Guest books late, then wants to cancel a few hours later

[Christopher187]

I had a guest making a booking inquiry today at 5:06pm.  The booking was for 2 people, one night and his message was simply "Just looking for nice place to sleep for a night."  He has two good reviews and one not so great mentioning he brought more guests than the reservation was made for.

I responded at 5:10pm explaining that I could accept but I needed time to clean the space.  I asked if what time check-in would be ok, and who would be accompanying him.  No reply.  

At 5:28pm I told him that I could have the space ready in a few hours.  No reply.

At this point I hadn't actually accepted the booking, because I wanted answers to my questions.  By 8pm I'd already convinced one of my cleaning people to go over there and turn the space.  It is Sunday evening so she's grumpy and charging me time and a half and I'm annoyed that I'm dealing with a guest who can't communicate.  I go ahead and accept the booking at 8:12pm and tell the guest to get in touch with me about the check-in time and procedure.

Then at 8:23 the guest magically acquires the ability to respond to messages, tells me he is already at another bnb, didn't have internet until just now, and thought the booking wouldn't go through until he accepted it.  He's asking for a cancellation.

So, what should I do?  I have a strict cancellation policy.  I definitely don't want to give all the money back since my time was wasted, my calendar blocked, and I incurred costs.  I also don't want a bad review.  Should I tell him to cancel then I refund a portion?

Thanks for your help,

Christopher

[Kim-and-Jen0]

Hi Chris

I think you shouldnt refund him. because he should read your term before made a booking and booked else where.

You can just ask him to cancel from his side.

🙂

[Willow3]

I personally think you have to chalk this up to a lesson learned. You brought in the cleaner before accepting the reservation.  if I were in his shoes, I'd be looking for an instant book place or another host who accepted immediately. I certainly wouldn't be waiting till 8:12 to know if a host would accept my request or not. 

[Christopher187]

Agreed, I learned a little something.

But my cancellation policy is strict.  So the question is what should the guest learn/be taught?

[Willow3]

To only use hosts who use Instant Book? 

He contacted you AFTER the typical close of business time (5:00pm) on a Sunday, and you accepted his request three hours later. He didn't ask you to hire cleaners at time and a half. He asked to book a room. If you couldn't host, decline it. 

Im not a last minute kinda person, so I can only assume if it were me, it would be an emergency situation, and I'm sure as heck not waiting three hours for a response. And I believe him when he says he didn't think it was official yet with no acceptance. My husband makes our travel arrangements because he's awesome like that, so even though I've stayed in many Airbnb, I wouldn't know I was locked in after sending a request that wasn't answered. 

[Christopher187]

Willow I don't think you actually ready my original post.  I responded to the guest's booking request within 4 minutes asking a couple questions, then 18 minutes later told him I could accept the booking.  If the guest doesn't withdraw the offer, I assume it to still be on the table and actionable.

[Willow3]

I read it. You didn't actually accept the request for three hours. I CAN accept and I DO accept are vastly different responses. If you had simply accepted, instead of talking about accepting, we would not be having this conversation now. 

[Marzena4]

@Christopher187 Depending on a host's location, there may be various types of guests. I get a lot of last-minute inquiries provided there is a vacancy of course. If I am to accept it, I do it at once, especially if it is pre-approval, I never block my calendar though. There are a lot of guests who copy&paste, send to a number of hosts and then choose. So I have worked out those proceedings.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Christopher187

I think if you are to accept last minute bookings late in the day, you would need to have the place ready at all times.  

Guests looking for accomodation last minute late in the day are eager to conclude immediately and ready to crash.  They will also usually be on their phone using the app which limits what you see unless you click "read more" a dozen times or so.

You may say that the guest should have known, but guests usually only use airbnb occationally and unlike hosts, are less familiar with how the site works.  

In your case, and with a non-responsive guest,  I think you should have declined.  

Did you try and text or phone btw ?

