l can't believe Airbnb did this...

Charlotte870
Level 1
Todmorden, United Kingdom

l can't believe Airbnb did this...

Hello, 

OK so recently l had someone book for a three month stay whilst they were in between places - All was going well until they shat all over the bathroom floor after a night out on the town and didn't do a very good job of cleaning it up.  Needless to say there was a bit of a funny atmosphere in the house thereafter.  This person then left two months, or 60 days into their stay, without any warning - probably from sheer embarrassment.  They never bothered asking for a refund or anything - Early into their stay l had told them that if their circumstances changed they could leave earlier but there was a standard 30 period covering longer term stays, and they were fine with this.  Fast forward a few weeks and another booking came in which l approved.  This new person asked if there was any way they could come earlier as they ideally needed to have the room.  l agreed to this as the room was now empty, only l could not officially book them in earlier as the old booking was still 'live', even though the first person had upped and left.  l then contacted Airbnb to see about doing this and all was arranged for the new person to come the following week - this was three weeks after the previous person walked out.  You can imagine my horror that the person dealing with me refunded the first guest for an entire month, even though he never asked for any kind of a refund.  l am pretty outraged that is is me who has lost out financially, yet the shoddy guest has come up trumps.  Surely he should have just been refunded for the remaining week where l managed to refill the room.  To add insult to injury this guest was given a special three month cheap deal, based on, you guessed it, a three month booking.  This was in addition to the Airbnb monthly discount already applied.  So the fact that he only stayed for two months, that special three month price should not be valid for two months and l would have never have agreed to that price for two months - so really they shouldn't have been given any discount at all or refund.  In message conversations between myself and the Airbnb staff member, they are claiming it is because it is I who changed the dates - but l didn't change anything, it was the person in question who didn't stick to the plan and walked out.  l feel like l was really ill advised from the staff member, at no point had the implications of this explained to me, nor options discussed for the best solution, and they acted hastily in returning his entire months money.  l now want to put in an official complaint about this, not sure exactly how to do it - just wondering if anyone else has had anything similar happen to them or had to put in an official complaint.  

1 Reply 1
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Charlotte870 

 

If a guest wants to terminate a long term stay, then something must be done with the reservation.

Not just keave it as it is.

 

Options:

1. The guest cancels the reservation and get refunded according cancellation policy. For long term stays it means next 30 days from day of cancellation are not refunded. But the calender is made free for new bookings

 

2. The guest or the host uses the "change" option to shorten the reservation, with same result or by making other deal (only possible if host is  making the change). The calender is made free.

 

But you (or the guest) did nothing !

You contacting Airbnb and they just cut off the reservation. Which is rather weird, but that's how they sometimes act. And it can/will not be reversed.

 

 

This all could be avoided by simply take control yourself about reservations, as mentioned above..