Those pesky cancellation policies

[Ann72]

Guest Instant Booked for three days in July, thus accepting my strict cancellation policy. This week they altered their reservation to three days in August, and an hour later cancelled, saying they had to go out of the country.  I got an email saying they had been refunded 50%.

Two days later Airbnb emailed me and asked me to refund the rest, asking me to reconsider my decision, "in the spirit of Airbnb."

I took a page from "Casablanca" and wrote back:  "I'm shocked that a representative of Airbnb would ask me to break the Terms of Service in this manner. It flies in the face of the mutual respect that is at the heart of the spirit of Airbnb."

Airbnb replied that bypassing my strict cancellation policy would be "an act of goodwill."  And I replied that I had given my answer and was not interested in discussing the matter further.  Their response:  "I understand.  Please consider this case closed.  Have a nice day!"

First, let me just say that I've happily refunded guests fully when they've made a mistake or couldn't come because of a blizzard or something.  But I didn't like the guests' attempt to game the system by altering and then cancelling.  They clearly thought that if they changed the date and cancelled within 48 hours, they would get a full refund.  But the refund policy was linked to the original booking date.

Second, I CAN'T EVEN with the guilting and the pressure to circumvent the policy!!!  Suggesting that I show goodwill toward guests who tried to game me is just not on!

Nevertheless, would you believe I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, "I should give the money back"?

Somebody please talk me back from the ledge.

[Steve904]

We also had a cancellation from a guest who claimed extenuating circumstances, but it was her (who we signed the contract with) but her sister.  Airbnb refunded their deposit because Danika the customer service rep was also in the same circumstance as the sister!  Totally unproffesional of Airbnb.  The customer was so rude in looking for her refund (which by the way we had not received but Airbnb was holding) that we reported her to Airbnb for harrassment, only to be told later that they never received that complaint!  They have recorded lines, pull the recordings!!

So very dissapointed in Airbnb customer service!

Never had this problem with VRBO!

[Christine615]

Well done @Ann72  I voluntarily refund when there is bad weather or extenuating circumstances but I can imagine Airbnb asking you to violate terms when hosts here say Airbnb doesn’t pay the host guarantee or support hosts when things go wrong.

Hotels don’t. Cruise companies don’t, etc.....,

Hold your ground.

[Talia21]

Don't feel guilty. No review, no return, no worries. Get in the game and hit back. I'm sure Airbnb haven't refunded their cut!

[Susan17]

@Ann72 

What I really wanna know, is how have JRenato and Frank & Monique escaped being number-branded like the rest of us?? 😉

And the tagging still not working... 

[Ann72]

@Susan17 I don’t know - even the one and only @Jessica & Henry got a number 1!  And didn’t appear in the tagging choices no matter how many ways I searched...

[Susan608]

Got to love the cancellation policy and how one sided it is. If a guest cancels on me, they lose their rent. If I cancel on them , I lose their  rent and get a $100 fine and lose superhost status because I inconvenienced the guest What about the loss of another booking that they cost us???? What about our inconvenience? I am seeing more and more that Airbnb is one-sided toward guests.

[Susan608]

Absolutely they should not be refunded though I am guilty of refunding a guest just because he was becoming violent and once they book they know where you live, where you keep your house key, etc. and he still blew up and caused a scene in my neighorhood.

[Rebecca-and-Clay0]

We're fairly new (9 mos.) and haven't looked at the forums much, but this thread is very helpful! 

Air offered a beta policy for guests to choose a 10% discount for selecting "no-cancellation."  Of the few guests who have chosen this option, in the past 8 weeks, 2 fathers died 1-2 days before arrival date and 3 guests needed to change their dates and I accommodated, to have them cancel without penalty (the no-cancellation didn't transfer to the alterations!) immediately after I "helped" them out.  I full refunded the first father-death guest, but finally began to figure out what is going on.

The second father-death guest required a great deal of my time to answer all her questions about what she can do in the area and she's surprising her husband for an anniversary, etc. etc.  A week before her reservation she said she might have broken her ankle, she didn't know, but would I be willing to change her reservation for other dates if she decided her ankle was too bad, up to the day of arrival.  I responded that she needed to make that decision within 24 hours and I would accommodate, but not beyond that time and pointed out that she had selected "no-cancellation" to receive a 10% discount.  She denied this, but said she would let me know her decision.  She didn't respond.  The day before arrival she asked for a refund because her father just died.  I realize that someone playing games can still have a father die, so I didn't want to assume she was lying.  I thought Air's extenuating circumstances policy was made for just for this sort of situation so I asked her to provide her documents to Air for a refund.

Air's representative put a lot of pressure on me with repeated messages to just believe the guest and give as full refund immediately.  I finally caved and then received a very patronizing message from this Air representative stating "you've done the right thing." 

I don't feel right about this. Thanks to this community support, I won't be caving again. 

(And I unchecked the no-cancellation discount option on all listings--we haven't had any "deaths" or wierd alteration, then cancellation, tricks with our guests who didn't select that special option--and there is a lot more of those guests.  The percentages didn't add up.)

[Ann72]

@Rebecca-and-Clay0 What a great story about the growth of your hosting skills.  I’m not by nature a cynic and I don’t think you are, either.  But I guess we can call our learning process getting more savvy.  

I’m not sure I mentioned that Airbnb cane back to me one more time about the refund.  I simply took the whole precious message exchange with support and pasted it in as my answer.  They replied “This is noted” and I haven’t heard from them again.

Whether the pressure is coming from management or from the guest, it’s nevertheless exhausting to have to fight it so relentlessly.

[Jody79]

hi @Rebecca-and-Clay0 how did you turn off the 10% discount with no cancellation? We have that option as well, and no longer want it. I’ve tried to figure out how to turn it off, but haven’t been able to.

[Rebecca-and-Clay0]

Jody, I'm sorry I'm not good at remembering those kinds of details.  I spent some time going through a listing and trying different things until I found the way to turn it off, then did the same to the other listings.

[Ann72]

@Jody79 I believe this feature was supposed to end 5/31, so if you look today it might have disappeared.

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Susan17 I don't have a number either?!

[Andrew45]

Our policy is, even if a refund is not due per the strict cancellation policy, if we re-book the dates cancelled, then we will refund what we receive, less a $70. service fee [for our time in dealing with it].

[Sarah1556]

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@Andrew45 wrote:

Our policy is, even if a refund is not due per the strict cancellation policy, if we re-book the dates cancelled, then we will refund what we receive, less a $70. service fee [for our time in dealing with it].

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I like your approach and will adopt.  What do you do for long-term reservations?