Accidental booking

[Alex12005]

I Accidentally booked my trip the month before i am meant to go. I know it was my own stupid mistake. I instantly messaged the host within a minute of making the booking to try and rectify the situation. This was before they had even sent the automated thanks for your booking message. I followed up with a refund request because the policy is only a 50% refund. I haven’t managed to get any replies, just been left on read. I understand it was my mistake but it just doesn’t seem fair to potentially lose over $900 for an honest mistake. Has anyone else had trouble like this?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Alex12005 Lets hope you get a reasonable host. That said you can cancel within 48 hrs FOC no matter what the policy is as long as the stay is more than 14 days away.

[Helen3]

Is that true for long term bookings @Mike-And-Jane0 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Helen3 You raise a good point - I don't know but don't see why it wouldn't.

[Alex12005]

I was under that impression but after speaking with airbnb they are still saying its up to the host and their policy even though its still under 48 hours since it all happened. I’ve been very respectful to the hosts in all the messages but still no correspondence. Not even with airbnb who have tried to contact them. 

[Alex1485]

@Alex12005 Over the years, this has happened to a couple of our guests, we used trip alteration to solve.

Is it too late to send a trip alteration request to change the dates of travel vs cancelling?  This used to be a simple way to solve. 

Maybe call airbnb customer service see if they can do it for you manually. 

[Alex12005]

Unfortunately the dates i was after are already booked. I got in touch with Airbnb and they seem to be really trying to help. The hosts aren’t even corresponding with them either so its very disappointing. Have to just wait and see what happens. 😞

[Helen3]

Hi @Alex12005 

48 hour free cancellation policy for long stays here. If the host isn't responding to messages you should be able to call them as their contact details will show on their booking confirmation.

If you have booked more than 28 days before you can just cancel penalty free on the Airbnb platform.

Long-term Stay

• Automatically applied to reservations of 28 nights or more.
• Reservations are fully refundable for 48 hours after the booking is confirmed, as long as the cancellation occurs at least 28 days before check-in (3:00 PM of the listing’s local time if not specified).
• More than 48 hours after booking, guests can cancel before check-in and get a full refund, less the accommodation fee for the first 30 days and the service fee.

For a full refund, cancel within 48 hours of booking and at least 28 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time (3:00 PM if not specified).

If the guest cancels the reservation before the start date of their stay, the first month of the reservation is paid to the host in full and not refunded to the guest.

If the guest cancels the reservation during their stay, the guest must use the online alteration tool in order to arrange a new checkout date. Regardless of the checkout date chosen, the guest is required to pay the host for the 30 days following the cancellation date, or up to the end date of the guest’s original reservation if the remaining booking is less than 30 days.

[Antya2]

That's very poor conduct by the host.

In exceptional circumstances such as yours, I ALWAYS refund in full, even when my policy only qualifies the guests to receive a % of the booking. I've even refunded a guest 1 day prior to arrival, because they were coming to the area to purchase a rare motorbike and the sale fell through at the last minute.

[Rebecca]

Hi @Alex12005 👋

Did the Host get back to you in the end? I'd love to know what happened so that it can help other guests that find themselves in this situation. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 😊

[Rhonda432]

Late last night I was texting a property manager for a trip we were planning for this coming weekend.

It was 10 pm and I was going back and forth between him and another property. As we were chatting I booked the room (thinking it was for my dates of Thurs-Sun) but it had deferred to the available dates, which were literally LAST NIGHT to Thursday. I instantly saw the error when I got the confirmation, and he was still online so I asked him to please change or cancel it as it was an error and offered dates next week or in the future that we would take instead.

At that point it’s past 10 pm and obviously I’m not going to check in that night, but he said he’d need to contact the owner in the morning as he had no authority to change it.

Today I texted him again and he said the owner sleeps in late (at this point we’re only 12 hours from my accidental booking). He came back an hour ago saying the owner will not honor a refund nor a change request because “now the home is booked,” however I told him (and he read and replied) within SECONDS of my mistake.

I’m now $1150 out and beyond upset. I’ve stayed at lots of airbnbs and never had a bad experience, and I could even understand if I wasn’t literally chatting with him at the time of my error, but this is just so wrong. I hope there’s a way I can review a host without actually staying there because this is absurd. 

[Zheng49]

I'm sorry to hear that @Rhonda432 .

Yes you can leave a review for a stay you didn't stay at, but there is a pretty high chance it could be removed since during the review process you need to rate the categories of cleanliness, check-in etc. It's kind of hard to rate these accurately when you don't complete the check-in.