I had a guest who booked for a month, for which I received payment through airbnb, but the guest checked out after 6 days due to health issues. I asked him to cancel his 1-month booking in the system to allow other guests to make bookings. He obliged, but for some inexplicable reason a booking reappeared on the system for the days that he stayed. Airbnb charged for that 'ghost booking' and refused to cancel on grounds of short notice. The guest opened a Resolution Centre case and succeeded in having the charge for the 6 days refunded.
Since Airbnb refuses to involve itself in dealing with cancellation payments in cases like this, the matter was totally between myself and the guest. I reached agreement with the guest that I would refund half of what he had paid for the month. However, I have delayed making this payment out of concerned as to how airbnb would deal with this.
My concerns were justified because the airbnb system shows that I still owe them the full month’s charge. Moreover, when the next guest stayed, airbnb withheld payment on the grounds that I owed them for the previous guest’s stay. Airbnb suggested that I should open a new Resolution Centre case to deal with the matter, but when I tried to do so I got the messages “Can’t request money. You don’t have any eligible reservations to request money from right now” and “Can’t send money. You don’t have any eligible reservations to request money from right now.”
I am unsure where to take the matter from here. Theoretically the matter has nothing to do with airbnb as I reached agreement with the guest on the handling of the cancellation. Airbnb maintains I owe them for his stay. Their Resolution Centre refuses to accept a new case from me. And airbnb is refusing to pay me monies for the most recent guest’s stay.
