I recently was a no show at a booking I made. I actually messaged the host and requested if I could cancel and then clicked through the stupid cancel labyrinth in the AirBnB portal. It seems I did not follow through enough clicking. THe reservation was not canceled. So it was a no show until I saw the next day that the host had messaged me saying that I had not canceled. I canceled properly at that time going through all their seeming 23 steps. The host then proceeded to charge me cleaning fees. How fair is this? I did not even stay at the place and she can charge me cleaning fees? Let me not mention that out of a total of $300 approx, she charged me $188.xx. When I asked her for details, she said it was AirBnB charges and then blocked me from messaging her anymore and I was not even allowed to write a review. Again, how fair is this? It seems that AirBnB allows hosts to set their own cancellation policies and it seems its common for the hosts to charge 2 nights when you cancel without notice. In my case, I did tell her I was not coming, when I did not reply to her message she could have contacted AirBnB help and asked them to call me. Instead she just conveniently swallowed the $188.x. THis Cancel gremlin has bitten me thrice now, you think you have canceled - actually the UI makes you think (I guess this is a feature to make canceling a costly experience) you have canceled but hosts would contact me and tell me that they are unable to refund since my canceling did not come through. I have asked AirBnB help to fix this. when you cancel Hotel bookings they do not take you through multiple steps and multiple questions before canceling your booking, why should AirBnB be special here? If we are within our rights to cancel PER THE HOST POLICY then we should be allowed to cancel with a single click without all this brouhaha about "please tell your host why you cannot make it".
