cancellatiosn

[Daphna0]

Ok, so a guest asked that I cancel. I got an automated request from airbnb that said it would be canceleld by airbnb on my behalf if I did not cancel. Now I am beeing penalized. And it is impossible to actually enter a suppport ticket or contact airbnb related to this. Any thoughts or experience on this front>

[Sandra305]

@Daphna0 @Amy38  @Rhonda34  @Lawrene0  @Andrea9

Please try to read my latest post from last week what happened to me twice in one week??? Even after getting all the possitive feedback from Airbnb themselves  and especially from the guests - 93% five star revieuws! ) they punished me by putting the guest on top !! 

Well after my post I tried to book a room for the first time by Airbnb myself and i was even more stunned than being a host? Because i was curious on how other hosts took care of their guests? 

First of all they ask for service fee from the guests that runs between 11 to 20 euro per booking??? (i required with a few to see the difference in price and to see what reply's I would get from the hosts, since I can't swallow the punishment Airbnb gave me with the guest that arrived waaaay to early before time and she didn't even give me ten minutes to get dresses while I texted her out of the shower to pls give me ten minutes to run downstairs???) But please read my story I posted it and it has been read for almost 800 times now! 

So I got the picture, for a booking I completed in Lisbon I had to pay 13 euro service fee, I had a voucher from 100 euro that only was worth 94 euro after the "exchange"' (this is also what I always see when my listings get booked and when I get my pay out... It's always I get the lowest fare?  For example had a guest that booked this week 3 nights at 55 euro per night...10 euro cleaning fee and Airbnb says that My earning is 3 x 55 = 148 + the 10 euro cleaning fee , than they took 7 euro service fee from me, -but I asked the guest to show me his bill and there it mentioned that Airbnb also took  18 euro from him AND charged him with tourist tax??? This is something that I'm paying for here in Bruges and Airbnb is NOT putting that money on my account?  so they take tourist tax for themselves? 

My other story is also mentioned in the same post, since Airbnb is asking and challenging their hosts to keep it a "nice community" they seem to open accounts for underaged people?  But once those people book Airbnb appearantly has the power to cancel the booking WITHOUT mentioning this or the situation to the host?  I would be very happy and understanding if Airbnb would have informed me? But they didn't! So you can imagine the surprise when I got Re-booked for the same dates and the same room on an new profile that mentioned to me about the canceling from Airbnb on her girlfriends account?  I contacted Airbnb bcs I didn"t want to make a mistake and I didn't get it that the room was booked for 2 nights, and after 2 days appearantly the room was unbooked and they didn't even mention it to me? 

they said they decide those things to keep Airbnb safe?? Than first of all they shouldn't give a profile to a minor right? Or at least give a mail to the host that something fishy was going on with that booking? 

Anyway, I love Airbnb and I hate it.  But i decided after what happenend last week to block all my future dates and never to work with them again.  

It's simply not fair. 

[Sandra305]

reply to myself 🙂 When I mentioned "they all ask for service fee and so one... I was talking about Airbnb NOT the hosts of course!! 

[Andrea9]

@Sandra305

I saw your post last week, can\t remember the exact details but the general gist, and don't have the time right now to search for it.

"I had to pay 13 euro service fee, I had a voucher from 100 euro that only was worth 94 euro after the "exchange"' (this is also what I always see when my listings get booked and when I get my pay out... It's always I get the lowest fare?  For example had a guest that booked this week 3 nights at 55 euro per night...10 euro cleaning fee and Airbnb says that My earning is 3 x 55 = 148 + the 10 euro cleaning fee , than they took 7 euro service fee from me, -but I asked the guest to show me his bill and there it mentioned that Airbnb also took  18 euro from him AND charged him with tourist tax??? This is something that I'm paying for here in Bruges and Airbnb is NOT putting that money on my account?  so they take tourist tax for themselves? "

The Airbnb service fees are like booking fees on other sites and they are for handling the money, using the site, the site as PR.

To be honest, I'm okay with what I pay to Airbnb from my side. And as to booking fees, I've had to pay the booking on other sites in the past too. 

Not sure what you mean with 'exchange' - I have never received less than my fees minus the Airbnb service deduction, no matter which currency  the booking was paid for.

Regarding the host service fees which I understand as a fee to cover my use of the site, I think they are absolutely acceptable. Other booking sites charge monthly fixed fees, which could end up being fairly high if you only rent out a room. So Air seems much better.

As to tourist taxes: I suggest you best get in contact with your local city office and inquire about why you are paying double. They may have done the exact same thing that the Amsterdam Gemeente did: namely forced Airbnb to collect tourist taxes for each and every booking made for the city. Airbnb then passes this on to the Gemeente. Too many hosts didn't (and still don't) bother registering with the city for their rentals, thus resulting in too much lost tax income for the city. On our yearly tourist tax forms we are now asked through which platforms we rent, and by sending them a copy of our Airbnb payment list with the tax declared (you find this in your account under your financial data). 

