My guest needs to cancel as they made the booking in error. Why am I being penalized?

[Colin3]

My guest was making an inquiry for over a year away (June 2017) and made the booking today in error. They are planning a family reunion from all over North America and wanted to know whether I could hold the dates for them. I would be more than happy to let them cancel without either of us getting punished until they have their party plans in order. How do I arrange that? They have put in a cancellation request for which I have to agree to but Airbnb is saying I will be punished with the following actions:

Host Cancellation Penalties

Your listing may be temporarily paused if you cancel multiple reservations.
The listing would be removed from search results until you reactivate.

Cancellation fee
It’s your first cancellation in 6 months, so we’re waiving the fee.

Automatic cancellation review
An automatic review will be posted on your listing

Blocked calendar dates
Your calendar will remain blocked for the dates of the cancelled reservation

How is this fair to me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Colin

[Brittany1]

@Colin3

The cancellation penalities are for hosts who cancel. If your guest is canceling you WILL NOT be penalized. Have the guest go into their reservation and cancel. I've had multiple guests cancel and never have I had to accept or decline their cancelation. It is something they can do on their own.

[Colin3]

But will they then have to live up to my cancellation policy? In this particular case, I don't think nor do I want them to lose any money. I am confident that if this can be resolved quickly and amicably, they will book when they have their plans resolved. They are new to Airbnb and just pushed the wrong buttons.

[Brittany1]

Since you have a strict cancellation policy your guest will only be getting 50% of their reservation cost plus cleaning fee back. If you would like to give them the other 50% you will have to go to www.airbnb.com/resolutions and pay them the second half. They will not receive their Airbnb Fees back.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

I don't understand this: if they are cancelling the reservation there will be no penalty to you. Also, as a host, you don't need to agree to a cancellation - you just get an email saying the guests have cancelled and your cancellation policy comes into play.

Do you have instant book switched on? Is that how they were able to book?

Sounds like both parties want to avoid any penalty and that the booking was made in error - up to the guests to clear that up with AirBnB. 

[Colin3]

And no, to my knowledge, I do not have the instantbook switched on.

[ZenHomes0]

@Colin3 I've had a similar situation happened to me before. Just request the guest to cancel, it was their fault for pushing the wrong button. Do NOT cancel it on your end - you will be penalised. First an automated posting goes on your profile saying you cancelled a reservation, it does not look good. Second those selected dates will be blocked out. You may also be fined. Your search ranking will be reduced, so do not cancel it on your end. Just reassure them that the remaining funds will be refunded through the resolution centre but they'd need to absorb the Airbnb fees for this mistake they made.

[Stephanie18]

Same thing just happened to me today.

Guest inquired, I sent pre-approval and she accidently clicked on it before we had finished talking about arrangements. Now she is being penalized $14 for canceling the reservation. She plans to rebook my listing, will airbnb refund her the penalty fee if she rebooks?

THanks for any help!

[Colin3]

Hi Stephanie:

For what it's worth, my suggestion would be to have them talk to Airbnb directly. Airbnb will likely contact you to get your side of the story. In my case, as the host, it was being layed out that I had to cancel but this was erroneous. The guest who makes the mistake must cancel and try to get the penalties reversed. 

I'm sure that as they would likely book anyway, that Airbnb will take the soft approach and help them out rather than have them upset. It's to everyone's benefit. A win, win, win situation, if you will. 

That's my suggestion and comments. 

Good luck!

Colin

[Michael680]

Same thing with me: my guest mistakenly confirmed the reservation, although I asked  her to wait until I was sure about the dates. It's her first time and she did it by mistake. Now I know that I can't host on those dates, so I've asked her to CANCEL the reservation. I promised to waive her cancellation fee -- but how do I do it? I tried to find the resolution centre, to send them a message that I want to waive the guest's cancellation fee. But there's no contact mail or phone for the resolution centre - I checked all over the website!

Thanks for any help, Michael

[Marco74]

Michael were you able to figure this out? I am in the same situation.