@Alexandra173....So sorry this has happened top you Alexandra, but unfortunately there are always people in this world who will do the wrong thing and because of this, it's fact of life, we must have rules.
Please don't be too hard on Airbnb, they have had to introduce rules around reservation cancelling because hosts were cancelling guest reservations to chase a more lucrative one.....a 5 day stay instead of a 2 day one. When this happens it throws a guests travel plans into chaos so, some strong measures had to be put in place to make it 'uneconomic' for a host to cancel.
Alexandra, although you have been with Airbnb as a traveller for a while you have only started hosting just recently, and I can assure you Airbnb's attitude towards hosting is very different to it's attitude towards guests.
Having said that I have had a wonderful 2 years of hosting with Airbnb. My contact with guests is seemless, my payments are always correct and always arrive in my account exactly when they should. I have found Airbnb easy to contact and I have found their help to be fast and efficient.
But, Alexandra, I made a point of learning the important rules before I started to host. I am not trying to be patronising here but, you must realise that not every hosting will run like clockwork! There will always be that 'ball out of left field' to deal with!
Be ready for it, know who and how to contact someone if you need to! As you are in Colorado, phone contact for the United States is (USA) +1-415-800-5959 (local San Francisco number) or +1-855-424-7262 / 1-855-4-AIRBNB (toll-free)...put those numbers somewhere where you can find them instantly if you need to!
Other ways of contacting are via Airbnb's Facebook page and this can be faster than by phone and the help quality possibly better than the call centre operators. Many experienced hosts will tell you the fastest way to contact ABB is via Twitter! If you have a Twitter account you post a Twitter message and include @airbnbhelp in the message, and you will get a very speedy and fast response.
Learn about reservation cancellation options Alexandra. Do not under any circumstance cancel a guests confirmed booking. If the hosting cannot take place first of all get onto the guest and explain why the hosting cannot proceed and ask the guest to either cancel the booking on their end or get ABB to relocate them. If the guest is not prepared to do that then you personally get onto Airbnb, explain your circumstance and get ABB to relocate on the guests behalf....not yours. If you accept responsibility for a reservation cancellation you will be penalised. The problem is we can't have mulitple sets of rules....some for 'newbies' ...a different set for the more experienced.
I would suggest the best thing you can do is get onto Airbnb on one of the phone numbers above and explain you are a new host, you have only had two previous guests and you were trying to help the guest with a misconception about your listing! Say the guest had not read your listing description thoroughly before booking and ask the staff to release you without penalty. Alexandra, they are human and there is every opportunity that will happen!
I am sorry this is so long winded but @Alexandra173, you deserve the break that I got when I started hosting....It can become a fantastic part of your life and the extra money that it can generate can make you life a lot easier. It just enabled me to buy a nice houseboat!
So don't drop your bundle! There is a box at the head of each page titled 'Search the community' and if you type a topic you are not sure about into that box a series of previous answers to that topic will be displayed for you to learn from.
Good luck for the future...I hope it works out for you.
Cheers.....Rob.
