Guest reviews and dreconian superhost cancellation policy

[Bez2]

Hi Just wanted to ask if anyone else has come accross  the issues that I have complained to ABB below today.

I was not particularly happy with the outcome of a recent ABB interaction.

Airbnb have a draconian policy of only giving hosts ONE cancellation in their lifetime before getting penalised (loosing superhost status being one) this is not fair and it should be on something like 'one a year' policy. I have been a host with ABB for 7 years and NEVER cancelled before and was threatened with loosing my superhost status if I proceeded with the cancellation.
As I could not see the guests reviews, airbnb only supply one, the latest, before a host accepts a booking, this does not give the host much to go on in terms of what a guest is like (behaviour). As I could only see the last review that was short but positive, I accepted the guest, on looking at the rest of his reviews, the second one down was an essay of how he had abused his stay at someones let, with extra cars turning up in the night, smoking in the house to name a few. I became anxious as I am an elderly lady living on my own on a welsh mountain up a long track (I live next to my holiday let). My let is a 500 year old ancient house with lots of antiques in it. So I contacted ABB as I was not happy to let this person into my home/let.

I feel that to penalise me to one cancellation in a lifetime is very unfair. We are encouraged to 'reach out' to all the helpful people at ABB but I feel very let down as I am an exemplorary host.

I would like to suggest

1. That hosts see more than one review of potential guests before hosts except guests booking.

2. That the draconian policy of 'one cancellation' in a lifetime with ABB and you loose your superhost status is changed to one a year.

I am sure you must have had complaints about this in the past and hope that you take note. I have put thousands of pounds into the coffers of ABB over the years and feel that this is a shoddy way to treat hard working hosts.

Yours in hope
Bez

[Colleen253]

@Bez2 It’s completely unusual that you were not able to see all the guests reviews before accepting. There must have been a glitch of some sort. You need to contact Airbnb again and insist they cancel based on the fact that you fear for your safety with this particular guest. Keep trying until you find success. Airbnb CS ambassadors are not the most capable bunch, unfortunately. Please report back to let us know how you make out with that. 

If worse comes to worse, just cancel anyway. Your safety is more important than anything. You don’t need to be potentially confronting a proven rule breaking guest who may try to have extra guests/a party, while all alone on your property.

[Ben5865]

the problem is that only 1 single cancellation puts most hosts outside of being a Superhost.  A host would need more than 8.3 reservations on average per month for a full year, to be below 1% with 1 single cancellation during the year. 

Because of that, the Superhost program is just for high-volume hosts and accommodations.  The little Superhost badge, due to that 1% cancellation policy, skews towards the higher volume listings. 

Tell me I'm wrong Airnbnb?  Show us some data showing the % of Superhosts based on levels of hosting.   

Essentially, they won't share that data because they don't want that revealed.  Doesn't matter, Booking.com is better anyway.

[Helen3]

What a strange post @Ben5865 .

I have listed on Airbnb for eight years and have never had to cancel a booking

As you should know SH status is not just dependant on not cancelling there are a range of critieria we need to meet

Why are you having to cancel multiple bookings outside of Airbnb's EC policy for host cancellations?

This community is for hosts and guests and isn't monitored by Airbnb.

You are right if you have decided you don't want to market your STR business through Airbnb there are other listing channels you can use. Presumably you are happy with the much high host cancellation charges on Booking.com

[Ben5865]

Reread my post.  I never said "multiple" cancellations.  I said 1, single.  One booking cancellation in 1 year is reasonable.  Sometimes things happen. 

I've been on Airbnb now for 1 year and 9 months and have had 29 reservations during that time.  During that time, we've garnered 21 reviews with a current 5-star rating. 

Because of one single cancellation, at our current reservation volume, I would need 51 months, or 4.3 years with a spotless cancellation rate to get back into Superhost status.  

The program favors and is biased towards high-volume renters.