No call/no show guest advice needed

[Kaity3]

Hi all!

I’ve been hosting for over a year and I’ve never had this happen so I’m looking for some advice on how to reply to a no call/no show guest. 

As context, this guest originally booked with me for a Friday-Tuesday stay a few months back (weekend in May). The day before checkin, she made an alternation request in which she wanted to change the dates of her trip to this past weekend (September) with the claim that her babysitter had Covid so they could not come due to no one to watch kids. I accepted the change and was accommodating.

Fast forward to the dates she was supposed to stay/this past weekend, and i do not hear from her. I send her the check in details, no reply. I check in later in the day, no reply. The guest never checked in, and never responded to my messages. The following day, I reached out to ask if everything was okay (maybe travel was difficult, benefit of doubt), no reply. 

I then reached out to AirBnb and explained the situation. I did not hear from the guest for the entirety of when they were supposed to stay, BUT today (Wednesday, their check out would have been yesterday), she messaged me saying that everyone had Covid and all they did sleep all weekend. 

I have a strict cancellation policy in place, and Airbnb is looking into the situation, but I am unsure of how to respond to her. My fear is that she will leave me a bad review due to the fact that she never cancelled and the review period is now open. I need to tread lightly. 

Please advise if anyone can!

Thanks all, 

Kaity

[Robin4]

@Kaity3 

Hi Kaity, although the world says we are over the Covid pandemic it is still playing havoc with travel.

I had 2 similar situations in the past 2 weeks, in the first one a guest who had booked for 4 nights contacted me 19 hours before the scheduled arrival and said they had to cancel their reservation because they all had Covid. 

Under my Flexible cancellation policy I was entitled to keep 85% of the payment by Airbnb's reckoning with Airbnb refunding the guest the remaining 15%.

I immediately messaged the guest back and said how sorry I was that their travel plans had been affected and told them that under Airbnb's rules they would lose most of their payment and even if they had cancelled with more than one day of the start of the stay they would still lose Airbnb's service fee.

But I offered the guest two options.

1/.... I would refund the guest 45% of what I would receive, which means the guest gets a refund of 60% and I would retain that 45% to cover some of the reservation loss and the work that had been put into the booking to that point.

2/.....As a second alternative I offered to let the guest reschedule their trip to a date that would suit them better and give them a 4 night credit for the rescheduled dates and I would retain the payout that was currently processing. By doing that I would only be out of pocket by one night but I would be getting the payout up front. 

By doing it this way I got the guest on side, they elected to take the refund but we had a good outcome with the guest happy.

Cheers..........Rob

Edit: as an aside I was going to include a screenshot of the guests contact but it appears I have reached by file limit and cannot include any further pictures which will severely restrict how I can answer questions!!

[Huma0]

@Robin4 

I didn't know there was a file limit. Is there a way to delete older images from the system? Mine now appear all weird and jumbled and overlapping in the saved images folder, maybe because I have too many there?

[Robin4]

@Huma0 

Yes it did take me by surprise Huma, I have always worked on that philosophy 'A picture is worth a 1,000 words' and when I went to post a screenshot of an edited conversation  a red banner came up telling me "Unable to perform upload, you have reached your 3,000 file limit"!

I had no idea there was a file limit and, as it is not possible to edit past posts I have no way of deleting old files/images.

So, it looks like I cannot post any further images on the CC, which for me, is sort of like tying one arm behind my back.....but there you go! 

Cheers.........Rob

[Huma0]

@Robin4 

I was wondering if there is some way to delete them from the saved images folder. Every time I upload a photo to a comment, it gets saved there. There is one folder called 'public' and another called 'all images' or something like that.

[Robin4]

@Huma0 

Thanks for the tips Huma but I did that as soon as this issue popped up. I went into saved photos but cannot find any way to delete images from there.

Maybe I will have to enlist the help of one of the moderators!

Cheers.......Rob

[Huma0]

@Robin4 

Yes, it seems weird that there is no way to delete them. Perhaps one of the moderators can advise if that's possible or, if it's not, put forward a suggestion for that functionality. It seems pretty basic to me.

[Robin4]

@Huma0 

It just seems very odd to me in this day and age when content can be archived that a help platform would say ...."Hey we encourage your contributions....but only up to a certain limit"!

Cheers......Rob

[Helen3]

Why did you flag this with Airbnb. What is there to look into. The facts are simple.

1. The guest asked you to alter the dates you agreed

2. The guest was a no show and you checked in with her as to why

3. When her original dates were is irrelevant.  She chose not to turn up for her booking or let you know despite your reminders. This is plain rude

4. You get paid as you made the space available.

By involving Airbnb you have only made things more complicated for yourself. You got paid so why do that?

