Air BNB Cancellation Policy

[Ken1945]

I was wondering if any other community members and Super Hosts are feeling the abuse of guests and the virus?  I had a guest ask for the password to get into one of my properties the day of arrival.  3 hours later she messaged saying she was "too tired" to come.  I offered her any other open days, but she complained to AIr BNB and said she was tired because of the virus (although 3 hours earlier she was ready to go.)  She was given her money back and I was charged.  This is abuse and should not be tolerated.  Anybody else have similar experiences?

[Jan288]

A little factoid I learned tonight.  I feel like Airbnb is being completely unfair to hosts.  I had a guest who booked in February, for June.  I have a strict no cancellation policy due to being used as a "placeholder in case we can go to Maui" once too many times.  The guest canceled, due to COVID.  He wanted to rebook for August.  I took pity on him and rebooked him for August.  He made this second reservation in June, the change to his reservation.  

Then, he canceled August, due to COVID.    

Now, Airbnb refunds him.  I find out tonight that all reservations and changes revert back to the original date reservation date, even though you kindly allowed someone to change dates in a time when there were no longer extenuating circumstances going on and the guest was taking his chances.  

The trick for us hosts to protect ourselves from this issue:    What you do in this case is tell the guest he must cancel the first reservation.  Then, you allow him to rebook at the current time.  Had I had this guest canceled the first reservation in February for the June reservation,  he would have gotten his refund.  Then, he could have rebooked in June for August, and he would not have been refunded and I would have gotten paid.

A little trick to share with my fellow hosts who are feeling pretty put upon by Airbnb lately!! Sad it has come to this but I didn't cause this pandemic and neither did you.  

Thanks,

Jan Shields 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jan288 You are entirely right toward people that the pre March 14th bookings cancellation policy travels with a rescheduled booking. Usually this would be a good thing as a re-schedule would not restart the clock on a 48hr cancellation window.