[Amy38]

@Sandra305@Daphna0@Andrea9@Rhonda34

Abnb is becoming famous for terrible and erratic customer service. I dont type well so forgive me if the following sounds abrupt.

As Abnb has exploded, there is a new type of person using it.  Guests..

who want their money back after they stayed  with no complaints and then complain to Abnb and get their money back. Guests who think they are due a 5 star hotel for the price of a hostel. Guests who run a mini brothel. Guests who sell drugs out of the location.  And there are many scams going on having to do with the host's computer being hacked and their listing hi-jacked.  

The only way to protect yourself is to reqire a government ID before they arrive.

Airbnb has millions of listings and  does not really verify anyone...including the hosts...there are as many horror stories there as there are from us..see site AirbnbHell.

Abnb collects a 12% fee from the host.Far less than Wimdu. They used to collect only3% from the host.  Now, if you have anything but a flexible cancellation policy, they charge us 4 or5%. With the amount of money they are raking in, we should be getting decent customer service.

As for taxes, there was a post recently where Abnb had collected 5 quarters of taxes but had not remitted them to the goverment of Pennsylvania.  The host got a letter from the state.  This is scary stuff.  Talk to your tax people and talk to your city council rep about this.  Who knows how widespread this activity is?  Iwould also post this specic issue on Abnb Facebook page and Tweet it.  That is ths ONLY way I have ever gotten help with a problem.

My bet is that Abnb is disorganized rather than dishonest.

As for your disappearring guest, you should have gotten a cancellation email from Abnb.  A glitch and not a good one....post on this seperately. I have intermittantly had issues with notices not coming through to me.

As for cleaning products, some people are allergic to certain perfumes...for years when Italy fell in love with fabric softener, I had to travel with my owns linens to use in hotels!  For my own rental, I use fragrace free hypoallergenic products for everything just in case someone is as sensitive as I am. But the floor? Ridiculous.

My one 4star was a twenty something who said the kitchen wasnt up to much.  It is fully stocked with appliances and drinks but was built 75 years ago and does not have granite and this girl wouldnt have known what to do in a kitchen anyway.  Go figure, you cant please everybody.

[Doug62]

I tell my guests t cancel through Air B&B!  Don't do it for them.

[Doug62]

If a guest wants to cancel, I tell them to did it through AirB&B.  You don't get penalized that way

[Rhonda34]

For the life of me, I cant get any response from them re a booking. The person is not respoinding, the numbers given ring out all the time, there is cartoon on the profile picture and I am not happy at all.  I want to call Airbnb as a so called super duper host you would think that easy but the number on the site says that number is not connected.  No idea how the heck we are suposed to get help with a customer. I will now leave the key out of the lock box as I really am a bit concerned about this one. I could cancel but I will cop a penalty, dispite all my efforts to contact airbnb and my guest I am getting no joy.

The guests might turn out to be ok, but to date I have that feeling something is not quiet right.

[Sandra305]

@Rhonda34 dear Rhonda , don't botter being worried!! I also seem to be a super duper host but guests are giving the biggest income to Airbnb so why should they take care of the hosts?  I mean read the community help center?  Did you ever see or read someone that could confirm that Airbnb solved a problem for them?  Or stood up for them ?  I was lucky I never had a lot of problems, but the attitude that Airbnb is giving me made me switch to VRBO much better and at least fair towards hosts.  A guest is same level as the host, wich means that as a host you have to give of course what your guests deserves to get for the money (but keep in mind that they pay at least 25 euro more to Airbnb than we get on our account - keeping in mind that we also work hard for that money so it' not all earning after expenses and input and taxes right?) So I think that is why we as host think too much that our guests are having a cheap stay over at our house but in fact they pay a lot more than we will ever know?  And the guest is thinking : huh? I payed almost as much as if I would stay over at a cheap Ibis hotel for ex.  so why is my host not available 24 hours a day? 

And on top of that airbnb has no other option to keep their own tricky way  than to give the guests the benefit of the doubt.  I understand that they can not work for free but the difference in what the guest pays and what we get and is left over after work, input, taxes and so on... is really huge!  

It's time to open eyes I guess... We started this out as extra earning in a way we love to share our house and knowledge (at least that is how it is for me) but at the end I'm becomming a slave in my own house, taking in lugagge, waiting for guests that though the sun was more intresting to have a coffee on a terras by arrival at five minutes away from my house making me wait for them 3 hours before they check in, being available for checked out guests to leave their lugagge with me and have another drink and using toilet  before heading for the station hoooursssss after check out, .... I wanted this to be fun, but the power the guests are giving by Aribnb makes it very difficult to please .