I can't agree with @Robin4  on this occasion. Just because a guest has Covid or any other illness that doesn't mean that a host should be out of pocket. Particularly where the host has already been accommodating and move the dates. This guest did not turn up for their planned stay after moving the dates and didn't bother to let the host know. I don't think they are due any refund. Particularly as the host had no opportunity to rebook the dates.

[Sudsrung0]

@Kaity3 

You are in business to make money or not? You as the host stuck to your side of the bargain, the fact she did not turn up is not your problem, It's happened to us twice I never got airbnb involved, enjoy the money

[Anonymous]

@Kaity3  The guests slept through the entire booking without waking up for 1 minute to say they wouldn't be coming? Wow, you couldn't get a more literal case of "you snooze you lose." I agree with @Helen3  that there's no action for you to take with Airbnb or with the guest. You set up the space for them, you kept it available to them, your job is done. You didn't mention the guest even asking for a refund, so hopefully they recognize that they aren't entitled to one.

@Robin4  you chose to have a Flexible cancellation policy, so your guests had every reason to expect some flexibility with their bookings if Covid thwarted their plans. But the OP has a Strict policy and already granted more flexibility than she had to.

Covid is here to stay. it will be making its rounds through the population for the rest of our lives. How many more years do feel we have to keep treating it like an exceptional event that negates our contracts?

[Robin4]

@Anonymous  @Helen3 

Granted guys, Airbnb have a policy, lets stick to it!

I have never wanted, or expected to be paid for a service I did not provide. Sure there are times that I lose....... but there are times when I win. I haven't got where I have by bangin' on about the rules. 

I treat people the way I would like to be treated if I found myself in their situation!

If someone just changes their mind.....then suck it up! But if someone has an issue that makes their stay not possible I am prepared to give a bit of ground, lose a night or two to try and help them out!

I don't need this money.....I don't have a mortgage to pay....I host because I enjoy meeting people and enriching my own life by interacting with the experiences of others.

I don't look for validation from other hosts for the way I conduct my business, I simply offer it as what I feel is a blueprint to a successful hosting career.

It hasn't let me down to this point!

I said to @Stephanie  in a message the other day......

"I would like to think that what we see here on the CC is not typical of Airbnb hosting. I have had 6 years of dealing with Airbnb now, and I can't say they have ever let me down in any way over that 6 years! That is not to say nothing has ever gone wrong, it has but, I have always worked it out with the company.

But, the CC keeps me on edge, keeps me doubting the integrity of the company towards me......I am expecting problems that won't fix themselves because every day I see so many people here with problems in their dealings with the company and I am all the time conscious that my problem with the company might be just around the corner.

IE: currently I received email advice between the 20th and the 23rd September that 4 payouts had been released to my bank account but, up until yesterday afternoon none of those 4 payouts were even showing as 'processing' in my Transaction history! They were still showing as 'upcoming transactions'. By last night I was feeling I would have to get onto support this morning and find out what the status of those payouts was. But when I got up this morning all 4 payouts are in my bank account..... I have been paid, just another storm in a teacup which I would not even thought to question given my payout history with Airbnb.

But we see payout issues daily here on the CC and that needlessly has me watching my company dealings like a hawk!

This probably is why I am these days tending not to get involved with  so many problem issues and concentrating my posts on some of the nicer aspects of hosting and life!" 

I don't look for problems, so I don't get them.....but right or wrong......I am prepared to give a bit of ground every now and then to keep it that way!

Cheers..........Rob

[Anonymous]

@Robin4   You always have excellent advice and insight to share. It's especially helpful when the recipients keep in mind that, as you say, your perspective on hosting is partly informed by not actually needing the money.

I'm certain that this doesn't compromise your professionalism one bit, but it sure does change the calculations!

[Helen3]

@Robin4  You're in a different situation from the majority of hosts who do rely on the income and live next door so it's easy for you to be more flexible 

this host was more than flexible  with these guests accepting a last minute changes and then have them not bother to let her know, they were coming. 

I normally agree on your great insights but on this occasion the guest doesn't deserve a refund .  

[Robin4]

@Helen3 

I agree with you Helen, the guest does not deserve a refund, all they did was muck the host around.

But the whole thing about hosting is damage minimization!

A guest who is going to be this thoughtless to a host is probably going to make a fuss about getting their money back.....life is not about fair, life is about them. And as we have seen here many times, guests who grizzle to Airbnb tend to get their own way and Airbnb do refund them.

I am not saying what I do is the 'right' thing but, it keeps all parties relatively satisfied, I don't get a revenge review and........50% of something is better than 100% of nothing!

Cheers.........Rob