"Pet friendly" filter causes confusion with potential guests

[Chris140]

I recently had a guest book my place for over a month which then caused me to check out of where I was staying early (so still paid) and then drove all the way home ending some important business functions and money making opportunities in order to accommodate my guest as she was planning on arriving the next day.

Two hours later, she cancelled because I told her she would not be allowed to bring her dog since I have a cat and no other animals are allowed. My listing has this marked, as in I do not allow pets and I have a pet. She said she filtered search results for "pet friendly" listings which is why she booked thinking her dog could stay. If Airbnb is showing listings which do not allow animals, that is not pet friendly in my opinion. Therefore, I think I should still get my first month rent paid and she should also receive credit because it sounds like it was not her fault and not my fault, but the fault of poor filtering results.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

[Christine1]

@Chris140, Hi Chris, It's a dilemma for sure.

All reservations are subject to cancelation policies. No doubt you were excited at the prospect of a very long booking and you felt ok about modifying your schedule in anticipation of the financial return.

To discover that there was a misunderstanding is awkward and disappointing. Nonetheless you were both now dealing with a valid and facilitated reservation.

AirBnb offers a platform to facilitate this booking. This service and other services provided for users is what they charge their fee for.

AirBnb attempt to facilitate connections between guests and hosts to allow equitable access for a full variety of people and accommodation experiences between consenting adults who are free to exchange information in advance of accepting or approving bookings. 

Once you both realised that there was an issue around the dog, you basically had to go in one of 3 directions;

1. Flexibility and accept the pet
2. You cancel
3. Guest cancel. 

The financial aspect of a cancellation is generally not a subjective one, it is worked out based on a combination of your pre-existing policy and Airbnb policies around cancelations. Both of you are well advised to be fully informed about how they operate.

It sounds like you want the money, but you feel guilty requesting it, so you want finances to go to the guest as well?  But if airbnb has done its bit, then they are entitled to retain their fee for service. 

It also sounds as if you felt "inconvenienced" by the check in preparation, so that may have a bit to do with why you would like to be paid? Is that possible?

I am guessing that this booking was fairly recent so the calendar was not blocked for long? 

If the situation was reversed and you were the guest, what would you think was fair?... perhaps this could assist you to decide?

You can offer money back through the Resolutions Centre if you feel that you have the capacity to be more generous in this instance, as it does sound like a genuine error, and you will be building goodwill in the community if you decide to go down this path.

I hope this helps you as you reflect on this. Please write back and let us know what you ended up doing in this situation.

Sincere regards,

Christine.

[Christine1]

@Chris140,

if you do decide to refund extra to your guests, then below you will see information from AirBnb_FAQ's HELP on this topic.

How do I refund my guest?

1. Depending on when your guest cancelled a reservation, you can refund them from their reservation on airbnb.com, or through the Resolution Centre.

   Guest cancelled before check-in date

   If your guest cancelled the reservation before the check-in date, you can give them an additional refund beyond what the cancellation policy provides by going to Your reservations and clicking the Issue Refund button.

   Guest cancelled after check-in date If your guest cancelled the reservation after the check-in date, you can issue a refund to your guest in ourResolution Center:
   1. Go to the Resolution Center on airbnb.com
   2. Choose the reservation you want to refund
   3. Under Select a Reason, choose Offer Partial Reimbursement
   4. Enter the desired amount, currency, and a message to your guest

   After you send the details, your guest will be notified and can choose to accept or decline the offer. If the offer has been accepted, we’ll process your transaction within 48 hours. You’ll be notified once the transaction is complete.

   Once you submit the refund amount, the transaction is considered final. To ask your guest for any money back, you will need to submit a new request using the Resolution Center.

   Service fees

   Airbnb service fees are non-refundable for guests. However, your 3% host fee will be adjusted according to your final reservation total after the refund.

View this article in the Help Centre › 

Help Centre

Happy Hosting. Regards, Christine

[Rachael26]

@Christine1

Quite Simply - you give BRILLIANT advice. Thank you!

Best Wishes.

[Jeffrey94]

You didn't address the question of AirBnB's faulty filter.  Apparently the host listed their property as not allowing pets, the guest filtered their search by properties that allowed pets, and the host's property erroneously appeared in the search results.  If this is true, then the fault lies with a bug in AirBnB's software, that is providing erroneous information, and thus not facilitating a free exchange of information, but corrupting and confusing it, leading to negative experiences for both the guest and the host who both operated in good faith (hence the host's thought that both should be made whole).

I have seen this happen before when I search for pet friendly properties.  It happens quite frequently, actually.  I'm not sure of the cause.  But I know I will search with the "pets allowed" amenity checked, and get results for properties that have that amenity greyed out, even tho checking that clearly reduces the number of results.

I wish AirBnb would capture and log search criteria so that they could be held accountable for misleading search results, but I realize they wouldn't have an incentive to do so, unless they are marketing the guaranteed accuracy of their listings (which might help their business).

[Theresa21]

Chris I also have had confussion occur about allowing pets. I am a new host ( 2 months) and I have had three guest inquiry state that they see I am pet freindly and want to bring their pets.Which is totally wrong because I do not allow pets. While I love pets, I have a cat that is scared to death of dogs and I made it clear in my listing that I do not allow pets. It is in The House rules, and mentioned again in the listing. What I have noticed is that Airbnb has a standard form for host to fill out, yet, there is not a designated spot for no pets allowed. I think there should be a check off box in the ammenities section along with the no smoking, not infant friendly, ect., that clearly states YES or NO to pets, children and/or age groups.

