Penalty fee for cancelling (my house is being sold)

[Debbie0]

Hi there,

I have accepted an offer on my house, and anticipate the sale to go through in the next 3 months.

I have a guest booked in for April, and I have contacted her to advise her that it is likely that my house will be sold before her stay.

She was fine about it and I cancelled the booking so that she didn't lose any money, but now Airbnb has fined me $50 for cancelling (I had cancelled a guest a couple of months ago due to illness).

Aside from these 2 cancellations, I have been an excellent host and welcomed many guests this year.

I feel that the financial penalty in this instance is totally unreasonable, given that I am selling my house and have given a guest 5 months notice regaridng this.

What can I do to be reimbursed the fine?

Thanks

[Maria-Lurdes0]

I don't think that you'll have very much luck being reimbursed the fine.  As much as it sucks, that is the penalty associated with canceling the booking.   Whether you can't host the guest due to illness or due to a sale of the property, it still means that the guest made plans that now have to be changed.   Airbnb charges you a penalty because they now will give a credit to the canceled guest, in order to entice them to rebook on the Airbnb platform instead of just giving up and booking a traditional hotel.

[Debbie0]

Thanks Maria, really appreciate your feedback

[Linda0]

Debbie,
There is not much you can do aside from asking Airbnb to retract the penalty because you think plaing your home up for sale for whatever reason with pending sale is an extenuating circumstance. However, Airbnb may think you lack planning strategy and will deny retracting penalty.

[Ynez0]

I have to agree with you Debbie as I also feel the cancellation policy regarding hosts is harsh. I have to cancel two bookings in March due to unforeseen circumstances. My cancellation policy is moderate so guests are charged nothing if they cancel up to five days before the booking starts - which is waaaaaay out of line with the hosts cancellation policy. 

So far, I have had only good experiences with air bnb, but I would like to see this cancellation policy amended to something more in line with the cancellation policy for guests. 

[Jared3]

Is it always $50 per cancellation? I'm in a similar situation where I'm going to sell my house but I have about four different bookings that I'll need to cancel, all about 2.5 months away.

Sincerely,

Jared

[Kara14]

Is this penalty fee across the board for all hosts in all locations? I have not been impacted by this yet, or heard about the $50 cancellation penalty in my experience as a host. Can anyone elaborate on the details of this rule? 

[Roz4]

Just hope you get a good price for the house to cover your $50 costs! In NZ it costs you at least $20k to sell a house with an agent, so $50 is just another small cost of selling.

[Susan552]

I too find myself in this situation - placed my listed property on the market and it sold much faster than I ever thought!  As it's a "game day" type place near a college campus, it already had some future reservations (the earliest being mid August) for football season.  I had already taken the initiative to make arrangements with a friend of mine (who also has an Airbnb rental in the same building) for her to block her calendar for my guests' dates and agree to honor my deals, then contacted each of the guests with the details so they could book her place instead.  The ones I have neard from are thrilled to have been offered the same deal in an equivalent property, and should not be penalized financially in any way!!  Nor should I, in my opinion - I am redirecting business back to Airbnb AND keeping the guests happy.  No guest has been inconvenienced. All reservations are well in advance of the Moderate cancellation policy guidelines. Airbnb is out zero money here, in fact they have been earning interest on the pre-collected funds.  There are no administrative costs for them to do these transactions - it's all automated.

I think "extenuating circumstances" should include the sale of a listed property, as long as the host takes steps to accommodate any future reservations.  You never know how long it will take to sell a property.  In my case it was listed for sale after I already had these pending reservations, so cancellation at some point was likely whether done prior to listing for sale or after the sale closed.  My calendar was blocked the same day it was listed for sale so I wouldn't incur more bookings. So don't try and tell me I didn't plan well.

Airbnb does not make it user-friendly for hosts to learn all the rules up front.  Nor do they do a good job of informing you of changes to policy.  I am highly disillusioned with them as a host, am extremely unlikely to use them as a guest, or to refer others to use their service going forward.

[Joanna85]

That does stink.  I see people have reservations in March and April...2018?! YIKES!  I am considering even not doing much more than two or three months in advance.  I guess it depends on where you are located...I can fill up easy.  I"m so worried my own circumstances will change and I"ll be stuck with a full two or three month's worth of cancellations.  

[Mauricio26]

I have just received a booking request for 2018 for about 28 days.

And again my house is for sale and no one knows when that is going to happen

But as I have seen in this conversation before, the  50$ penalty won't hurt me if I've  sold the house.

My only question no is if that fifty dollars is standard or is related to the total amount of the booking.

[Sue278]

I just thought of this...I read that if you cancel they charge you $50 on your next payout.  If you cancel due to selling your house that would mean you'd have no future bookings, therefore, they can't deduct the $50/cancellation...right?  How would they otherwise collect this fee?

[Lisa515]

You would know your closing date and cancel the bookings after that date.  I imagine they would deduct from the remaining bookings you have between the signed contract and closing date.  That is, unless you're not even telling guests or Airbnb until the closing date of your transaction.  That seems less than being completely transparent, though.  I think once an inspection is complete and there's some sort of confirmation from the mortgage lender (or a pre-approved letter from mortgage lender), then it's all but guaranteed the closing will take place. 

[Sue278]

Nothing is ever guaranteed.  I chose not to tell guests or airbnb as I feel canceling 4 months in advance of showing up is PLENTY of time given a guest can cancel on us 7 days prior to arrival.  Not very fair to hosts.  I canceled my bookings after we closed.  All of them were fine and congratulated us on our closing 🙂

[Eugen10]

This is ridiculous. The double standard for guests/hosts is too much. Having to cancel a reservation (when in 3 years there hasn't been an instance) due to selling of property with up to 2-3 months (even 5-6) ahead should be considered reasonable on Airbnb's side, especially for hosts who have multiple listings.

Their policy of suspending Superhost status for a year for a single cancellation is preposterous. 

Also, not having the possibilty to refund 100% a guest is just insane. If you convince a guest to cancel, Airbnb keeps the 15% commission and offer no possibility for hosts to refund it to guests.

The inconvinience for guests notified 2-3-4-5-6 months ahead in these uncommon circumstances (selling of property)? A few more clicks on their platform to choose a different property.