Help : First Time Host - Long Term Cancellation

[Zamonii0]

Hello all ! I have been hosting for a busy two weeks now and it has been an exciting yet , tumultuous experience. Had two great guest, one guest who was a great guest but stole from my home (diff post coming soon). But a ton of bookings to come. Cheap price , central area . “Win -Win”. The issue is we are downtown and the area is urban.( listed in the neighborhood description)  It’s not the “hood” but it isn’t suburbia either. To be honest, it’s gentrified 🤷🏾‍♀️ Like most of Columbus. We live on a quiet street and have never had any issues. Again we are central to everything. 

A guest requested a long term stay of 28 days in March. She messaged me before booking asking how far we were from Whole Foods and presumably her work destination. We were 10 minutes drive from both. She happily booked. Fast forward to four days before her check in time, I seen someone outside our home snapping photos etc of the area whilst I was preparing for another guest. Later that evening she messages me asking to cancel and receive a refund , states she doesn’t like the area. I assured her this was a safe area pointed out our neighborhood description. She replied This is her first time in Columbus and isn’t “well located”. I explained the long term policy and told her to contact Airbnb. She is now attempting to find every excuse to cancel , “she doesn’t feel parking is safe without a gate”, etc. 

At this point, I am not comfortable having her as a guest as I am sure she’ll try and cancel after check in or pull some weirdness and make claims that are untrue since this is what she’s doing now. Should I cancel and take the hit? (No bookings the weekend of the freaking Arnold Classic - and lose $1100) or she can cancel and let Airbnb deal with it?  I’ve been reading threads and policies and it says guest can cancel due to location but we were very upfront with our location and neighborhood.

[Deborah619]

Thanks ... They are refunding the money... but it will take 15 days... thats 3000$ I now cant spend to rebook... so it has left me in the lurch ... also because it is inbetween 2 other bookings.   Appreciate your help

Could you also tell me if it is true that AIrbnb restrict the number of days one can rent a house out.   I have someone telling me their quota is full.. but if I book 2 days they can block the dates out for me.  is that sounding true? xD

[Sarah977]

@Deborah619  No, Airbnb doesn't restrict the # of days that can be booked as far as I'm aware, but local laws may, and laws can vary greatly from one area to the other. Some places have short term rental bans because of complaints from neighbors of unruly guests or hotel industry lobbies, some may ban long-term because they perceive it cuts down on affordable housing options for locals. Sounds like the host is trying to get around this, which likely wouldn't pose a problem for you as a guest, as long as the host has great reviews, but if you're curious, you could google Airbnb rental regs in the area you're looking. I don't quite see how the host could block off the days for you without them being actually booked, it seems you'd have to pay cash for all the days not on the confirmed 2 day booking, which isn't kosher or safe.

I know, it's pretty outrageous that Airbnb takes that long to refund, when you weren't at fault. I once had a guest who was overcharged by double, Airbnb admitted it was a glitch on their end, and she still had to wait 15 days for a refund, even though it was the company's error. And they're collecting interest on that money for the 15 days, which I imagine is one of their reasons for doing it.

Airbnb will usually apply the $ you paid for a place that didn't work out to another place you find, rather than refunding your card. Did you ask them about this?