     Lets be real ....I don't belive most people take the time to look through anyones whole listing to see if they can bring pets or children .What I think to be a fair and guest friendly approch is: If guest want a pet or child friendly place to stay they should not have to do more than type that in options, and Airbnb should only provide CORRECT LISTINGS for them to choose from.Thats why I think as a company Airbnb should just add that option in where it is much more user friendly and clear. Not depend on the host and guest to figure it out on there own. We, the host, and Airbnb generate an income from our bookings/guest, so adding overlooked issues should be a simple issue that needs to be taken care of. 

    I decided in the beginning not to instant book till I got the hang of hosting and a better understanding of the whole Airbnb process. I love hosting and belive Airbnb do try to help. They just seem to be limited on the help thats available. I have contacted them about this twice and they couldn't change my listing saying pets allowed, nor, have a program/method to clear that up. I hope they will work it out soon. 

   My guest must contact me for booking so I have been lucky and haven't had to inconveince a guest by a last minute cancelation. 

   You posting clearly points out that it bothered you to cancel and cause your client a last minute scramble for lodgings. I can only suggest that if you are on instant book to change it, and be sure to clear that pet hurtal in your first response.

   While I doubt you can get compensated, I do feel she sould have gotten something . As stated she said she ran her inquiry/filter as pet friendly and trusted them to connect her to the correct listing.

The exact same thing has happened to me three times for pets and once for children. In only two months...Aka the reason behind my ideas on updateing the program for amminuties and filters. 

TW&BB

[Linda108]

Hello Chris and Theresa,  I checked your listings and you both clearly do not allow pets.  I also doubled checked the search function selecting dogs allowed and it clearly would not allow a listing that had no pets under the house rules.  That being said, the search function that allows clear yes or no on pets, children, smoking is relatively new.  Previously the search process did not show a clear parameter  so it is possible that confusion would occur if the guest searching did not read your descriptions.

It is an expectation of the Air BNB community that guests read the descriptions so neither of you should feel guilty about allowing the Air BNB cancellation policy to just take its course.

[Christine1]

The whole topic of how a guest can filter for the facilities that they need is a very relevant one as it is the source of many problems as well as being at the heart of good matching for guest needs and the host facilities and services.

I have 2 listings at the one property and one is pet friendly, but the other is not.

I recently tested the search tools to see if they effectively screen and they appear to screen for myself and nearby listings according to the inputs.  But although the amenities list shows quite a bit of information it is condensed on the front page and not fully pasted for quick reference so a lot of the detail gets missed. 

What is really concerning is the number of letters to forums where discrepencies get mentioned and these seem too frequent and difficult to trace. That's why I'd recommend  hosts regularly "view" and "edit" their listings.  Ensure you have a stable internet connection with good bandwitdth while doing this and keep watching out for the "Saved!" messages whenever new data is entered or settings are altered. if you don't get these messages the data may not have been altered.

The cause of a misunderstanding is difficult to pinpoint in retrospect and by then the upset is in place so everything we can do to be vigilent is beneficial.

Is it possible that some guests and hosts are mistaking, "pets at the property" with "pet friendly"... .  

Good discussion, if you are reading; join in!

#: ). 

Regards, Christine.

[Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0]

As a Host and as a landlord, I'm regularly approached about pets.

Cats are not a problem if the owners can prove that Kitty is fixed and vaccinated. I will also accommodate carded service dogs. I do not take dogs as pets for a variety of good reasons. 

Nonetheless I cannot post "pet friendly" because some owners take liberties, as we have seen.

If and when i win the lottery, I'd like to develop a "pet friendly" suite that is easily cleaned, fumigated, etc.

However, that does not solve the issue of what the guests plan on doing with Fido when they go out, as many activities, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc. do not allow dogs. 

[Jeremy226]

I just searched for pet friendly listings in Boston and most of the listings aren't pet friendly.  The search filter is highly flawed

[Ed237]

This is an old post, but still relevant.  I too have used Airbnb search with "pet friendly" put into the search and I'm constantly given properties that have no pets allowed.  This is a BIG waste of time.  So much that I'm usually forced to go to another search engine to find a place when we need to bring our pet.  That you don't admit there is a problem on your end is frustrating, and the way in which you respond is frankly, patronizing.  While some people, new to the platform I'm sure, mix things up - many others,  myself included, know to read the details of House Rules - even after I've trusted that your search engine will bring up pet friendly stays...but it won't.  It's like the search doesn't even recognize the words "pet friendly" and simply just gives me a list - usually a long one - that includes both types of stays.  Since this is still going on even after this thread, it's still a problem with the search engine.  Instead of trying to defend it, even if it fits your internal view of what is pet friendly and what is should come up in a particular search - why not make it easier?  Why not make it more intuitive?

[Kristin274]

I agree this is a feature that hurts both renters and hosts. I am trying to search for pet friendly places and the first three that popped up specifically say in the rules, "no pets allowed". Very frustrating! 

[Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0]

Call Airbnb customer service and ask them to find you a place. 

[Alexandra316]

@Kristin274 I've had the same experience, and I think it's because hosts don't set up their listings correctly. They don't fill out the rules and just don't choose pets allowed or pets not allowed, so they don't get filtered out when you're looking for pet friendly accomodation. Really annoying. I've actually given up on using Airbnb to find pet-friendly accomodation, because it's just a bad system. They should give more fitlering options, i.e. size restrictions, must be crated, must be left outside, etc.

[Ed237]

Exactly!  I've given up.  I wrote them a long write up showing how it either doesn't work, or it's difficult and not INTRINSIC to the system.  This issue is becoming a big one as we start to treat pets almost like human members of the family.  To leave them home is not only expensive but sometimes, in some places, just not an option.  I look at some of the answers from the system admin people on these threads and they are so patronizing as well - like you are too stupid to figure out the system.  Kind of the wrong way to treat customers who want to be frequent customers.  It just takes too long to look through places to ensure you don't end up paying penalties or fees because of a misunderstanding.