Guest scam to lower short term booking cost?

[Donald368]

Thought I would share this to find out if it's a common problem.  My listing offered a 20% discount for a seven day stay.  The guest booked a 10 day stay and requested a lower price.  The guest said he was interested in looking at properties to buy.  Since it's not a busy month, I provided a special offer further reducing the 10 day cost.  The guest checked in on time and requested cancellation on day three because the home he looked at did not meet his needs.  This was my first cancellation request during a stay so I contacted Airbnb support who inacurately said my pay out would not be impacted.  I received an "alteration" request and declined based on the support person's info that the guest could ask Airbnb for a refund.   Airbnb proceeded to process the cancellation for sevend days, reduced my payout and indicated an upcoming payout would be tapped for the refund.  I was also charged a service fee (which makes no sense).  Of course there was no chance I could rebook the lost days given the short notice.  After checking the guest's reviews again, I found another host also experienced a similar cancellation with the same guest.  If there is a cancellation pattern with the guest, should not the guest be penalized?  This almost seems like a scam any guest could use to lower their rental cost.  Thanks!

[Breanna]

Hi @Donald368 

So sorry to hear about such a frustrating situation. Were you able to ask the support team to have another look at this?

[Donald368]

Yes, ended up with a thread of four responses from Support.  After that, it became clear support would only provide a canned response that the host controls refund policies.  After carefully reviewing those policies I understand the host has virtually no control over refund policies set by Airbnb.  I changed my cancellation policy to medium but that does not appear to impact refunds.  Basically, the host is assuming the risk of lower rental costs triggered by guest cancellations during the stay when offering longer stay discounts and special offers.  I won't be doing special offers and I'm also considering removing discounts.  Sad but true that the guest comes before the host at Airbnb.  Thanks for asking about the situation.  I recently took back my rental from a rental manager who was overpricing rentals and providing poor cleaning.  I'm doing better now but realizing my host learning curve is still significant.

[Jonathan6]

Yes and imagine "It is being researched and expect an answer shortly by message".  The reps (multiple) can find no article that states the policy on an alteration request.

It is clear that if you accept an alteration that pushes the reservation out far enough to reopen an window (i.e. 50% cancelation before 14 days) that the 14 day policy will apply, but nothing about the 48 hour window.

Still waiting on a response, but started here since Joan2709 made the statement and it was moderated as a "Best Answer".

I would hope if this is not true that it would be deleted from this thread.

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Donald368 

Thanks for the heads up as many new Hosts may not be aware of this. If you have flexible or moderate cancellation policy and a guest checks in but doesn't complete their stay, you will only receive a partial payout. Some guests will only book properties with a flexible ble or moderate cancellation policy, if they are not sure they will be completing the entire stay. 

It's good you didn't accept the reservation alteration as well, as that restarts the cancellation window and the guest can simply cancel within 48 hours of your accepting it and get a full refund. Some guests are aware of this loophole and will try to get around your cancellation policy by shortening the stay via an alteration request (if they haven't checked in yet). 

I believe the only way to avoid this is to go to a Firm (or more restrictive) cancellation policy, which does affect your guest search rank. If you want to extend a special offer in the future for a longer stay, you could turn off Instant Book, change your cancellation policy, then send the special offer. To be fair, you should advise the guest of the stricter cancellation policy for the special offer. After they accept the offer, you can turn instant book back on and revert to your moderate cancellation policy.

Cancellation Policies

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/475

[Deanna216]

Smart solution! Thank you 

[Jonathan6]

The information I can find both on the Community Center and in any Article is as clear as mud on the "48 hour" rule for an Alteration.  The article you site says nothing about alterations.  Can you point to an Article or section of the TOS that outlines what you state here about ANY alteration reopening the 48 hour window?  Do you have anything in writing from a rep stating this?

Are you saying that...
1. Reducing or adding to a stay by 1 day, a day before the rental would allow the guest to cancel?
2. Changing a price of the rental 1 day before the rental would allow the guest to cancel?
3. Adding a guest to a rental 1 day before the rental would allow the guest to cancel?

This question is asked over and over again on other boards and nobody in the years that I have been following has been able to point to a written policy on ABB.  If this is the case, then hosts should never allow an alteration request.  It seem counter intuitive. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jonathan6 I think this used to be a problem but was sorted during Covid by Airbnb. Sadly the only way to confirm is to allow a change!

[Jonathan6]

Having contacted Support... "It is being researched and expect an answer shortly by message".  The reps (multiple) can find no article that states the policy on an alteration request.

It is clear that if you accept an alteration that pushes the reservation out far enough to reopen an window (i.e. 50% cancelation before 14 days) that the 14 day policy will apply, but nothing about the 48 hour window.

Still waiting on a response, but I started here since Joan2709 made the statement and it was moderated as a "Best Answer".

I would hope if this is not true that it would be deleted from this thread.

[Joan2709]

Hi @Jonathan6 

It's always best to get the final answer from Airbnb CS; especially if you are concerned the information provided here is not accurate. I can only report what has happened in the past to other Hosts. Perhaps this is no longer an issue? 

As @Mike-And-Jane0 stated, if you can't get a definitive answer from Airbnb to your question, you can always confirm the correct answer by allow an alteration and see what happens?

By all means, if you do get a definitive answer, and the previous information provided is not correct, please post it here so it can help other Hosts facing the same situation. Then you can mark your answer as the best answer...no problem.

[Jonathan6]

After much digging I received a response from ABB Executive Support that says that the 48 hour window does not reopen for a full refund with an alteration.  An alteration that pushes back the start date, may open a new window for cancellation based on the policy applied (i.e. strict pushing it back 14 days to a 50% cancellation). 

See the answer below:

**

To provide you context on this, an alteration will not automatically reset the timer for the 48 hour cancellation window for the guest.

However, if the reservation is altered in such a way that it now falls within the cancellation policy, the cancellation policy would apply.

For example if the reservation had a Moderate Cancellation Policy & was set to start tomorrow (therefore it was outside the window to get a full refund) & we alter it for 5+ days from now, the Moderate cancellation policy would be based on the new dates & the guest could technically cancel & get a full refund.

**

**[ Some content removed while retaining informative  content for Hosts in line with the Community Center Guidelines- Please note that it is not allowed to share Airbnb private conversations]

[Deanna216]

It is a scam I'm sure…perhaps asking for a “cancelation insurance deposit” may not be a bad idea…Then if the guest cancels before fulfilling the reservation dates, you would keep the “cancelation deposit insurance”… I can't think of anything that would be better…can you? 

[Deanna216]

It's like the airlines insurance we buy as passengers…if we cancel but have cancelation insurance with the airline…we are fully refunded…something like that 

[Joan2709]

@Donald368 , @Deanna216 

Just to note regarding changing your cancellation policy to prevent  guests from taking advantage of price discounts for a longer stays...

Airbnb's policies do state any cancellation policy change will not apply to any "pending" reservations. A guest would naturally have to withdraw their previous reservation request before you send a special offer, but just be aware of that. Any previous confirmed reservations will also not be affected by your policy change:

How Cancellation Policy Changes Affect Reservations

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3030#section-heading-1-0

Any changes you make to your cancellation policy will only apply to future reservations and won’t affect any pending or confirmed reservations. The cancellation policy that was set when you received a reservation will still apply to that reservation.