Guest left after arrival, never cancelled

[Hunter11]

Hello,

Reaching out to the community for some help. We have been hosting for about 4 months now and had maybe 20 stays. We have not had any issues until now. Yesterday we had a guest arrive for a 40 night stay that had been booked weeks in advance. She was out on business, and her employee booked her stay with us. We had no clue the person who booked was not going to be staying with us.  When she arrived she told us that she did not want to stay with us because it was not as nice as she was used to and that she did not think the apartment was safe and she thought it was a bad neighborhood, refering to "junk cars." Our place is a downstairs apartment with a side entry behind a privacy fence with a gate, and I drive an old VW van. We have never had any complaints about safety, and we have lived here for over a year with zero safety concerns.

Right after she left, the person who booked messaged us asking for the best way to take care of the cancellation, and get a refund. (Our cancellation policy is set to moderate.) We explained to him our policy, but understanding that that was a lot of money we offered a full refund for the November dates (17 nights.) He responded today that our offer was unacceptable and he would compensate us for 5 nights, to which we said he agreed to our cancellation policy and we thought our offer was fair.

So, he has yet to respond, and we are now to nights into the reservation. We are worried about getting a bad review, and that he is going to force us to cancel! If anyone has had any similar instances or advice, we would love to hear it!

[Happy-and-Erin0]

Just call Airbnb! They will help you sort it all out. 

[Elena87]

@Hunter11

Your cancellation policy actually changes from moderate to long term because the booking was over 27 days. This gives you extra protection for longer bookings.

In short, when the booking is made the guest agrees to pay a 30 day notice period if cancelling.

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#long-term

If your guest is unhappy about your place she can look at the guest refund policy and see if your place falls into one of these ' travel issues' categories - this includes 'is unsafe' and she can ask airbnb for a full refund. Although 'unsafe' is arbitary and undefined so it can be that airbnb become judge and jury if this is brought up - so be ready to defend your corner if this is raised.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/544/what-is-airbnb-s-guest-refund-policy

You can go back and contact the booker about what they had actually agreed to at the time of booking, as it is a bit different to what you have been discussing about compensation. Probably your intitial offer was fair. 

[Hunter11]

Thanks Elena, I appreciate the info. I guess our biggest concern now would be getting a bad review if they are going to lose out on large chunk of money.

[David126]

@Hunter11

With a booking of that length the long term cancellation conditions apply, so Moderate etc does not.

Except under limited circumstances ABB does not oermit third oparty bookings.

You could certainly get the booking cancelled, but then you would have no income.

[BNB-Detroit0]

They left your listing right away -- do you think they would leave you a good review?  They are already not happy.  

If the guest calls Airbnb and claims your place is not safe then some moron from Airbnb will call you and ask you to give them a FULL refund.  Had it happen plenty of times and thats weird because my location is TOP 10 cities in America.  Some guests know how to play the Airbnb game and nothing the host can do but lose the money.

Suggest you get your place booked for the next guest and it's up to the current guest to cancel the booking.  Stick to your cancellation policy, after all you saved the space and rejected other potential guests from coming along your way.

[Erich11]

Hello,

I thought I would add to this, since I just had a very BAD expierence in W.V.

with my wife. Looking forward to this trip for over a month. It was going to 

be a relaxing get away from it all and it turned out to be one of our worse trips

EVER!!! MOLD, MILDEW, BLACK MOLD, SMELL, STINK, ETC,ETC,ETC.......

Oh, but the pillows were so bad I had to cover with a towel most of the towels 

had an smell of mold great to sleep on???? Oh yes, the pillows really had a BO smell too!

We had a four day visit and the host with NO morals whatsoever gave us nothing 

but lies and more lies. As they say, he must be in denial!!! My wife has asthma and 

was caughing and gagging for the horible atmosphere. The place was nice on the 

first floor, but the lower level, well all I can say is the guy is an outright crook!!!!

He had a sleeve of GAY DVD's 20-30 of them out in the open. Just think of that

if we or most people would rent the place. He kept stressing, nobody has ever complained!

Greedy **bleep**! He made $390.00 for one night from us!!!!!! We were supossed to stay four

nights and desided after a bit more than 1/2 a day, we are departing!! We are both very angry. I

am not sure if this guy has a morals??? 

[Mike439]

when people see old cars,they tend to think the area is not safe ,its a perseption. like when you go to the dentist and he has all antique chairs ,,you run like hell