cancellation

[Rio1]

I had a couple who were on some kind of anniversary romantic trip book one of my rooms. When they first arrived (a tad early but I was happy to accomodate as the room was empty) the guests in the other room in the house were out. They gushed about how they liked the place and settled in, unpacking. Around 4.30 the woman mentioned there were ants in the room. I told my staff to clean the ants out and had a look myself. The were some ants on the garden verandah, none in the room, but we swept out the room again nonetheless and sprayed bug spray. I also gave them an extra can. I thought that was that. Suddenly around 10.30 at night I get a message from airbnb urgently requesting to check with the guest who wants to cancel because of a "cleanliness issue". I was surprised that they hadn't contacted me directly as they had my mobile and What'sApp contacts, and we had already communicated. I contact them, the message comes back that there are ants everywhere, in the bed etc, and that they will check out the next day but will pay for the one night. This morning airbnb messages tells me that no payout will be issued. I see the guests, she immediately starts in on me about how I didn't prepare the room when I knew they were coming etc. The room had been cleaned and checked an hour before they checked in, and they had loved the room! This morning after they left I checked - there were no ants in the room, and the 'cleanliness' claim was ridiculous. I feel burned but as Airbnb unilaterally cancelled my payout and I feel didn't have a chance. It's interesting that the late night complaints started after the other guests in the house arrived.  One of the women on my staff felt that they thought they had the place to themselves but were disappointed to find other guests staying there. I have no way of confirming this but it is interesting that she suspected the same thing I did. What recourse did I have?

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Rio1:
Unfortunately some guests have figured out how to get Airbnb to provide them with free stays. Read this forum and what you experienced has been stated numerous times by other hosts. Most hosts have not been able to get Airbnb to reverse their decisions. As you have found out, once a decision is made it sticks and the host is usually left holding the empty bag. While it is extremely upsetting and makes you want to reconsider using the Airbnb platform the situation does not occur frequently enough for any one host to lose money on a regular basis- yet. However, I predict as more guests figure out the freebie system it will become abused.

[Rio1]

@Tim-and-Holly0,

Thank you for your message. I  thought the main reason was that the guests thought it was going to be just them; I really didn't think about the possibility of people doing this systematically to get freebies. It is galling that Airbnb did absolutely nothing to reach out to me for my side of the story. All I got was a terse message telling me I had an hour to rectify the matter with the guests.

When you think about it's kind of pathetic really going thru that whole rigamarole to get a free night, it must take a lot away from the pleasure of a vacation. But I guess different strokes for different folks. Isn't Airbnb getting wise to this? I mean they keep trying to get hosts to bring their prices down to compete, which I guess increases their volume and booking fees but doesn't help a real home owner who has to pick up expenses etc.

[Judy25]

I have a different issue; I had a booking through VRBO. I booked, blocked and confirmed the VRBO request. Before I could block the dates on the Airbnb calendar I  had an instant book with  AirBnb for overlaping dates.  I  sent a message to the guest wanting the same time with AirBnb.that the space had already been booked for some of the days that the Airbnb guest wanted.  We offered a free night and or a discount for another date immediately with our apologies.  Now I am worried about looking bad for canceling the Airbnb guest. Does anyone know how best to not have this look bad on my site.  I am a super Host and have all 5 star reviews.  I would think that would stand for something.

Judy

[Helen3]

Hello @Judy

My understanding is that you can integrate calendars between Airbnb and other platforms, to avoid the risk of this sort of thing happening.

Alternatively turn off Instant Book, so you don't run the risk of double booking for the same dates.

Airbnb takes host cancellations seriously because of the impact this has on guests and the reputation of the site. Unfortunately as you have cancelled a guest without extenuating circumstanes, my understanding is that they will impose their cancellation penalties.

You could give them a call, and see if there is any flexilbility, but I think the best you can hope for is to learn from this so that it doesn't happen in the future.

[Judy25]

Thank you for the advise, I will turn off instant book. I will also look into putting the calendars together.

Judy

[David126]

There does not seem a certain way of instantaneously syncing calenders.

With the benefit of hindsight the best way would be to have blocked the dates on AirBnB before accepting the VRBO booking.

[Judy25]

Thank you, it stand to reason, if someone has already booked through a different site, you do have the time to change your other canendar first. Thank you, I will do that from now on.

Judy

[Robin4]

@Judy25

Hi Judy, that is unfortuante but that's what Murphy's Law says....if you leave the door open someone will stick their foot in it!

On you calendar page you will see on the right side 'Availablity and Pricing' settings.

Click on availability and you will see the following screen.....

The last item in that box is called 'Sync Calendars' and this enables you to interface your ABB calendar with that of other sites.

I hope that can be of use to you.

Just one word of caution...ABB are at the moment trialling an alteration to Calendar and Editing settings page and it has been reported that some users are no longer seeing this screen, but I am lead to believe this is a temporary glitch and may not affect your page!

Cheers.....Rob

[Judy25]

Thank you for the information.

Judy

[Duker0]

Does anone know a phone number to Airbnb to talk with the Help Center?