Host cancelled less than 24 hours before check in

[Nick88]

I booked a room about 2 weeks ago and the pickings we're already slim then.  I've messaged the host right after booking with the usual "Hi, how ya doin?" stuff, and about a week before the reservation I asked about check in times.  The response was 6pm.  I was a little put off by the late check in time but didn't say anything and I figured we'd just find some way to kill time until then.  

Last night I went to sleep extra early (7:00PM) because I planned to get up early and finish packing so we could hit the road by 9AM.  I woke up this morning to find that I received a AirBnb cancellation message at 7:28PM that my reservation has been cancelled.  No message from the host, no appology or explanation, nothing.  

AirBnb obviously refunded my money and gave me what I think is a 10% credit.  But nearest thing available at this point is about 30-40 miles away from the booking that was already 25 miles away from where we are visting.  Now I'm suppose to accept this, or get a refund and book something else.  Booking even the cheapest hotel at the last minute is now going to cost us 2-3 times more than if we had just booked it weeks ago when we made this AirBnb reservation.

I understand that things happen, but how can I ever book with AirBnb again and have a resonable expectation that I won't waste a bunch of money planning a trip and have my accommodations yanked from under my feet at the last minute?  I'm stuck deciding between either cancelling my plans, or paying twice per night what the entire weekend would have cost me.  

This is beyond infuriating and AirBnb won't even give me the satisfaction of leaving a review because they left a "The host canceled this reservation the day before arrival. This is an automated posting." review on my behalf.

Cancellations like this are devastatingly expensive for the guest.  There should be a heavy penalty for host who do this without explanation.

[Owen46]

Update: So I followed this up with my travel insurance and they say I’m not covered. I called twice actually to question some of the areas of the policy. They would have only covered me if I’d abandoned the trip, so I guess if I’d done that then they would have covered the flights. 

It’s possible that if the host proved to have an unforseen illness or injury then there’s a slim chance but I think this usually applies to close friends or relatives. Maybe there’s better travel insurance out there, though this is a reputable one from the Post Office.

I’ve sent a full account to airbnb customer services, so fingers crossed I get a more positive response from them, otherwise I’m still going to be £180 down. This will make me reluctant to use Airbnb in the future even though their customer service has been responsive. Getting stuck in another country without booked accomodation is bad enough but if there’s a risk that I’m not covered for cheap accomodation because the hotels are now charging extortionate rates then it’s just not worth the risk. I’d have understood if I’d splashed out on something fancy but these really were basic rooms, usually costing €65 - €75 per night.

[David126]

@Owen46

I worked in the London Insurance Market for 30 years, if you have a link to the Insurer/policy wording I would be happy to review and let you know in plain language what you may be able to claim.

[Owen46]

Hi David

Hey thanks, that's really good of you. I don't hold out much hope though, neither person I spoke to on the phone seemed to think I might have a case and I did  push them.

Here's a link to my policy documents. It looks like p.24, Section A is the relevant part:

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/dam/jcr:9a0daa66-fe7f-428b-8f08-7e871668fffd/policy-wording-2052018.pdf

They've recently updated their policy documents but mine is for Single Trip Standard cover purchased before 2nd Sept 2018 with a TC policy number.

Though the newer policy looks the same to me.

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-insurance/single-trip

Award winning, 5* Expert rated travel Insurance - Hmmmm maybe not?

Owen 🙂

[David126]

I had a fread and OK it is a long time ago since I dealt with these but the wording looks very similar to what I remember.

Short version and looking at your particular situation I see nothing that would help.

I wanted to check because things do change and different Insurers can use different wordings but this is what I would expect to be pretty standard.

[Arturo129]

Actually, reading all these threads because I am also worried about booking and then getting bumped at the last minute my conclusion is that

AirBnB is losing a large number of customers just because they do not see the line of insurance business proposed here. Pay an extra and in exchange get your stay covered in a similar place in case of cancellation.

Therefore my conclusion is that is AirBnb fault not to see that they have to complement their business format with an insurance option. If you buy the guest can rest at peace knowing that one way or another their reservation is assured somewhere at an equivalent place, the hosts may be penalized for doing the wrong thing (if that is the case) and Airbnb makes money through all the insurance policies sold. 

I will therefore go to any other site that offers that insurance option!

Greetings and good travel!

[Sarah977]

@Arturo129   What is the difference if Airbnb offers to sell you travel insurance or you buy your own travel insurance elsewhere?

Here are some tips for not getting "bumped" by unscrupulous or clueless hosts:

   Find some places you like the looks of. Read all the reviews of that place. If there are past host cancellations, that could be a red flag, especially if there are several cancellations at various times spanning months or years. This can mean they're bad at managing their calendar and pricing, end up double booking, or deciding they could get more $ for those dates because it's a holiday or event weekend, then cancel because of it.

   Read thoroughly  through the entire listing description, scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page (past the calendar, etc, the house rules are below that) and clicking on wherever it says "Read more".

  Don't Instant Book- send an Inquiry or Booking Request and ask any questions you need to of the host. Even if you don't have specific questions, introduce yourself and your interest in the place. You will be able to tell a lot from host's responses- are they friendly and send you back a personal message, or is it just some copy and paste message?  Do they respond quickly? (I don't mean in 5 minutes- people are busy, have jobs, etc, and may not be able to get back to you immediately, but if days go by without a response, big red flag) If you see host cancellations in the reviews, you can ask the host about that- sometimes it's perfectly legitimate- they may have had a medical emergency, a death in the family, or a major house repair to deal with. In that case, the cancellations would likely be grouped in one period of time. 

