Long Term Cancellation-- No Payout?

[Jen5]

Sorry this is long, but I'm seeking clarification on Airbnb's long term reservation cancellation policy.

I had a guest book a stay for 30 days. He had to leave early but did not officially cancel with Airbnb. With the second payout due, I received an email from Airbnb stating they were unable to charge the guest for the balance due and "If your guest doesn't successfully submit payment or if they cancel the reservation before making the payment, Airbnb isn't liable for issuing your host payout. "

I was paid for the first 28 days so I'm only looking at potentially two days of lost income so it's not a big deal in this situation, but since I typically rent my house out for 30 days or more, I want to be clear on what the policy is.

Airbnb's long term reservation policy states, "Cancel before 12pm local time during the trip and the next 30 nights of the reservation are non-refundable. If fewer than 30 nights remain in the reservation, all nights are non-refundable."

Am I somehow misinterpreting that? It seems pretty clear that I should be paid for at least 30 days of any reservation after it starts and shouldn't have to engage in a bunch of correspondence with Airbnb to collect that.

Based on what I'm gathering from the email, a guest could reserve a place for 56 nights during peak season, then they can just leave after 28 days without recourse leaving the host screwed out of a month of bookings since the listing showed as unavailable. And if this is indeed the case, then it's way too risky to accept one long term reservation. Instead, I should request that long term guests make separate bookings because then the strict cancellation policy would guarantee at least 14 days notice of a cancellation for the second reservation.

Not only that, I added up the prorated amount for 28 days and realized Airbnb shorted me $10 on my initial payout. In other words, they made sure they got their full cut upfront!

The message also states, "If you have questions about the payment problem, you can reach out to your guest. " The thing is, I don't want to fight the guy to collect because he had a family issue to attend to but I do want to fight Airbnb on this policy.  Any loss or collection efforts should be on Airbnb's part, not the host's.

Does anybody have any experience or thoughts on 1) Addressing this with Airbnb or 2) On requesting that long stays be broken up into separate reservations?

[Emiel1]

@Jen5 

It is true Airbnb can only charge the first installment at time of booking (otherwise there will be no confirmed reservation). If they can not charge a subsequent installment, they will not legally "go after the guest", but they inform the host about it and that's it. I think Arbnb have no legal ground to keep pressure on the guest to pay (like when having a renting contract, which they encourage: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1354/what-are-some-differences-between-long-term-hosting-and-sho...).

I posted frequently about this subject, like here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/No-payment-received-from-airbnb/m-p/678976#M155745

Best regards,

Emiel

[Carol5327]

@Jen5 I just had a similar experience with long term guests who booked for 4.5 months. From the day they arrived (1 week late) to the day they left, they did not stop complaining. I attended to all their issues but I could see that these people were not going to be satisfied, so I suggested to them that they cancel if they were not happy, and finally they did, 10 days later.

The booking is supposed to be covered under the long term cancellation policy which means that they would be charged an additional  30 days after the cancellation date. What the guests did, however, was cancel or change their payment details, so that Airbnb has not been able to withdraw the final amount that is owning. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Airbnb have told me that the matter is with the collections department. After reading several posts, I am not sure how effective the collections department is?

If this is an ongoing issue with Airbnb then they should be deducting 2 months in advance for long term bookings, to protect hosts from this type of behavior. Otherwise the Long Term Cancellation Policy is ineffective.

[Kamon-Villa0]

Hi there .

I am in the middle of a similar situation.

2 months ago I received a guest who booked a long term reservation.6 months. Yesterday I received a cancellation from the guest , reason given he could not afford the rent anymore . He is Swedish and we are based in Thailand. According to the cancellation policy I should receive an amount of payout for the remainder 30 days. But after messaging with resolution centre I received a message that they where unable to retrieve any amount from the guest.and that Airbnb is not liable. I am perplexed by this . Host should not have to go through this . Airbnb should pay for their policy and take the fall.I feel being played from both sides. The guest still stays in Thailand as he works as exchange student in one of the bigger hotels.I feel he just found something cheaper due to COVID discounted prices. How can we protect ourselves if it works like this?

[Kamon-Villa0]

Oh and forgot to mention,the guest left without paying the electrical bill .that we write as house rules that there has to be payed 5thb / kWh. Left me with an extra 90 USD bill.