Host kept $3000 for a 14 minute booking!

[Mona173]

I had a terrible experience with a host, as i was shopping for units in Beverly hill California, i had booked two units at the same time. And i cancelled one after exactly 14 minutes. I assume all my money will be returned. The host decided to keep %50 which was about $1500. I asked the host several times is this real? Are you really keeping my money for a 14min booking? She says she has a strict cancelation policy. I contacted airbnb and they basically told me there is nothing they can do about it. The host then decided to keep the entire $3000. Can you imagine this? Can u imagine making a booking and cancelling after 14 minutes only to lose $3000? How can something like this even be legal? I feel robbed! Feel hurt and violated. I am host myself and there is a certain level if common courtesy and just being decent human being. I would never take $3000 from someone who cancelled after 14min. This ladies name is **, i am distraught right now. I really cant believe a corporation like airbnb would actually let someone take $3000 from someone for 14 minutes. I really hope airbnb fixes this because i am at a loss for words right now.

[Mona173]

Really? Because the back and fourth emails i am on between myself and airbnb they are telling me that airbnb only keeps $300 of the $3000. They said all they can do is refund the $300. 

[Sarah977]

@Mona173  You say you would never that that to anyone, yet you booked two properties at the same time, shopping around and then wanting to cancel one. As a host, I'm surprised you'd do this- it's a disrespectful thing to do to other hosts. Where's your "common level of courtesy"? Yeah, it was only 14 minutes, but how do you know that during that 14 minutes when you had blocked the host's calendar (and likely longer, as it would have taken a little while for the booking to be confirmed), that that didn't lose her another booking for that time when guests would have seen the property as unavailable for those dates? I'm also surprised, that as a host you wouldn't understand how the cancellation policies work and that you think they somehow shouldn't apply to you. 

You say you're a host, but you have no listing showing . And only one thing listed under reviews from guests that says you cancelled the guest's reservation.

[Mona173]

Exactly the host could of at the very least taken one night. The system would unblock it right away at most one night would be in jeopardy. Not the rest of the 8 nights. She found a renter for her unit right away. It was also airbnb’s suggestion to book other places and not just one. So that is why I reserved two at the same time. 14 minutes is a very reasonable amount of time not to disrupt the host, there wasnt even enough time to get the address of the property. If you think about this in a decent humane way then you come up with a more fair and kind solution. No other corporation in the world would ever think this is fair. No court would either, if i decided to take this case to small claims court i would win. I never received a product I purchased, i never even had the address of the unit to go to. If she kept the 8 day $3000 booking then she may as well leave the place for me too. But regardless this is not the way you conduct proper business there should be a code of ethics. Maybe a 1hr window. Anything! 

[Mark116]

@Mona173   I've never heard of airbnb suggesting anyone book multiple places for the same dates, can you elaborate on the reasons why they did this?

I doubt you would win in small claims court, because the cancellation policy that you agreed to is what it is, and there is no legal reason why the host has to violate her own policy to give you a refund.  It may be unkind, but it is absolutely legal. 

[Mona173]

I took both my listings down, i currently have long time renters which is what i prefer. So my listings are both hidden for the time being. But again myself as a decent human being would never ever do that to someone. People work hard for their money, karma is very real. Things like taking someone’s hard earned money when there was no loss to them is not ok. 

[Susan17]

On the other hand though, as third party bookings are forbidden on Airbnb for personal trips, and it's a stipulation that the person who made the reservation must be staying at the listing, why is it even the case that the system allows two bookings to be made at the same time, for the same dates, by the same person?? It's not physically possible for one person to be in two places at once. 

Transparency and trust are vital to the Airbnb experience. People rely on information in Airbnb profiles, reviews, and other verifications when deciding whether to host or stay with someone.

We require Airbnb reservations booked for personal travel to be booked by the person who's going to stay at the listing.

The entire Airbnb platform is difficult enough to comprehend and navigate, even for long-term hosts who are dealing with it every day of the week, and quite frankly, using it as a searching guest is a convoluted, confusing, time-consuming nightmare, and it's easy to understand how errors can be made. 

The main reason the much-hated 48hr Grace Period for cancellations was introduced by Airbnb was for this very issue - there were far too many complaints about hosts holding on to large sums of money (albeit, as per the terms of their cancellation policies), after guests had made errors in booking - let's face it, very easily done on this platform - and tried to cancel moments later. 

However, if Airbnb genuinely had any will to stop people from booking two places at once - which happens all  the time with guests booking for say, bigger family groups travelling together for local events - they could very easily prevent such occurrences. 

Rather than expecting guests to be fully clued-up on every little vagary and nuance of Airbnb's ever-changing T&Cs, surely it would make a whole lot more sense to expect Airbnb  to put the necessary (but simple) blocks and limitations in place to prevent transgressions of their labarynthine rules and regulations in the first place? And perhaps ask ourselves, why it could possibly be that they choose not to do so... 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mona173   Uh, this was a really expensive mistake. Many hosts would refund you in full or partially but your host decided not to and by doing so she didn't break the rules.

Regarding "shopping around" , booking a few places and then canceling - this was the main reason I don't list at booking.com anymore. Guests were keeping my calendar blocked for weeks and then half of them would cancel the last minute, leaving me with no chances to rebook. It didn't bother them is it morally correct or not and how much money I lost because of their actions. Your host probably experienced the same and now she plays by the rules and doesn't have mercy anymore. I can understand your frustration but I can also understand her.

[Mona173]

Yes I totally understand if someone cancels last minute after having booked for weeks. Thats understandable. But to book a unit the same day and cancel 14 min later would never affect me as a host.  If anything the calendar would take maximum 2 hours to reset. Now a possibility would be to maybe charge a fee for that but i would never ever keep an 8 day booking for a total of $3000 without even providing the place or an address or anything. That would be terrible karma to take someones hard earned money for no reason at all. Anyone with any decency can see this. 

[Emily487]

@Mona173 

This is a dead horse, friend. Contact CS if you need to. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mona173  of course, and that's why guests can cancel up to 48 hours after booking and get a full refund ( I think 3x a year) But not if canceled booking overlaps with another booking. This way Airbnb prevents "shopping around".

But I agree, loosing 3000˘$ for 15 min reservation is really harsh. I would refund to avoid bad karma 🙂