Strange goings on with 'Phantom' bookings.

[Karl1116]

Has any other hosts experienced this?

I have had several (like 10) bookings in the last month or so that have all cancelled.

This is very unusual as during my 3 years on Airbnb as a host it was a very rare occasion that i had a cancellation.

They range from people booking 1 to 5 days, then cancelling either just before or way ahead, to one cancelled booking that was for 6 months, an other for 3 months, and a situation the other day that was really strange.

I had a booking for a month and just before I got to answer and pre-approve (this request came during the night while i was asleep)The next morning, literally as i was responding, another booking came in that was an instant booking that was right in the middle of the other persons request to book a month. Needless to say, the instant booking was cancelled a few days later.

Some of the cancellations are from faceless people with no reviews, nearly all have no more than 1 review.

I can't help but think somebody is deliberately attempting to sabotage my calendar and potential bookings.

Keep in mind this continuation of bookings/cancellations has only really started happening in the last 5 or 6 weeks.

Has anybody else had similar goings on with a sudden slew of bookings and cancellations?

I'd be interested to hear what others think.

Thanks.

[Huma0]

@Karl1116 

For your bookings of less than 28 days (where the long term cancellation policy applies), which cancellation policy are you using?

[Laura2592]

@Karl1116 I have had several of these but not 10. I would say more like 4-5. They are new users or people with 1 review that is very brief. In one case it was a fellow host blocking my calendar to divert traffic to her listing over a busy weekend (she ended  up confessing that she felt bad doing it...) The others I always think are bots or some kind of scam, though I am not sure exactly what that might be. I ask for guests to send a message with their booking with an Easter Egg phrase and these bookings never do. I will contact them multiple times to confirm details and if they do not respond, I just get ABB to cancel as I use Instant Book.

[Gillian166]

yes, I had this happen a lot (we got 3 in one day) and this forced me to move my cancellation policy to 5 days. The majority of them were 0 review guests.  I do not use IB. 
My Easter Egg phrase is to confirm my no-smoking policy, only about 20% do that, but really i use it as one of my measures against smokers, should i need to charge someone one day.   

I had a weird disappearing booking last week, we couldn't even find the cancellation message. We knew it was real, we had written it in on the fridge calendar. I'd hate to think that the nice country folk around here knew about this sabotaging thing. 

[Karl1116]

Thank you all for your replies.

I think changing the cancellation policy is the way forward. I had mine on flexible.

[Sarah977]

@Karl1116  The only hosts I can see flexible working for are those whose bread and butter are last minute bookings. For instance they live quite close to a major airport and get a lot of last minute bookings from airline passengers who have unexpected layovers, flight delays or overbookings.

Otherwise you're just spending time preparing for guests only to find you've done all that work for nothing, without any chance of rebooking the dates.

[Gillian166]

I had mine set to flexible because i was being understanding during the covid border dramas (in Australia we've had state borders open-close-open-close constantly, it's been challenging!) and I didn't want to be mean/profit off guests just because our state premiers are being **.  

I was lucky that it was summer high season so any cancellations i was able to re-book, but after a month i noticed that people were cancelling for no good reason, so i wised up and shifted it to the 5-day option. 

**[Inappropriate content removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Karl1116]

I've rarely had cancellations even when using the flexible option. I, like Gillian always liked to give my guests a get-out clause. After all, i too have been a guest who genuinely needed to cancel.

But because of the recent booking/cancel shenanigans, i feel the 5-day option is the only way forward for me.