[Christopher187]

I like to keep messaging within the airbnb messaging system.  A reply within 4 minutes of inquiry seems pretty good to me.  If it got past 9pm then I would have started calling the guest, mostly just to make sure they weren't planning on stumbling up to the front door at 1am.

To me it's pretty clear what happened here: guest made multiple booking inquries and simply ignored messages from me until I accepted the booking.  Then he magically regained the ability to communicate.  I wouldn't be surprised if the guest was working another host while keeping me on the line just in case the other place didn't work out (I know guests do this kind of thing because I talk to other hosts in my area).  I also wouldn't be surprised if the guest didn't respond because I asked who would be accompanying him (his last review indicated that he brought too many people).  I can't believe he didn't see my reply within minutes of his inquiry.

At 9:18pm I told the guest I couldn't cancel his booking (which is true) but he could cancel it from his end.  No reply.

I concluded that if the guest doesn't want to learn how to use airbnb, doesn't want to read my listing, and doesn't feel like communicating, then it should be entirely their problem.  Declining the booking would have dropped my search ranking, and the inquiry and booking blocked my calendar so no one else could book.  I did everything I was supposed to do and airbnb issued the payout today.  I guess we'll see if I get a bad review.

[Bob39]

If the guest was "Just looking..." as he stated, he should have made an inquiry by clicking on "Contact host." Instead, he made a reservation request by clicking on "Request to book." Big difference there. And if he doesn't know the difference then it's not your fault. You don't owe him a refund. You can refund if you want, but you don't have to.

I think he's bluffing by saying he didn't have an internet connection. How did he make the other Airbnb reservation? Internet is required to do that. He's just saying anything he can think of to get you to give him the money.

I think the only lesson for you is to not accept the reservation until you have communicated with the guest enough to answer any questions you have. Through the communication you can find if they are serious about staying there.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

Message the guest that if he didn't want the reservation he should have cancelled his request as soon as he found a reservation he did want.  In good faith you accepted his request and prepared the space for him.  This message will help to prove to Airbnb that he did not stay with you, which is important for removing a bad review (see below.)

If it was not for the emergency housekeeper, I would refund.  However you are out actual money for trying to accommodate this guest.  So maybe refund whatever the housekeeper did not cost you?

Or no refund.

If he did not stay he technically cannot leave a review, so if he does leave a bad review you can contact Airbnb and they will remove it.

If he contacts Airbnb they may refund him no matter what you decide (they can do whatever they want and take the money out of your next payout if they so desire, it's in their fine print) so if you are going to give any refund tell him that it will take several weeks to process. You need to make sure Airbnb has not already refunded him before you send any money to him (but do NOT tell him that, you do not want to put ideas in his head.)

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

We have our listing set so that it does not allow for same day requests.  Too stressful to be sure it is always ready, usually late arrivals, often chaotic communication.  Not worth it to us.

[Christopher187]

Thanks for the advice.  I think maybe at this point it might be best for me to take no action.  It is already documented in the messages that the guest didn't stay.  If the guest had been even remotely responsive yesterday I would have offered a partial refund if he cancelled, but he couldn't even be bothered to do that.

I stay up pretty late myself and don't mind a late arrival as long as they know how to check-in without banging on the door.  Any guest, no matter when they book, needs to be able to communicate, and it's always a hassle when they don't.

[Paul154]

Last minute bookings are tricky if you don't have the room prepped.

Every now and then I want a last minute booking, so I allow IB until 7pm. 

But then I forget to turn the late booking window off, so I get a reservation on another day at 6:30 for an unprepared room.

I then scramble because I want the money and it was my fault that I allowed them to book!

It sucks.  

But last minute reservations are a different animal.  The people making the booking are needing lodging quickly.

You must immediately say No  or say Yes and have a plan to move the people in quickly. 

@Christopher187, you should probably refund him. You had to get the room ready anyway, so the 150% payment to your cleaner, really only reflects a 50% premium over what you had to pay anyway. Yes you did go through alot of stress, but that's on you.

You did not say NO immediately.

You did not have a room prepared.

Not the guest's fault, he just wanted a room and wanted it quickly.