Inappropriately Long Stay

[John2654]

We rent a small room in a popular tourist area of Norway. There is no access to a kitchen and there is no option of cooking in the room. Over the past 2 summers we have had around 150 guests staying, most staying for one night and some for 2 or 3. The area we live in is pretty remote with very limited public transport and nothing in the way of places to eat out. The main tourist season is from May to August but we make ourselves available for guests who want to experience the area in the cold and wet times of the year.  Out of the blue we have had someone book us for 23 nights (instant booking). We have contacted the guests telling them this is not a great idea and hoping they will rethink their booking. There is no charge for them to amend or cancel their booking but so far I have not heard back from them. I am a superhost and have never cancelled a guest's booking but in this case what canI do if the guest does not reply. If I cancel will I face the loss of superhost status and other penalties. I am hoping the guests will see sense and cancel but what if they don't? I have now changed the settings on the hosting dashboard to allow a maximum stay of 3 nights only. I just wish I had known about that setting previously 😞

[John2654]

Restaurants are closed as it's well out of season.  They have not replied to any messages so and I feel uncomfortable with someone staying for 23 days.

[Sandra856]

Hi @John2654 🙂

Try and message via normal text messages using the phone number (many people don't got what's app) and also message through the airbnb made guest email. What I do if that doesn't help is I write to Airbnb CS via the reservation under the help link. They usually reply within 1-12 hours and they can reach out to the guest for you.

If you still feel uncomfortable with the reservation you are able to cancel the reservation penalty free as it was an instant book. I have done that too without getting penalized and without having to contact Airbnb. You just have to cancel a certain way. 

https://www.airbnb.dk/help/article/2022/hvordan-fungerer-aflysninger-uden-b%C3%B8de-for-v%C3%A6rter-...

[Marit-Anne0]

@John2654  @Anonymous @Kath9 @Bryan10 @Sandra856 

I can fully understand that the host is uncomfortable with this booking.  The main attraction in the area is Pulpit Rock, a very hyped day hike.  Booking a room in a private home for 23 days completely out of hiking season sounds strange.  Maybe the guest has made a mistake and thought he/she made a reservation for an entire unit ?  That does happen from time to time, including not reading the listing properly. 

It could be a work related stay I suppose - is there any work going on in the area ?

Your best bet would be to contact airbnb and let them try and contact the guest and ask the guest to contact you.

I also have a strange booking this winter, 22 days, arrival tomorrow.  Also not very communicative, but at least they responded when I reached out using their private mail.  And this is in Bergen and an entire apartment close to the Uni, so it could definitely be work related or visiting family or finding their roots.  I keep my fingers crossed.

[John2654]

Have taken the option of cancelling the booking after trying to contact the guest through airbnb,  through airbnb email, text and whatsapp and receiving no replies. Thanks to everyone who gave constructive suggestions.

[Patricia55]

@John2654 

Good decision! Mind you, I don't understand why anyone letting a room in their home, allows a complete stranger to instant book for a lengthy period of time (or, tbh, any amount of time)... but that's just me!
At least you have the option of cancelling, penalty-free.

[Sarah977]

@John2654 "Their length of stay is inappropriate for ME, that was my point. I do not wish to have a long-term guest. Anything wrong with that?"

I fully understand why you felt this reservation was going to be problematic and a guest who never responds to any messages is a red flag, although sometimes the reason for not responding may be totally innocent- I've had guests not respond, and it turned out they were on a week-long camping trip and had no Wifi connection or cell signal. Another guest was dealing with a sudden death of a close family member and her airbnb bookings or even looking at her notifications or checking her email was the last thing on her mind. (I couldn't call or text her because she was on the other side of the world) She ended up profusely apologizing, saying she's had to cancel her whole trip, including her flights, and didn't even bother to try to get Airbnb to cancel her reservation under the extenuating circumstances policy, so I still got the 50% payout I was due. We tend to think they are just ignoring us, but that's not always the case.

But to answer the question I quoted, the only thing wrong with it is that if you didn't wish to have a long-term guest, it was your responsibility to have your length of stay settings reflect that. You say you wish you had known about that setting previously, but length of stay settings are pretty basic stuff for hosts, and is clearly in the information for hosts in the Airbnb Help pages. I made sure to read through everything there before listing, as well as reading through the TOS and then I clicked on everything in my hosting pages to familarize myself with all of the settings and where to find them.