Dear all,
I have been a host for more than 5 years and became Superhost within 6 months of joining and maintained that status for many times. This year my goal was to work hard to ensure i give my guests the best and subsequently earn the Superhost.
A week before the 1st of April, i made a very silly mistake which ended up opening dates on one of my listings accidentally when i could not host as i was upgrading my furniture. Within second, someone made an instant booking. I phoned Airbnb to understand if they could give a penalty free cancellation should i decide to cancel. i neded to make a decision whether to go ahead and cancel or do whatever it takes to accomodate the guest if cancellation would result in me getting cancellation penalties
The consultant explained that they cannot give me penalty free on all 4 categories. They can give one. I suggested the cancellation penalty to be forgiven and she advised that if i take that one, it wont make any difference as if i cancel the reservation, it will not affect my cancellation rate. So i therefore based my decision to go ahead with cancelling the reservation as she said i cancellation rate penalty will remain >1% but i would have to pay the $100 penalty, have a review on my listing etc. 4 days later i see that cancellation rate went up from >1% to 3.35%. I was totally shocked as she obviously misled me and made me take the decsiion to cancel the reservation impacting on my potentail to be superhost. I was livid and very unhappy. I have been calling Airbnb and all i got was. Sorry it was a mitsake on our side but there is nothing we can do. I am feeling very demotivated as i ahve been very supportive and committed to AirbnB. I feel betrayed by the system and Airbnb not takeing accountability nor willing to rectify the mistake made by one of their team. I definitely would not have cancelled the reservation if i knew this would happen hence why i phoned first. Anyone with ideas how i can deal with this. I still feel Airbnb should have a way to review and reverse the impact it has had on my Superhost status due to their mistake. REgards Patience