Cancellation

[Denny55]

If I cancel a reservation with a host one time, can they refuse to agree to a future reservation?  I have read that hosts cannot see my cancellation history, though I certainly can.  Under "my trips," first the actual trips completed are listed.  Then the ones cancelled, whether due to the host cancelling or the guest cancelling.  It's not made clear.

The reason I ask is that last summer I did cancel a reservation (before a penalty hit).  I contacted the host about six weeks ago to make an inquiry, but she never responded.

Secondly, I did cancel another reservation last summer (again, before the last stated day without a penalty) as I found something more suitable.  This summer, the latter does not appear to be renting.  In any case, I'm interested in the reservation I cancelled (not the one in the previous paragraph).

I've been on airbnb probably close to ten years and have no issues.  But now I'm wondering about the effect of cancellations on my finding places on airbnb.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Denny55 If I were the host whom you cancelled on because you found something better I would be somewhat miffed. Given the choice why would I take a future booking from you knowing you are likely to cancel if you then find something better? There is a law in physics saying every action has a reaction (OK it says slightly more but I paraphrase). Clearly this law applies in other elements of life as well as physics.

[Denny55]

 Hosts state a cancellation policy and decide the time frame therein to cover risks and inconvenience. 

Previous hosts of mine have tightened their cancellation time frame from, for example, a week, to a month (without my having had anything to do with this).

The security net for the host is, analogous to a deposit for a landlord, is the cancellation policy.  If they think they will have any difficulty finding a new guest, they will and they do change their policy to reflect that concern.

Because of travel revenge, it's become necessary in many cases for guests to book at least half a year in advance, especially for the "star" hosts.

A lot can happen within half a year.  Plans change for many different reasons.

I will be going to Italy in a month.  The apartment I'll be staying in for three weeks I found through booking.com, which has no limitation on cancellations.  The financial penalty of canceling at the last minute, or even weeks before, is sufficient, apparently.

I have had hosts cancel on me, for various reasons, one of which is that they decide they want only a six-month rental rather than the 7 or 10 days I had reserved with them. 

On another platform, the host had "made a mistake" and, so she said, had someone already booked for the apartment.  She wrote me this on the day before I was to arrive at her place.  I had to scramble to find a place to stay.

It is the ratio of cancelled bookings to actual trips taken (or places stayed at) that is relevant.  A guest who travels 4-6 times a year is going to rack up more cancellations than a guest who travels only once a year.

It is a competitive situation for both hosts and guests.  I usually book with a host that has around a 4.6 star rating or above.  Star hosts seem to never have trouble finding customers, as I've almost always noted in the week or two after a past cancellation.  Their places are snapped up really quickly (San Francisco, Paris, among others, are places I go to frequently).

[Denny55]

But come to think of it, Airbnb is known for no longer being clearly competitive with hotels or platforms such as booking.com (which does not have a penalty based on the number of cancellations within a year).

Airbnb tries to justify its steep service fee by enumerating all the benefits it brings to guests who make reservations through its widely known platform.

But I am beginning to see the arbitrary number of cancellations policy to be just another way for Airbnb to increase its already generous profit margin, i.e., a way to make as much money and squeeze out of the guest.

I know there are hosts as well who are unhappy with airbnb's take-no-prisoners profits-at-all-costs (are they imitating amazon.com or have they come up with their ingenious modus operandi)?

In places like Venice and Paris, airbnb does not have a good reputation locally.  It turns neighborhoods into a collection of two-night stand motels and destroys the sense of community.

I think both hosts and guests are up against a behemoth whose sole raison-d'etre is to squeeze profits to a maximum.

I hope there will be a breaking point soon.  Hiring people in the Philipines who can barely speak English to serve as telephone representatives (mixed in with occasional Americans) is shocking.  I bet they get paid peanuts.  And talking over the phone is really an ordeal, as they're reading from a script and have no concrete idea what it is like to be a customer of this mega-business or the actual problems.  As a result, they are as often unhelpful as they are...

It wasn't this way even five years ago.

I'm hoping for an alternative to Airbnb, but that may be somewhat like hoping there will be an alternative to Amazon.  But Uber is no longer the only...in its field, so maybe...?

[Denny55]

Julia from Airbnb Support has accused me of violating Airbnb's anti-discrimination policy.  I find her accusation ludicrous.  I feel nothing but compassion for people in Third World Countries who are saddled with jobs for which Americans have been shunted aside and who have been inadequately trained.

To hide its ruthless exploitation of Third World workers, Airbnb invokes specious reasoning and distortion of facts.  That should say enough about how much Airbnb the corporation cares about its workers, hosts, and guests.

It's obvious that Airbnb crushes dissent when it feels that the former reflects badly on the corporate organization.

This is not discrimination!   This is called telling the truth.  Airbnb just wants to shut me up by attacking me BECAUSE IT FEELS ATTACKED.  My criticism, however, is fact-based, logical, and very persuasive.

Airbnb is using a disingenuous pretext ("discrimination") as a smokescreen to deflect its uneasiness and fears that my criticisms will cut through their bureaucratic, self-serving, often self-contradictory rationalizations and half-truths/half-lies.

Its pretense of integrity and concern for justice is shameless.

If my account is removed, I will consider a lawsuit against airbnb.   I encourage others on this forum who do not have a vested interest to also consider voicing their true opinions on, if not this forum, another forum.

