I am a host and had to cancel a reservation made yesterday due to guest declining to pay tax...

[Marita11]

Aloha,

We host a condo on Maui and had a guest reserve our unit almost 6 months in advance.  This reservation was made yesterday.  Per our listing, we will charge an additional HI accommodation and state taxes on top of the total nightly rate.  Our guest accepted the reservation, we then altered the reservation to add the taxes and the guest declined the alteration as they felt that they were "hidden fees."  As a result, we as hosts decided to cancel the guest's reservation.

We do feel that this is an extenuating circumstance and should not be penalized by AirBNB.  This is the first time we've had to cancel on a guest and our understanding is that our condo will not be available for booking  and we will incur a penalty.  We have not had any other issues from other guests regarding the additional taxes.  This seems a bit extreme for this particular case, no?  What's the best way to contact AirBNB to explain this situation and not be marked for any of the penalties?  The booking was made yesterday.

Cheers,

Marita

[Fred13]

    If I was in your reality @Sheila146, I probably would take the same approach you do, but since my guests come from North America (95%+) and Marita is from Hawaii and thus far getting people from the U.S., and considering how touchy they are about 'added costs', perhaps there is a better way than the follow-up tax invoice method. Who knows, collecting upon arrival like you do (with pre-warning) may work superbly, even with the 'touchy' ones. 😉

[Emiel1]

Hello @Marita11 ,

I noticed some (US) listings have the tax included, it's called "occupancy taxes". So there is an opportunity to put them in ? Or is this something special and added automatically for a specific region on the Airbnb website ? An example of such a listing is: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4293187 , when a simulate a reservation in the booking screen it includes the tax fee in the offer.

Just curious, Emiel

[Elsa64]

Hi @Marita11 I'm a Host and few times a guest too so I know both sides.

I once cancelled a booking because they did not told me there was an extra charge for parking. As a guest, I do my search, compare prices, location and property looks and then I make a choice, and I will be really upset if at the end after I have done the booking the owner comes to me with an extra charge.

I'll get upset because it's not fair for all the time that I spent before the booking, I want to know the total price of each place from the beginning, so I can compare and make my decision.

It's just the way I think like a guest...

Wish you the best and your place looks nice, by the way

Just saying.... 🙂

[Fred13]

In my book - is there is one thing 'Westeners' tend to abhorr is 'added charges' (aka 'nickel & diming' in some quarters). Yes, in many areas a tax or some other charge is to be expected, and may go over well, but you won't catch me dead following that form. One price - that includes everything - is my belief for this reason: when it comes to hosting - once my guests arrive the last thing I want to talk about with them is - money.