[Arturo129]

Most insurance policies I know do not accept claims that go through airbnb reservations as far as I know. Travel insurance policies only accepts documented travel delays, documented lost baggage and things like that. 

One may try to be extra careful with hosts but at the end one does not know only if the record of the host is long and reliable. At that point, there are very few options left. 

Still, this does not cover for emergencies as in previous posts and these things are also not covered in many travel insurance policies. 

If any good travel insurance policies covering airbnb incidences are known I encourage posts on this direction...

[Michael2257]

I booked in June for Vancouver, Canada in September and, five days in advance, received an eamil saying the host was not able to accommodate me.  I asked him to cancel, but he didn't do so until the next day, when my major alternatives were already taken.  I see that he canceled two other people in September and one in August.  His delay in canceling me was, I believe, in the hope that I would cancel myself and he would receive a half payment.  I havre paid more on another booking site, but trust the site.  Incidentally, I got a customer service email response fairly quickly, but it wasn't helpful and the phone call I requested came through five hours later.  I picked up the phone, got a recording to wait, and after 10 minutes hung up.  A very poorly run organization with few protections.  I see that hosts with multiple cancelations are penalized $150.  I received a "bonus" of less that $40 with my refund.

[Chantal365]

Would it not make sense if the host, barring proven extenuating circumstances, was penalised exactly the same as the guest would be for a cancellation at the same time? For example, if I would lose half of my reservation cost cancelling at this time, the host would have to pay an equal penalty to me. That way both of you are equally bound to the legal agreement you've made, with the same vested interest. This would certainly make me feel more secure as a guest. As it is now this is the aspect of airbnb travel that always makes me uncomfortable. We stay in some tourist destinations at high season, having booked many months in advance. Even if the host cancelled with a couple of months notice, the options would be extremely limited and extremely expensive. If it was last minute, there would simply be nowhere left to stay.

[Sarah977]

@Chantal365   Hosts ARE financially penalized for cancelling a reservation (as you say, barring extenuating circumstances). It comes directly off their next booking. It has been mentioned in these forums that this financial penalty should go to the guest, rather than Airbnb. As a host, I think that would be fair. For Airbnb to retain it is not at all fair.

[Vesa1]

Not sure if this situation is getting any better due to this post but this actually happened to us last weekend. After this, I really recommend avoiding Airbnb even though this was first back experience. It caused a lot of trouble and frustration, we lost whole Friday at the destination due to the fact we needed to figure out a new place to stay after arriving at a city already.

We were waiting to be boarded to the plane when the host canceled. Basically 2-3hours prior to presumable check-in.  This whole thing meant we did not have time to figure out alternative situations before our flight took off.  We were a group of five which meant finding an alternative hotel solution was merely impossible.

Therefore we landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday evening without a place to stay and as a group of five. We called Amex consigliere service to figure out our problem and even they could not offer any accommodation for us with our reasonable budget.

Airbnb did not response anything besides "we will be refunded"?!

the Whole city was packed and nothing else to respond? Two nights for our group would have cost around 2200 (20miles from downtown) to the 5000euros if willing to stay a walking distance away from the city center. The only reasonable solution was to book just two different twin rooms, last ones from the whole hotel just outside the city center. Obviously, we hoped we could smuggle the last person of the group into the hotel later at night. As one is booking a hotel very last minute it will cost a lot more than prebooked Airbnb. - I'm just curious if this is really cool for Airbnb to cancel 2-3 hours before checkin? Just checked that our feedback is not seen in host page?  nothing?

[Sarah977]

@Vesa1  Sorry this happened to you. But it wasn't Airbnb that cancelled the booking, it was the host. (In very occasional cases Airbnb will cancel the booking if it has come to their attention that the listing is bogus, or the host has been reported for discrimination or bed bugs or something, but you'd normally get more notice than 2-3 hours) And no, of course it's not cool to leave people stranded.

But "Obviously, we hoped we could smuggle the last person of the group into the hotel later at night." is disturbing to hear for an Airbnb host. Would you also try to smuggle an extra, unpaid for guest into an Airbnb, just because you're on a budget?

[Vesa1]

 Of course not! But we could not get accommodation so an alternative option would have been sleeping in a rental car! We had booked a place for 5 ppl. 

At the end of the day, this host got 12 reviews and now it appears he's been canceling 2 days prior, 1 day prior to check-in in past 3 months and now canceled 3 hours prior. He definitely should not be able to act as a host any longer. 

I would have hoped Airbnb would have tried to help us a bit more than offering a full refund... Our budget was a bit over 130 euros (145$) a night per person so not really a budget travelers.

[Vesa1]

@Sarah977  Of course not! But we could not get accommodation so an alternative option would have been sleeping in a rental car! We had booked a place for 5 ppl. 

At the end of the day, this host got 12 reviews and now it appears he's been canceling 2 days prior, 1 day prior to check-in in past 3 months and now canceled 3 hours prior. He definitely should not be able to act as a host any longer. 

I would have hoped Airbnb would have tried to help us a bit more than offering a full refund... Our budget was a bit over 130 euros (145$) a night per person so not really a budget travelers.

[Sarah977]

@Vesa1   You're right, this host should be delisted if he keeps cancelling on guests last minute, it's disgraceful. Make sure to flag his account, if you haven't done so already. 

Good to hear you wouldn't try to sneak in extra guests to an Airbnb. Guests who do that are the bane of many a host. A friend's property manager found 17 people staying in a home they had booked for 6 😞