[Denny55]

https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-francisco/profile/rental-listings/airbnb-inc-1116-375521/customer-revi...

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/airbnb.html

If I said "Third World phone workers," instead of "Filipino," I doubt if Airbnb wouldn't have had, fortuitously for it, an opportunity to exploit the situation to its advantage. 

It occurs to me that they are accusing an Asian discriminating against another Asian, which is like accusing a Black person of being racist (against another Black person).  

We'll see how long this thread remains on this forum before "someone" complains about it and the "responsible" employee--Julia?--has it removed.

The real problem I have pointed out will not go away just because "they don't like the message, so they kill the messanger."

Airbnb makes  profits on the backs of workers, guests, and hosts.  Their cancellation policy, which doesn't take into account the frequency of travel (I travel up to 3 months a year) by a guest, is illogical and unfair. 

The higher-ups just don't that pointed out, so obvious a failing on the part of a mega-corporation whose annual earnings jumped 78% from 2020 to 2021.

[Helen3]

Actually you can  be from a non white background and still  be racist against others from other backgrounds . Sadly plenty of people are. 

@Denny55 

[Denny55]

Actually now you are being (very) patronizing, whether you realize or not.  

[Helen3]

Why I'm from an ethnic minority background and sadly know family members and acquaintances who make racist comments . 

what's patronising is to pretend this doesn't happen . 

anyway you seem to have strayed off your original topic which was your question can hosts refuse your booking if you made a reservation and then cancelled previously because you found a better offer and the answer is yes absolutely they can 😀😀

[Denny55]

Is this a fact or simply your opinion?

Two things have little tolerance for are arrogance and ignorance.  If I made a snarky remark about Filipino telephone workers, it's largely due to it reflecting the way I am treated by both white and black people in the United States.

I doubt that you have ANY idea of the racism I've experienced and continue to experience.  Including in this forum.   You can believe it or not.

[Denny55]

I used to give people the benefit of the doubt until my doubts grew sufficiently strong.   That point, alas, has been reached. 

To reiterate, I was and am angry at Airbnb for it's sloppiness and greed. 

I apologize for that level of frustration being displaced into their exploited foreign work force.  Asians in the US are frequently the punching bag and scapegoated when whites Blacks some Latinos and even other Asians are feeling frustrated.   

The discrimination, and sometimes unadulterated or unconscious racism, I face on a daily basis is not something most people want to listen, much less empathize with.

That sadly this forum makes quite clear (in the form of denial, rationalizations, ignoring, counter blaming...).    

I empower myself by being honest and strong in the midst of hostility, indifference, ignorance, anger and/or resentment.

[Denny55]

You read whatever you have a need to hear/read in what I have stated.  The original topic was NOT whether hosts can refuse a booking if the guest found a better offer.  Someone else chimed that in gratuitously.

Do you listen carefully or even at all to what others say?   Or do you just pick and choose?

Do you realize you distort their words, intentions and, in doing so, cause them harm?  Does it make a difference to you?

[Helen3]

Most people don't refer to 'third world countries' any more it's seen as patronising @Denny55  as are your comments .

There are Nobel prize winners, millionaires , entrepreneurs , Olympics medal winners, international footballers and rugby players, there are top class scientists and researchers, actors and singers from developing countries not simply 'call centre handlers'.

the reality is most multinationals use overseas call handlers as they do factories to produce goods from cars to clothes and mobiles

@Denny55 

many of us regulars have been voicing our opinions on here for years we don't need your permission to do so 😀😀

[Denny55]

I didn't know that I implictly or explicitly was asking for your permission to voice your opinions on this forum.  I'm not sure how came to that conclusion.

Okay, in the future I will say "people from developing countries" rather than "Third World [workers].

I don't think it changes, at all, the points I am trying to get across.   

The cancellation policy of airbnb reflects its aggressive pursuit of maximizing profits, not concern for hosts.  Those profits have a direct correlation with the service fees its charges guests.  The more service fees it can recoup from guests and the larger those service fees [are]. the greater the profit margin, as it soared 78% from 2020 to 2021 despite negative publicity .  The numbers don't lie.

[Denny55]

There are many reasons why a guest would have to cancel.  How would you know that a guest had found a better "something better"?  Six or more months in advance of an actual visit:   Health concerns pop up.  Travel plans change.  A host may make changes.  New reviews make make clear that there are problems that were glossed over.  These are probably only just some of the reasons why a guest might cancel.

In the digital world, these changes take place without the host having to do much.  The digital calendar changes and new spots open up for those looking.  It's a boon for them, especially if it's a place at is usually sold out.

I constantly look for changes in booking, keeping my fingers crossed, of a place that was reserved before I could get to doing it.

This is the last time I will post to this forum, as I don't think neutrality and a spirit of wanting to really help others exists. 

It's a waste of  time.    I urge guests not to post here, as many if not most of the reponses may, in fact, come from NOT disinterested parties.

It is very upsetting to have a chorus of "naysayers" who refuse to even acknowledge, in the slightest, well-founded, well reasoned arguments.

There is little rational discussion, or an attempt to see "both sides of the coin."  (Many if not most Internet forums, I concede, are like this).

The intent of the original posting was to get clarity and information from actual other guests, as Airbnb reps were simpy coping and pasting (regurgitating) Airbnb policy paragraphs (that I had already read, anyway) without responding to, much less provide an answer, specific points I was asking about.

Amen.