Unbelievable scenario - AirBnb cancels a reservation and gives full refund without notifying me!

Adeline60
Level 4
Sacramento, CA

Unbelievable scenario - AirBnb cancels a reservation and gives full refund without notifying me!

Yesterday as I was about to send check-in instruction to a guest  I saw that the reservation had been cancelled with a full-refund, even though the event had happened within the 5-day window before checking in (I have a moderate cancellation policy).

 

What is unbelievable is that there is no email, no notification, nothing anywhere from AirBnb to warn me about this. What happened? I asked for help and was told that the guest had cancelled because of "extenuating circumstances". What are those extenuating circumstances? I don't know.

 

Can't possibly be related to my cabin since we have guests there now and will have more next week. Could it be related to a wildfire 50 miles away that is now 80% contained and is not responsible for any road closure in the area anymore? Maybe, but how come I don't have a say in this? 

 

Be aware that AirBnb can dictate cancellations as they please and give full refunds without any notification nor explanation. I just got superhost status and that's a very nice way to reward my hard work. I'm extremely disappointed to say the least. 

 

At least now I know that policies do not matter, and neither do superhosts.

44 Replies 44
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Adeline60,

Can also be extenuating circumstances on side of the guest. But Airbnb should inform you about it. Customer Services is a 1 star service, but we are expected to deliver 5 stars !

That would be a great idea - allowing us to provide ratings on service/calls to Airbnb.

@Marcy10  Airbnb does send survey sometimes with rating to customer support. But for some reason, it is only sent when it is a simple question with a simple answer. I believe that it is controllable by the customer service rep who answer you. Therefore, it is not really a good indicator how Airbnb support is.

Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

I can not think of any other company that has such  liberal extenuating  circumstance policy. I guess it is easy for Airbnb because they are spending our money not their own. A theater would never give money back for tickets, no matter what the circumstances are. Airlines charge a fee no matter what happens.  All other companies expect you to choose a cancellation policy that works with your situation or carry the consequences either via purchasing insurance or being self-insured (meaning being prepared to absorb  the loss)

I agree with you how can we get redress...by requesting money?

I am not sure why we as hosts have to eat this - we set policy and guest has the right to purchase travel insurance - where is our option for an owner with one property to insure against the loss of a Airbnb company policy cancelation?  

Anna495
Level 1
Birkirkara, Malta

The same thing happened to me. What is the point of  choosing moderate or strict cancellation terms if you then don't get a payout at all. My guest also cancelled 1 day before. It's just not fair I had prepared everything and also it was too late to get another booking. This is really disgraceful. What can we do about it.

Airbnb should pay up not refund the guest. It's true they claimed illness, but that's not my problem they should have had travel cancellation insurance as I do.

Anna495
Level 1
Birkirkara, Malta

It was never like this in the past....I have never cancelled on a client and if I did I'm sure I would be penalized 

This happened to us this summer.  A longer term rental blocked our calendar for over a month and then canceled 3 days before arrival.  We have a strict cancellation policy showing there are no refunds.

 

Airbnb didn't contact us for our approval. They simply canceled the reservation.

 

A third of our high-season blocked and canceled even though we have a strict cancellation policy. 

Although it hasn´t yet happened to me by chance, I´m sure it will sooner or later. It´s a shame that Airbnb doesn´t care more about hosts. In the end of the day we are the ones that make its business possible thanks to our propperties. 

If they don´t change to a more strict refunding policy I´m going to change my channel asap.

 

Rebecca181
Level 10
Florence, OR

I can't even imagine VRBO or Trip Advisor *violating* and *invalidating* my cancellation policy as a property owner / business owner. The fact that Airbnb does this with increasing frequency in such a nonchalant, cavalier manner, whereby hosts are not even told that a refund is happening, would appear to illustrate a deep disregard for hosts. I don't remember to agreeing to this in the new Terms of Service: "We will give full refunds anytime we see fit without consulting you no matter what your  chosen Cancellation Policy is." Hold on, let me check, looking for it....Nope, not there.

@Rebecca181 They are now displaying free cancellation everywhere on the host profile and the reason they said they were doing that is simply to make the guests more comfortable to book.LOL

Indeed, @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0, it is CRITICAL that prospective guests, especially those new to the platform, know that they are supported vehemently by Airbnb when they cancel, no matter what the reason, or how close to the reservation date - We hosts need to understand and accept this and stop whining and complaining about it here. After all, it would be very silly of us to think that we are:

 

1) Running a business

2) Trying to make a profit

3) Assume that Airbnb will honor our cancellation policy

Lol