i'm a superhost with instant book. in 2018 i cancelled two reservations. first one, a woman instant booked with a message that she would be bringing her dog. i have a no pet policy. second one, i felt uncomfortable with the guest's review responses. she was also a host and her responses to her guests were very snarky. i hae two listings, so theoretically i had six penalty-free cancellations. well i'm penalized. the message at the bottom is what i get in an email titled, "can you host xxx on xxx dates? the guests in these emails all meet my requirements to instant book and yet i'm having to aaprove them. i've gotten NINE of these from guests who meet my requirements.
after nearly an hour (50 mintues) on chat, i still don't know why this is showing. well, i do know-- they told me: "We do not want you to feel that you are being penalized, but we just wanted to help you in making sure that calendar dates are up to date an is available for booking. "
my calendar is up to date. when i asked how long this would go on for and pointed out that this feels like a penalty, i was told: "I am unable to provide an exact date for that as this is something that is being reviewed further by Airbnb before returning to Instant book. I highly suggest to continue being active and accepting to reservation request as that will help the record of the listing to be in a positive note."
so i asked why i need to show anything if i'm not being penalized and don't their actions define a penalty? i'm beyond frustrated. they're going to elevate me to someone else, but i'm not hopeful. it's so ridiculous that airbnb just lies about their policies and then offers zero communication about them. argh. thanks for reading.
here's the message in the email i get:
Why am I seeing this request?
We sometimes require hosts to accept a reservation request even when they have Instant Book turned on. You’re most likely to see this when you haven’t updated your calendar in a while or you’ve recently canceled a reservation.