a friend of a friend of a friend needs a 3 month stay. I'd have to cancel a few 2-night stays

[Allison75]

I've just had a request from someone who lives in India and is the friend of a friend of a friend. She is seeking a 3-month stay and is worried about traveling to The States by herself and hoping for a place she can find through referrals.

I'd be happy to host her, but I have 3 2-night stays already booked in the time period she needs.

Is it bad form to cancel those reservations? And will AirBnB allow me to book the long-term stay, if I do?

How would I go about this in the best possible way?

[Mark26]

Seriously?  You have to ask if it is bad form to cancel on two guests with existing reservations to accept another reservation? 

[Allison75]

when someone from out of the country is seeking a 3-month stay, who is brown-skinned and wary of coming here, I would consider it. Its not something I have ever done. But, we're talking reservations that are 3 or 4 months from now. Not ones coming up soon.

[Allison75]

I guess I should add that the two reservations I would have to cancel are 3 and 4 months from now. So, I'm thinking they'd have plenty of time to book somewhere else. I'm Boston, so there is plenty of availability.

[Mark26]

I'd have to be an absolute cad to call you up and say.....  "Hey look... I know I promised to take you to dinner and the opening to the Boston Philharmonic's Summer Season next June, but I just met this woman who's absolutely stunning, and she wants to attend the entire season, not just one performance, so I'm dumping you.  I don't know how to put it any better than that... But I've found someone else... and you and I?  Well... we're not going.  I do hope you understand.  Sorry about that... but there are lots of other people in Boston who aren't doing anything that evening... you should have no trouble finding another date.  

Nice dress by the way...  I hope you didn't spend too much on it."

[David126]

I might not go as far as @Mark26 but it does worry me when I see such questions and makes me more sympathetic to the penalties.

[Robin4]

@Allison75

 I think others have told you adequately that what you propose doing is out of line, not correct and will gain you absolutely no sympathy here on this forum.

If you do cancel those three confirmed bookings then Airbnb will block your calendar for the duration of those three bookings but will not have an effect on other days, but they will also penalise you in other ways.

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reserv...

I once had to turn away a month long booking because I had a 1 night existing reservation that fell in the same date range. You do not dump guests to chase a more lucrative offer!

Your most polite, ethical and courteous way around this if you feel you must pursue this is, contact each of your confirmed bookings and explain your situation and work with Airbnb to find a solution which each existing reservation will be comfortable with. Now I know this takes time and will certainly fall outside the time contraints of this  booking you have hovering in the wings!

You can also message the potential long term guest and explain that you are not free to accept a booking at this time but will make all attempts to find a way of making the booking available to them with Airbnb.

This is the correct way you should go about this situation. You should never just hang a confirmed booking out to dry and cancel!! That Allison is just bad form and won't win you any sympathy from any corner.

Airbnb are good to deal with and if you and both your confirmed resevations approach them I am sure something can be worked out.

The secret here Allison is .......communication!

Cheers.....Rob

[Jamie69]

I'm going to think outside the box.

Here's what I might do. Create a second listing. Bare bones. No pictures. No nothing. Have your friend-of-a-friend book that listing for the time he/she will be staying at your place. Block your regular listing for the entirety of that time, except, of course, the dates that are already booked.

Now, for the few days that you have agreed to host other guests, your friend-of-a-friend will have to sleep on the couch, or get a hotel room, or something. But this allows you to both honor the agreement you have with the guests who have already booked with you plus host your friend-of-a-friend.

Jamie

[Marie82]

Great advice 

[Julia66]

@Allison75  I can see that you want to accommodate the guest from India more out of helpfulness than out of financial gain: they would benefit from your generous monthly discount, whereas your other bookings have a second guest charge, extra at weekends, plus the cancellation penalties, plus the following warning from Airbnb Help:

'If you cancel 3 or more reservations within a year, we may deactivate your listing.'

And you would probably get more bookings to fill the gaps.

@Jamie69' suggestion of a separate listing is creative, but could prove complicated unless you have a room the original guests haven't been promised access to. 

I would look for somewhere else nearby for your guest from India, where you could still offer help.

[Andrea9]

@Allison75

You've heard about the host penalties, about how uncommitted it looks when you ditch other commitments for another offer that comes along....

@Jamie69 has a great solution!

Be pro-active and find her something else somewhere. With the penalties you'd get through Airbnb your damages would be worse too. Maybe you know a friend who isn't renting officially but who might be willing to host somebody for a few days against payment for you... Truly, you'll have to think outside the box.

[Cormac0]

@Allison75

It's not unusual for long term Airbnb guests to have a change of heart after a few weeks , you'd feel like a right chump if that happened wouldn't you. I would not regard a friend of a friend of a friend 

[Annette76]

My first thought was exactly what @Jamie said. Depending on the timing, the friend will get to know you and you will get to know her somewhat, so by the time comes for her to move to the couch for a couple nights it won't be a big deal. Or the friend will decide she's comfortable enough in the area and move to a hotel for those couple of nights. I would consider the other options though, is that she may decide not to stay with you the entire three months because the location isn't just right or maybe you and she don't click. In which case she bugs out and wants a refund on unused nights or something. If you take her reservation and lock out other bookings for that amount of time, I'd make it clear upfront that any unused nights are non refundable(if that's permitted, I'm a newb so am still learning). 

[Allison75]

my gawd, you all assume the worst and go from there. this is what I hate about online communities.

First - of course I wouldn't just cancel by pushing a button and leaving people out to dry. I would talk to them. I would help them find other accomodations. I would talk to AirBnb. 

Again, I'm not talking about reservations coming up soon. They are months away and should be easy for people to find a replacement. I even know other local hosts and could help with that.

Also, the whole "I found someone better" analogy doesn't work. Unless you say, "hey, we had planned to go to this thing, but I've been approached by someone in need and anxious about their safety and I'm considering that their safety concern may be a priority over our plans. Would you be willing to accomodate that?"

I'm not dating my guests. We aren't getting to know one another to see if we will have a long-term relationship. So, the dating analogy is bogus.

As it turns out, I'm not considering the longer-term stay. I decided to help the person find someplace else that was a better fit.

That said, don't [inappropriate content hidden] and assume the worst about a person. Try asking questions before snarking at them.

I've been a host for over a year and a half now. I have a lot of great feedback and I value being able to do this. I was asked to consider a situation where a non-white woman who is a friend of a friend is struggling to feel safe enough to come here for an educational program. We are in the era of Trump, after all. So, it was a compassionate place from which I was considering whether I could manage something for her. 

What I get in return for an inquiry based on that is a lot of [inappropriate content] I won't be bothered coming here again, most likely.

[Andrea9]

It always surprises me when somebody comes to the forum to ask a question and then turns around  and slings abuse at the other hosts. They ask for advice and get suggestions from other hosts per how that question has been posed and how it was thus understood. How often haven't we heard rhetoric blamingothers for being so 'hurtful' and the like. Well, sorry Darlings, I tried but please stop the bashing.

Whatever part of you gave you licence to become vitriolic Allison is def. not cool. And even Trump era isn't an excuse here. Your question sounded as if you were an insufficiently informed host. We aren't quite the mind readers here. being the reason we gave reactions as we did. Would you rather we'd all have said yeah sure, go ahead and cancel?? 

I wish you'd in the first place have disclosed that you wouldn't just cancel by pushing a button and leaving people out to dry. That you would talk to them. That you would help them find other accomodations. That you would talk to AirBnb. That would have saved us all a lot of time spent otherwise.