Booking dates conflict

[Ray2608]

I need some advise on how to proceed.  I have 2 different guest booked my place at the same time using different booking platform. As a result of the timing and the speed in synchronizing the block out dates, there was a one day overlap  

Summary:

One guest is checking out on the 21 of March Guest A, the other is checking in on 20 of March. Guest B

Action 

I reach out to the Guest B and we agreed for me to arrange to have another place for them to stay for the one night. I paid and reserved booking for them.

After a day, Guest B came back and said they don't like the place. So I cancelled that reservation and found another really nice place much better than mine for twice the cost of a night stay at my place. 

Guest B came back again saying they are not having it either. They only want to stay at my place, even after I explained the date is no longer available and a much better accommodation was found for them within 5 minutes form my place at my expense.

Conclusion 

They are asking me to cancel all 3 reservation. When I try to cancel Airbnb is saying that if i cancel there will be a penalty. I'm ok with that, however they are also saying the Airbnb will block out those initial day and I will not be able to book them.

Airbnb suggested that the guest should request a cancelation in order to get a full refund . Guest B refuses to cancel, claiming that it will affect their status .   

What recourse is there for me. I now have 3 bookings to cancel because of trying to accommodate this guest. My super Host status will now be affected in a negative way because of this.

[Frances3408]

@Ray2608 . When I decided to list on more than one platform I switched off Instant Book.

Its admirable that you tried to help this guest with an alternate and it would be nice if Airbnb recognised this, but they are not obligated to do so. I'd try and appeal to support that any penalty is unfair as it relates to the same guest booking but in future, dont arrange alternate bookings and leave to Airbnb to sort.

What are the implications of cancelling Guest A on another platform (that I assume you do want to proceed with)? Is the Guest B booking for very long?  If not, consider just cancelling Guest B booking and yes Airbnb will block Guest B dates on your Airbnb calendar. You will take the penalty hit and likely affect cancellation rate for Superhost status. 

Losing Superhost status for a while hurts, but I think its more important to get organised to avoid this happening again. 

[Shelley159]

Hi @Ray2608 

It seems you did nothing wrong to cause this mess, and you're going out of your way to try and sort it out!

I don't know why your guest feels that cancellation can count against a guest profile, as a guest can just choose a listing that they want to book. Even for a request-to-book listing, I'm not aware of any warning that a host will get to know that the guest frequently cancels. For a host, as you say, too many cancellations can affect superhost (and guest favourite and search ranking). But knowing this doesn't help here, because the guest doesn't want to cancel and the double-booking is not their fault.

To avoid the delayed auto-sync issue in future, you can try to get into the habit of doing a manual sync after getting a booking (Calendar, Availability, scroll down to Connect Calendars and click Refresh). Another option is add-on software, but that may make more sense for hosts with many listings.

[Elisa]

Hi @Ray2608 😊,

Thank you for sharing this situation here, I definitely understand your concerns.

I’m glad you found hosts who are trying to help you.

What do you think of their advice?

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards 🌻,