Reservation alterations

[Louise337]

Had a guest request to say for two nights, they had to change their plans so asked to change the booking to the following week. This was fine as the dates they wanted were free. But they were also able to request to change their booking to one night even though the listing is set at a two night minimum. How is this possible?

[Emiel1]

@Louise337 

Do not accept the change, if your listing says min. stay is 2 nights.

Also be aware of creative guest who want to cancel, but cancellation policy does not allow refund due to short notice. By changing reservation to future date they create a cancellation opportunity !

[Alice595]

@Louise337 If they change to one night only but you have two night minimum requirement, just decline the alteration of the request.

Airbnb like to open doors to any guests request. One other example is that a CS could contact the host to request a full refund if a guest asked for a refund from booking a listing with a strict cancellation after the guest canceled. Airbnb can break its own rule (strict cancellation policy) and why can't they break a host's rule?

[Sarah977]

@Louise337  I think they can request anything they want. But you can decline the alteration. Savvy guests have been doing this to avoid having to cancel and get their $ refunded in full, overriding the host's cancellation policy.  Best to decline alterations unless you are pretty sure the guest has honorable intentions.

[Louise337]

The guest has great reviews & has verified ID, email, phone etc so I don’t think I should be worried about their credibility. Just think it should be possible to choose a one night stay. But of course Airbnb want max booking so will let guests choose what they want!

[Lawrene0]

Yes, @Louise337 , as you say, they can ask for anything. I have twice had alteration requests made for dates that had been already blocked by the system for prep. I reported it each time and was told it is a known glitch and the developers are working hard on fixing it. Must be a tough one...

It's annoying, because it makes the host the bad guy, when it would be simpler if the system just handled it - our blocked days, our min/max stays.

Do stick to your rules. I didn't the first time it happened, and I regretted it. The guest wasn't at all bad, but trying to do a same-day turnaround on a very inconvenient day for that was ridiculously stressful and I had brought it on myself, which left no one to blame. 🙂