Mistaken booking

[David-And-Jo0]

A guest who is new to Airbnb has mistakenly booked at very short notice. I believe he has booked several places thinking that he was making enquiries! We are prepared to forego the booking except for a small admin fee, but do not want to cancel for fear of affecting our ratings. What is the best course of action?

[Linda0]

I would not charge a guest for accidentally booking if they notified me immediately. One reason being that i believe they will need to pay airbnb fees on the multiple bookings as it is. No harm no foul. Also, I don't think you can charge for incidentals like that unless they are a guest already or it is part of a special offer anyway.

[David-And-Jo0]

The problem for us is that no-one else will be able to book for the week, so we could potentially lose out as the week is blocked off on our calender. We intend to charge the small admin fee because we had to call in a cleaner at very short notice.

[Maria-Lurdes0]

Let the guest know that if they made a mistake in booking, that they have to cancel.  You'll be penalized if you cancel so don't cancel on their behalf.   Advise them to reach out to support if they have any questions, but that as a host, you cannot cancel for the guest.  It's almost the most important hosting rule - never cancel for the guest.  When a host initiates the cancelation the following happens:

1) calendar is blocked so you're not able to offer those dates to other guests

2) you lose the ability to be a superhost for A YEAR!

3) financial cancelation penalty, not sure if you're penalized for the first cancelation or if it's only for a second cancelation, but there is some financial hit.

Since it's an honest mistake, you may want to over ride your cancelation policy if you have a 'strict' policy in place which means you'd keep half the booking cost in case of a cancelation.  You will be given the opportunity to refund $$ once the guest cancels.

[David-And-Jo0]

Thanks for that Maria, it's very good advice.