Can you imagine that I had a guest (she wrote me a wonderful revieuw) but she complained to airbnb that I'm using Dettol to clean the bathroom and she didn"t like the smell of it? Come on!!!!! Another one mentioned that the wooden floor inh the bathroom was cracking and made some noise  and she didn't like it????, hahahahah get a grip please???? what is this????  And than Airbnb sends a mail to a host with tons of nice rankings and revieuws (wich is not the reason why I'm hosting for) that I have to put attention to this problem and try to improve that problem?  What problem??? Do I have to put a new floor in my bathroom? use another cleaning product because one person didn't like the smell?  

Get used to it, work for Airbnb is giving up on your own standards at least this is how it feels for me since last week! 

[Sirath0]

I have the same problem. A guest left the place before booking ends and ask for refund. My cancellation policy is termed moderate. Airbnb ask me to respond or pay back. What should I do? Urgent! Resolution center doesn't helpe

[Doug62]

I had a guest auto booked a few months ago for Jazz Fest that is happening right now.  As soon as she booked for 2 nights, I explained that since it was a special weekend, it was a 3 night min.  As noted in my listing.  She had failed to see that.  No problem. I am kind of a newbie here, and did not realized that room would stay blocked!  I had wondered why that room had not been booked as we always fill up in advance. So I checked my listing and noticed that it was still blocked after I had explained th to Air B&B what had happened.  I don't discriminate here. Now Jazz Fest is here and my room is empty!  

[Debi13]

Hi,

I received a call as my quest had just pushed the book button and was panicked saying the dates were wrong.  She asked if I could cancel the reservation because the dates were wrong and the right dates, a few days later, were not available .  I offered her the choice of two other places which she looked at and booked one. I cannot now, however, clear my calendar of the dates I canceled. Why am I BEING PUNISHED when she did still book with Air bnb but just a different home?  Air BNB, PLEASE LET ME CLEAR THOSE DATES, I am tired of (Waiting on the phone, to reach you,) its been over a 20 minute wait!! and counting  !!!!

Have a good night.

THANK YOU!!!

[Andrea9]

@Debi13

You're on a hosts-helping-other-hosts forum here and not ABB themselves.

It's very irritating to be blocked like that.

However, it's very important to read everything about how Airbnb works on the site before starting to host.

Cancellations are extremely serious and even doing so in interest of a clueless guest has huge host penalties, blocked dates bing one of them. For any cancellation always call ABB  and solve the problem together with them. If you had done this before cancelling the guest by yourself (which is handled by a computer), then your dates would not have been blocked and the guest would probably have received a credit for their booking fees.

I'd try to call them again either very early in the morning or in the evening.

[Sandra305]

@Andrea9  Oh please common??? Get a grip?  I read that some people think that you are working for Airbnb to smoothen things up?  And now I'm reading this again? Pls Andrea??? I will post some pictures of how Airbnb is working and we ALL KNOW THAT WE ARE ONLY SHARING OUR BAD EXPERIENCES !!! Because everybody seems to give up trying to get some help from Airbnb themselves right? So pls? i don't want to be rude it's nice that you want to pretend and act like everything is ok... 

Yesterday I got a warning from Airbnb that they will block my account if I don't focus on improve to meet Airbnb hosting standards???????????????????????????????????,, I called them and got a mail immediatly that this seems to be a bug????????????, Bcs How would a host that has 95% 5* rankings AND every revieuw (one down) is amazing? 

Their answer is : don't bother about the mail Sandra, you're doing so well!!! 

So Andrea, what is your answer to this?  Airbnb can't go on like this right? and a few people allready say that you and a few other high leveled "advisors" are people working for Airbnb??? Because you always seem to protect them right?  So feel free to let me know what I did wrong here? And I'm preparing my next post (including the airbnb mail that says I don't have to worry about the "blocking my account alert I received) So look it up and let me know, I will include my ratings, revieuws etc.... AND the answer I got from Airbnb? Than you can try to convince me, that I shouldn't feel offended by how Airbnb is treating their hosts?  (Do you have by the way guests comming?  I wonder?) 

[Andrea9]

@Sandra305

??

I'm looking around to see if there's another Andrea you might be talking to... but can't see one, so I must be the brunt of your anger.

"some people think that you are working for Airbnb to smoothen things up? "

- that's hilarious!

Sorry I can't make things okay for you in Airbnb land, and I'm not trying to. I just give comments  and can't influence their behaviour or their automatic email-spewing computer. So no matter how hard you shout, nothing I can change about that. But maybe this will help:

Make everything ok

BTW if my remarks are so incendiary to you, you can always do this (you have to be signed in):

Hover over my profile pic >> view profile page >>> click on 'Ignore Andrea'

[Sandra305]

well I am signed in now... and I saw that amongst all the same complains there was only one person who flagged me ... and that was you ??? You dont like people having their own opinion?  Weird... But very welcome..