Airbnb canceled a non refundable stay for a guest 3 hours after the guest checked in but before they set foot on the property

[Ryan2770]

On Friday we lost power in the town where we host a house on Airbnb.  I have guests checking in on Sunday, so  I informed them of the outage Saturday Morning when I learned of it.  They were initially understanding but then demanded I give them solutions as one of the adults needs a cpap to sleep.  The guests made a 1 week reservation which gave them a week discount, and they chose the non refundable option.

At the same time they complained to Airbnb support, and I received a message from support asking me to review the situation.  I did not agree to giving the guest a full refund as we were 24 hours away from the stay and the power outage was being actively worked on. 

Still, I offered to let them check in a day later with a refund for Sunday night.  I did not get a response directly to my offer. 

Sunday morning comes and crews were restoring in the area.  The guests hadn't responded to my message from the day earlier offering a later check in.  I sent them another message letting them know I was submitting a reservation change request that they had no obligation to accept, and I let them know I applied their week discount to the potential 6 day stay. 

They still did not reply. 

Prior to check in the power was restored and I let the guest know.  I received no response.

At 5:58, nearly 3 hours after our scheduled check in time, I received a message from Airbnb informing me I violated Host terms and the guests were receiving a full refund and the stay was canceled.  Support is not responding to my messages at this time.  If I call in they tell me my case has been escalated and I'll receive a call, but it seems support acts promptly only for complaining guests?

What could I have done here that violated terms?  What in this situation allowed Airbnb to cancel a reservation 3 hours after check in but before the guest even set foot in the place???

[Ryan2770]

Wish I could edit the title, but it should say 3 hours after check in time.  The guest never set foot in the property, so they couldn't have made any complaints about the state of the house, and regardless they made a non-refundable booking.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ryan2770 I think that sadly your biggest mistake was honesty. It appears that it is far better to not tell the guests anything and travel hopefully that the problem will be fixed before they arrive. I can see why the guest, if power is essential to them, would panic and ask Airbnb for a refund +find another place to stay. All in all a hard lesson I feel.

[Ryan2770]

But the decision was made after power was restored.  There were zero issues with the home at check in time, everything was 100% operational.  The guest even sent me a message that they'd be coming and going as they pleased and would not accept a change to the reservation when I sent them the notice that power had been restored earlier in the day prior to their check in. 

What policy did I violate that allows a full cancellation of a non-refundable booking?

[Ryan2770]

Response from Airbnb's "Support" was that I indicated power was out during the guests check in, which is false.  Power was restored at the guests check in. 

Support closed the ticket, and in the ticket they even said "I understand that this event is outside your control, and given that you are able to restore the power in the listing. We did not proceed to take actions to suspend your listing." What the hell is this, a threat? 

They just shut down the conversation. 

I have started a BBB complaint and am going to continue pursuing a payout for this from Airbnb. 

The support is a joke.  I'm going to be pursuing listing on other platforms.  If anyone can chime in on how to force Airbnb's hand here, I'd love to know, but I fear they just don't care.

[Ryan2770]

New information to me is that the guest was able to instate "aircover" because the power was out during their stay.  Key word is during.  So they lied to Airbnb, didn't provide evidence and got a cancellation.  Meanwhile Airbnb is asking me to show proof power was back on!! 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ryan2770 All very strange - At least your local power company should be able to supply proof as to when the power was turned on. Perhaps an internet trip to the small claims court is in order - I think its allowed in the USA terms but worth checking.

[Ryan2770]

Airbnb has now confirmed the guest waited until after check in to complain they weren't "comfortable" with staying at a place with no power and Airbnb is standing behind that as a "final decision". I am continuing to challenge their logic which violates their own policies.

Because the reservation was cancelled 2-3 hours after check in time, I was prompted to review the guest, as I'm sure they were prompted to review me.  This company hides behind it's non-native speaking support teams that seem friendly and understanding at first but just tell me the actual facts of the case don't matter and that the guest "felt" unsafe with the stay AFTER check in and AFTER power was fully restored.

[Kia272]

@Ryan2770 "Those people" speak a language that is native to the country they were born in. Just because it's not YOUR native language isn't a reason to be so unpleasant about it. They also speak a second language well enough to have a job that requires a good command of that language. Could you work a telephone job in a second language? I couldn't. 

As to the situation, I think you've failed to put yourself in the guests' shoes here. Imagine that you've booked a week's stay at an AirBnB, and the day before you're supposed to arrive, you're told that you may or may not have power at the AirBnB. This isn't as cut and dry as you're acting like it is. AirBnB didn't just randomly give these people a full refund; there was a reason behind it.  

They may have been coming from far away, in which case they may have already started their travels. They may (and did) have a person who needed power for a medical device. 

They also had to scramble and adapt their plans on very short notice. 

I think in this case, it's better to just move on. Something unfortunate happened, but there's no need to assign blame. 

[Ryan2770]

I didn't "THOSE People". You did. I am being specific.  Non native speaking support makes the language barrier for resolutions problematic!

As to the situation, the guest had a chance to ask for a cancellation to Airbnb before their stay.  They didn't.  According to Airbnb the cancellation request happened AFTER check in time and the reason Airbnb gives me is that the guest didn't feel comfortable with the lack of power.  Which is a lie, because there was power at that time.  45 minutes before the guest lied to get a cancellation, they informed me they intended to stay the week. 

The guests live In-state and were driving 2.5 hours.  Not far away, and they also chose not to communicate with me regarding postponing the start to their week long stay by a day.   They also chose a non-refundable booking. Truth is, they decided suddenly that they wanted to cancel and waited until their stay started to lie.

Airbnb violated it's own terms.  Why isn't the community bothered by this?

[Ryan2770]

The guests were allowed to review.  Because Airbnb cancelled their reservation after check in, it's in their system as if they'd stayed.  So now there's most certainly a retaliatory review from someone who never set foot on the property.