@Mark3857 Bummer. As Brian suggested, it wouldn't hurt to send inquiries (use the 'Contact host' button in the listing) out to places that are suitable, saying you'd love to be notified if for some reason they get a cancellation for those dates.
I had a prospective guest do that, and the booked guest did indeed cancel. Unfortunately, even though I let the inquiring guest know right away, she wrote back "Darn! I just booked another place 2 days ago, as I was afraid if I held off any longer, I wouldn't find anything".
And here's a suggestion- as a guest with no reviews for a host to go on, take the time to do a little profile write-up. I'd be much quicker and more at ease to accept a guest with no reviews yet, if I got a sense of them from reading a bit about them and if they wrote me a nice initial message than if they just sent a request and had an empty profile. Doesn't have to be some major autobiography, just something that gives hosts a sense of who they are dealing with.
I.e. "We're a middle-aged professional couple- I work in IT and my wife is a school administrator. In our leisure time we enjoy skiing, hiking, and camping. We like to socialize, but aren't wild partier types- those days were over long ago. We are also home-owners ourselves, so understand how to respect others' properties."
Airbnb is really remiss in not advising guests to do this, just as they are remiss in not letting guests know that many hosts will require verified ID.
