I don't know what does.

Please try to call AirBnB back and explain that outside utility problems make it impossible for you to host. They should remove any penalties for the cancellation.

Keep trying until you find someone who understands the situation.

[Mary645]

Hi.. this is grace and its my first time to host thru airbnb. My guests are contacting me and ask for a lot of discts and a lot of demands what should i do? I dont know how will i contact airbnb

[Carl81]

Its really up to you, if you are just new at Hosting you would probably want to offer even a small discount to build up your reviews and feedback, sounds like its a reservation request not an instant book so if the demands are completely unreasonable you should not have to accept their request. Esp if its your own personal space they will be staying. Probably look at adding house rules or a Welcome note with a few questions on your listings. Initially though you may even have to make a lot less than you like or its even worth just to build on your profile. I don't know if its worth contacting airbnb admin yet in your situation as most people on here seem to be pretty switched on. A lot of it is just understanding how the platform works and through experience.

[Anonymous]

Tell them to stay in hotel. Airbnb is trying every day to get host to lower their rates. Pay property taxes, mortgage, insurance, yard care, furniture payment, house maintance, linens, appliances, utilities, airbnb, maid service and oh yes don't forget uncle sam! It is not a simple business. 

[Anonymous]

Airbnb cares not about their host. Who do infact do the work so the platform is even available. I am being told that because someone request to book I am dinged if I decline the reservation. Which of course is wrong! I predict that at some point this company will lose their grip because someone else will come along and realize there is an opportunity waitng for a company that does not bite the hand that feeds it. We the host put everything on the line. We take the risk. Not Airbnb nor the guest. On an additional note, why should we be dinged or judged on location? The map shows the general area to the guest. They can chose to go elsewhere if they stay where we are that is their choice. We cannot move the location.