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???
