Guest-cancelled reservation

[Adrienne234]

Hello,

We are fairly new to hosting (just got our Superhost status a couple weeks ago). We had an experienced AirBnB guest book at the end of Sept, then Oct 10 she messaged that she needed to cancel. She was within the full-refund cancellation policy window. I didn't think anymore about it bc when this has happened in the past, the booking disappears from our calendar, opening up the dates to be re-booked.

This did not occur this time. And when the reservation came around, she was still booked. She sent a screen shot from AirBnB showing no reservations on her end, so it appeared in her account that her cancellation went through! However, we still had the dates booked for her on our calendar. Of course now she wants a refund, but since we didn't have those dates re-opened, it would be a complete loss for us for one of our lucrative weekend days! In retrospect, I perhaps should have gone in and double-checked the reservation got cancelled, but this has always been seamless with nothing needed from me on the back-end in the past, so I didn't even think of it!

Since she still shows as a guest, we risk her dinging us in her review if we don't refund. Plus, it seems like a technical AirBnB issue where both host and guest pay the price! We're leaning toward just completely refunding her but I think if we do that, we still have to pay all the fees on the reservation! Any ideas would be so welcome for this situation!

[Geneviève9]

In my opinion this is completely the responsibility of Airbnb. You should not take any initiative about this and put all the weight of the issue on Airbnb. Let them decide what to do since it seems like their system caused the issue in the first place.

[Helen3]

Sorry this is not Airbnbs fault it's the hosts error for not confirming to the guest they needed to cancel . @Geneviève9 

[Geneviève9]

@Helen3 I disagree, if the guest needed to cancel it was the guests responsibility to cancel her stay, not the host's. I consider that it's a case of contacting Airbnb and let them see how they want to handle this. I don't think it's the host's responsibility to cancel, when we cancel on our end we get penalized. Unless I'm missing a detail while reading...

[Helen3]

No it's not the hosts responsibility -  but when the guest told the host she wanted to cancel the host should have advised the guest that she needed to cancel on the platform particularly as there was a time sensitive refund involved . @Geneviève9 

instead the host did nothing and didn't let the guest know her booking was still live. 

I don't understand why you feel Airbnb is at fault here. 

[Angie29]

Yes, she should follow up right away about the cancelation and especially when it still showed the guests name on the calendar, but also read Adrienne's last reply, and I quote:  "The guest cancelled it correctly and did not have any trips on her account, however it did not process correctly through the AirBnB system..."   So, in this case, it WAS Airbnb's website/platform fault.    

[Angie29]

You are correct.  I never cancel because being a hostess I will be  penalized.  However, if I get a guest's email about wanting to cancel I tell them to please do it ASAP so I can rent to someone else.  Then I make sure to follow up and keep pushing for the cancelation on their end until it's done and my calendar is open again for business.    

[Adrienne234]

The guest cancelled it correctly and did not have any trips on her account, however it did not process correctly through the AirBnB system. We called and spoke to AirBnB and they had to go in and reverse the booking. Though it was a technical issue, we were still out the lost night of the booking, so that's unfortunate, but it wasn't a super bad cost for learning that we should always follow up on cancellations in a timely fashion if we don't see what we expect to on our calendar. Thanks for your perspective.

[Adrienne234]

We called and spoke to AirBnB and they had to go in and reverse the booking. Though it was a technical issue on their end ultimately we were still out the lost night of the booking. Though I guess this is not a bad price to pay to learn that we need to pay better attention a more timely way. Thanks for your response!

[Joelle43 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Adrienne234 

If this guest is still showing as being booked on your calendar, did you receive the payment for this stay?  You can only refund if you have been payed because if you haven't even been paid, you will be seriously out of pocket?

I would call Airbnb and ask them about this and if your guest never set foot in your place, then you can have this review removed.

Let us know,

All the best

Joëlle

[Adrienne234]

Thank you! We spoke with AirBnB. They had to reverse the booking (technical issue on their end). A bit frustrating because ultimately we were the ones who lost out on a booking, but a good lesson. The review still shows as pending so I will reach out to AirBnB again to remove it since the guest never set foot in our space. Thanks so much for your response!

[Helen744]

@Adrienne234 I would suggest to you that the guest has not cancelled correctly for either reasons of their own or because they feel it is disadvantageous to them . Find the messaging wherin the guest has requested a cancellation and ask Airbnb to read it and agree to an Airbnb cancellation without penalty on your side. The guest who did not or will not stay is not entitled to review although they seem able to temporaily do so ,ask Airbnb to also block this guest from reviewing or to immediately remove the review when it appears.... H

[Helen3]

If the guest cancels the booking won't simply disappear .

You always  get confirmation of any cancellation .

Did you not advise the guest to cancel so her refund could be processed? 

you would have known the booking hadn't been cancelled as the dates would have been blocked in your calendar 

it's not a technical issue I'm afraid it's down to you not fully understanding Airbnbs guest cancellation policy.  

[Melanie318]

@Adrienne234 How very frustrating for you! You need to be sure if a guest contacts you to say they want to cancel, explain to them they have to cancel through Air bnb - you can not cancel it for them.

Too often the guests just want to email/text/call you and tell you they want to cancel and figure you will deal with canceling for them, which you never want to do. 

If you cancel a reservation, even if the guests ask you to, it is a negative mark against you for canceling the reservation.