Airbnb Technical Glitch Block Calendar Resulting in inability to take bookings

[Lesley-and-Orion0]

To The Airbnb Community:

Please see a recent incident that I would like to bring to your attention based on a technical glitch which has resulted in a loss for our listing.

This letter is to request action, decision, and reconsideration of payment for a reservation technology glitch that precluded bookings in our AirBNB being over the period of Oct 14 to Oct 29 (15 nights).  We are appealing the current decision and requesting an additional payout of $1,009.04 in estimated net losses based on a reasonable calculation of our loss (see page 4).  In our view, this reservation/ cancellation suffered a technical glitch that resulted in our calendar being blocked for 15 nights, despite our attempts and calls to AirBNB to rectify.

*Personal information of the guest and reservation has been removed

Following is a summary of the events surrounding this situation:

• This AirBNB enjoys an occupancy rate of 80% annually. 
• We received a 26-day reservation on Oct 3, 2020 by The Guest. The booking revenue was $6,428.99 for the period of Oct 14th – Nov 9th, 2020.
• On Oct 17, the guest cancelled the reservation as we denied a request for him to add two dogs to the reservation (not allowed).  AirBNB accepted his cancellation based on your flexible cancellation date.
• However, AirBNB’s platform DID NOT clear the booking out of the calendar, and the calendar remained ‘booked/blocked’ showing that The Guests reservation remained in the calendar despite the cancelation.  This glitch continued for the period of Oct 15 - Nov 3, 2020, when it was finally rectified.  Therefore, we were unable to replace the cancelled booking with other bookings and suffered a loss in revenue.
• When the problem presented itself, we immediately contacted AirBNB to report and resolve the technical issue.  Despite several calls by us to AirBNB, it remained blocked for an additional 15 NIGHTS. 
• The problem was finally rectified on Oct 30, 2020.
• In our discussions with AirBNB customer service representatives, which seemed to indicate that our expectation of compensation was a fair and reasonable ask, we received only $615.72 in compensation. 
• As soon as the calendar cleared, we were able to start taking bookings again and managed to fill some of the remaining nights from Nov 3rd – Nov 9th at lower rates.

Following is a detailed summary of our interactions with the guest and with AirBNB:

Wed Oct 14, 2020 (Check in Day) – The Guest calls to let us know he won’t be checking in until Saturday and that his son and wife will now be joining him and they would like to bring their 2 small chihuahuas (we have a no pet policy due to disturbances caused to our building neighbors by a previous guest’s dog).  Due to the length and size of the booking, we did consult with the owners of the unit to see if we should make an exception to our house rules.  

Oct 15th After asking The Guest some questions about the animals and their sleeping, feeding and bathroom routines we decided not to allow the dogs stay at the unit due to the restrictions of The Guest and his family having to quarantine for 14 days in the unit due to COVID-19.  Restricting animals in an 11th floor unit and using the balcony for their bathroom for 26 days was simply a bad idea.  For this reason, the owner made the decision not to allow the 2 dogs.

Oct 16th The Guest confirms that he will be renting another space and informed us that he will be cancelling his reservation.  We requested a screen shot of the confirmation of cancellation, but he didn’t reply.

Oct 17th We messaged The Guest to ask if he was going to cancel and he notifies us that he did not cancel on the 16th and sends a screen shot of his cancellation confirming his cancellation on Oct 17th.  At this point we did not receive the usual cancellation notification from Airbnb.

Oct 17th We called Airbnb to inquire about the calendar not clearing and the lack of confirmation to us that the booking has been cancelled. We discussed that it could be a technical issue due to the Airbnb platform crashing on the 16th Oct.  The CSA notified us that this case would be escalated to the Airbnb Customer Experience Specialist Team. (Calendar still showing a confirmed booking from The Guest)

Oct 18th 12:02pm Prabhjeet from the Airbnb Customer Experience Specialist Team reached out through the messenger and asked if we wanted to cancel the reservation with a full refund.  We asked if Prabhjeet would be available for a phone call as our intention was to discuss why the calendar still wasn’t cleared and that we wouldn’t want to cancel with a full refund as we were still entitled to part of the reservation due to the flexible cancellation policy. They notified us that they were not able to call but would have someone else get in touch.

Oct 18th 10:48pm Sue an Airbnb Support Ambassador reached out via messenger to ask if they could call the following day. We responded yes, but no one reached out via phone. (Calendar still showing a confirmed booking from The Guest).

Oct 19th Akila (CSA) Reached out via messenger to apologize for the inconvenience and to let us know they were still investigating the cause of the issue and were working to resolve it as quickly as possible. (Calendar still showing a confirmed booking from The Guest)

Oct 20th We messaged Airbnb stating our desire to hear back from a specialist to open the calendar.  We also emphasized the substantial loss in revenue due to this technical inconvenience. (Calendar still showing a confirmed booking from The Guest)

Oct 26th  We sent a screen shot to Airbnb with the calendar still showing a confirmed booking from The Guest. We wrote a message to document this and we received a reply from Airbnb saying this was still being investigated and will be resolved as quickly as possible. (Calendar still showing a confirmed booking from The Guest)

Oct 29th, 2020 Airbnb sent a message saying they have cleared the calendar and that the guest has been refunded accordingly and our payout has been updated to $615.72 according to our “flexible cancellation policy”.

As you can imagine this has been extremely frustrating and time consuming for what has already been a terrible 2020 year.  Having the platform we have trusted and remained loyal to since 2014 not assess this situation reasonably leaves us at a complete loss and great sense of disappointment. 

We have been AirBNB hosts since 2014 and manage multiple listings (12) on the Airbnb platform through the Co-hosting portal.  We created independent host profiles and listings which have all maintained Superhost status and are solely on the Airbnb platform.

We are seeking additional compensation in the amount of $1,009.04.  This estimate is based on what we believe is a fair calculation of the net loss we incurred:

• Nights lost due to technical glitch:  15 nights
• Annual occupancy rate:  80%
• Net Nights lost:  12 nights (15*.80)
• Avg Rate of booking:  $247.27 per night ($6,428.99/26)
• Amount lost due to AirBNB Glitch:  $2,967.24
• Amount recovered for Nov 3 – 8, 2020:  $1,342.48
• Amount received from AirBNB:  $615.72
• Additional amount sought from AirBNB:  $1,009.04

Your feedback is greatly appreciated 

Sincerely,

Orion Rodgers

Coast&Host Vacation Rentals

[Sarah977]

This is a discussion forum for hosts and guests, not Airbnb customer service, so posting this here won't accomplish  anything unless you were just wanting to share and get comments.

But I can assure you that you are wasting your time on this- Airbnb isn't going to pay you for projected lost income because of their tech glitch.  

@Lesley-and-Orion0