Clever (sneaky) method to avoid cancellation fee with moderate policy.

[Tony-And-Una0]

Hi All

We had some guests booked under moderate cancellation policy - it was a five night booking.  Four days before arrival they infomed us that they had visa issues and asked what the cancellation policy was . We infomed them that there were charges as it was within five days of arrival. 

Later that day, they sent an alteration request moveing the booking back by one week and infomed us the visa issue would be resolved by then. We happily accepted the alteration. They then immediately cancelled the amended booking without penalty as it had moved it outside the moderate policy five day rule.

You have to admire their ingenuity. We will be apprehensive accepting alterations like this again - but what else could we have done?

[Claire475]

@Tony-And-Una0 @Sorry to hear this. Personally, I find this despicable, this is exactly the type of situation ABB needs to stand up to and against, to show that no bad behavior from the host or guest side will be tolerated. We are a community and people should act with a certain amount of integrity. 

On the other hand perhaps you are better off without these guests. 

[Cathie19]

WOW, just WOW!

I’m so sorry @Tony-And-Una0  that this happened to you. All I can say is if they are this pernicious, they should be using hotels, and you dodged a bullet! I have learnt a lesson here... so thank you! 

[Susan151]

@Tony-And-Una0 . I learned this trick very soon after "opening" my  AirBNB. As you say, what can you do? The visa problem is a new twist, but the strategy to cancel a booking with fewer penalties is the same.

Perhaps you will get a last minute booking? We can only hope.

[Clive12]

@Tony-And-Una0 Yes, I've just had the same thing happen to me by a Sarah Wilton. My room was booked for the 2nd Feb then on the 1st Feb I recieved and alteration request to change the booking to the 2nd March. I thought oh dear she's booked the wrong month and so I approved the change, she then cancelled penalty free.

So now my cancellation policy is strict again.

Take note Airbnb when you keep trying to encorage us to moderate our cancellation policies!

[Donna240]

@Tony-And-Una0  I think I can answer your question about "what else could we have done?" You could have told them that you cannot modify dates after the cancellation policy forfeiture begins, but would be happy to block the new dates for them and charge only what they lost of your normal rate. If you charge $100 per night and $500 for 5 nights, and they lost $250, you could make them a special offer of $50 each night for 5 nights. You could arrange to unblock the replacement dates at a specific time, so they could make the booking for the special rates.

Thank you for this question, as it gave me a potential problem to solve for future use. If their request was not just to wiggle out of the cancellation fees, I think they would have been happy to accept such an offer to help defrey their penalties from the cancelled booking.

[Matthew1564]

Perfect solution!

[Carol-and-Javier0]

Great solution, thanks!

[Ben551]

@Tony-And-Una0  I’m sorry to say I’ve heard of this one! Sneaky tactics like this are not uncommon from what I have read. In fact, some hosts have advised guests to do this in some situations. If a host is prepared to give a full refund, Airbnb service fees still apply. I read one situation where a host assisted a guest in avoiding Airbnb service fees by moving the booking before cancelling.

[Sandra126]

@Tony-And-Una0, you say no to the alteration. Instead, say ''at this late notice I cannot do that, however you may cancel and rebook at a later date. That way, should I fill the dates (or part thereof) I will refund you. Otherwise, normal cancellation policy applies. ''

This is a common one I am sorry to say.

[Tony-And-Una0]

Thanks for all the advice.

We decided to revert back to strict cancellation plicy

[Huma0]

Thanks @Tony-And-Una0 for sharing this. It's not something I ever would have thought about before so it's good to be warned!

However, I agree with @Sandra126 . I would not have accepted an alteration at such short nice, because the odds of those dates being rebooked with only four days left are slim (for me at least) and the odds of the dates being booked the following week are at least slightly higher.

I am happy to accept date alterations when I'm given some notice. This week I immediately accepted a request to shorten the length of a stay because the stay is two months away. On the same day, I decline a request from other guests because they are coming on Monday. That is too late to be changing dates around, leaving me with unbooked nights I am unlikely to fill.

[Tom-and-Norma0]

We have accepted one alteration request in the past because of a weather issue/airport closure and the guest not being able to get here. She altered her date by a few days and then cancelled (within our flexible -at the time- cancellation period) claiming it was too much stress to arrange flights back etc. We felt sorry for her since she was unable to visit, but we were out that booking since it was last minute.

We now have a moderate cancellation policy and do not accept last minute alterations that leave us with unbooked days.

Recently another alteration, which we declined this time, was the day of the booking and the proposed dates in the future were a schedule conflict which I just had not blocked out yet. The reason was illness but this was last minute and with the schedule conflict - we declined the alternation and suggested they go through Airbnb's extenuating circumstances process.

They cancelled (since we declined the alteration) and then put in a request for money back stating that they felt one day of compensation was fair enough for us. I guess they had not read the cancellation policy or felt it was easier to get a partial refund from us rather than Airbnb. The guest was appealing to us and not going through the extenuating circumstances area with Airbnb to get a partial refund. After asking Airbnb about this case …in the end, we went with enforcing our cancellation policy and declined the request for money back.

[Paul154]

@Tony-And-Una0 

I like your attitude. I too am impressed with their ingenuity. They cleverly played the rules.

As a landlord, I am always intrigued at the different ways to do a con. 

[JoAnn79]

This is a very interesting topic. Definitely something to think about. I would probably assume good intentions and accommodate the change request. I’d like to think the problem is not widespread to where I have to penalize all guests who need to change their dates.

JoAnn