Advice for Instant Booking Cancellation!

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Question: I thought that the guest’s credit card was charged immediately on booking. So presumably the credit card he is using with Airbnb is sound?

Devil’s advocate here. Credit card fraud is illegal and the bloke has been done for it and it’s hardly a hanging crime. I once knew and liked a local chap for many years and then discovered that he was on the paedophile list. The two are pretty different.

I don’t Google guests (we have a separate apartment) and over the years I might have hosted guests with a few indiscretions in their past history without knowing it. I’m just saying that a non-violent crime in his background doesn’t mean that he will be a terrible guest. This of course depends on the duration of the stay. If it was for weeks then I might be a little concerned about him using the address for fraud of some kind.

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Welcome to the real Airbnb. The airbnb that was started by a CEO who illegally sublet his apartment and didn’t give a damn about his neighbors. Whose previous job was as one of those annoying email spammers. This dawned on me after I tried to cancel a guest with a repulsively misogynistic profile who I had foolishly agreed to let stay in my home before I google searched him. Airbnbs response to me was the same as yours. It is up to you the host to decide on the tradeoff between risk and reward. Airbnb doesn’t care if you book to a serial killer or a child molester, since if you cancel you lose $100. Airbnb encourages hasty bad bookings for both guest and host as they profit off the confusion…ever wonder why the house rules are so often unread? I think only community outcry has changed that. But that said, if it is a separate unit I just hope they don’t start using your address as their permanent address as another weird guest I had did after only staying for 3 days…

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I wonder if this could be Airbnb going overboard with the discrimination thing? As far as I know, when someone has committed a crime and ‘paid the price to society’, then society isn’t supposed to discriminate against them. Could this be Airbnb being overly politically correct?

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I definitely think airbnb’s “anti-discrimination” policy is just a way to guilt-trip hosts into opening their home to anyone so Airbnb can make more money.

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@jaquo, I agree that his “alleged” crime was not so terrible. But that is not the point! As stated in their policy, if I feel “uncomfortable” with the guest, I am allowed to cancel with no penalty. They changed their policy midstream.

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Well - - - he wasn’t charged with murdering an Airbnb host, so personally, I couldn’t care less. If I only hosted guests who are nice, law-abiding citizens, my guest room would be empty most of the time, and my income from Airbnb would drop considerably. Also, if I chose to only keep contact with people who are not crazy, mentally deranged or otherwise strange, I would be leading a very lonely life indeed!

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@cs2015, I have only good interactions with Airbnb until this incident. This gives me great pause.

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@Eberhard_Blocher, again, I understand your point. However, it should be each HOST’S’ decision whether to cancel with no penalty, as stated in Airbnb’s own policy!

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@cs2015, Yes, for Airbnb to make additional money, AND to “seemingly” protect themselves from a discrimination lawsuit.

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You could state in your house rules “no bookings less than 48 hours before arrival”. That way, you will be able to cancel without penalty, since the condition you are experiencing now (last-minute booking with no possibility for you to cancel) will cease to come up.

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As one former forum member told me after quitting the forum: It (the forum) causes you to look for problems where there aren’t any. No one here has exclusive knowledge of “the real Airbnb.” People discover this forum many ways but most people only post to complain or problem solve. These posts do not represent a random sample of Airbnb host experiences. And frankly, anyone can create a profile and post whatever they want. So just as you would be skeptical of someone trying to sell you something good, be skeptical of those “selling” something bad.

I have hosted over 180 different groups over almost 3 years. I have never had a problem with airbnb. I never have trouble reaching customer service. Never had a rude, entitled guest. Only had one minor thing stolen. Have met many wonderful people and had many wonderful experiences.

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Wow…what an interesting response you received from the rep. I have asked that question at least 5 times (over several years)…just to compare rep. responses. And every single rep. told me that if a guest uses a stolen credit card, Air will pay out as long as the fraud is discovered after you receive the payout. But, if the fraud is discovered before the payout, then host doesn’t get paid anything.

Hopefully your payout will come fast if the guest is using a stolen card last minute. And the real cardholder doesn’t report anything first. Air doesn’t verify the cardholder is the person booking. Anyone can use anyone’s card.

I am not following the whole 24 hour thing about not being able to cancel. Do peopel on instant book have to wait 24 hrs. before the system will allow it? And what is consdiered “uncomfortable?”

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I’m not sure why people are saying his crime isn’t that bad… he stole credit cards! He racked up a ton of debt in someone else’s name. Totally violated their privacy, identity, and STOLE from them. That’s pretty bad.

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Yes but he’s also been convicted and paid his debt to society. To refuse him when he hasn’t actually done anything yet is discrimination.

Generally it’s this type of thing that stops people rehabilitating back into society and falling back into crime.

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Has this person been convicted, or just charged?

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Hi Cabinhost,

This is bigappleman (creator of this post), I created a temporary ID just now because the site is restricting me from any more posts for 7 hours since it was my first post I can’t seem to even MESSAGE you privately. Can you try to send me a msg? I have some information I’d like to share.

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I’ll send you a private message. Yes, that happens with new posters…they are limited.

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The OP has reached his posting limit as a new member, and will be able to post again in 7 hours when the “timer” has finished.

Good news - he was finally able to reach an Air rep. who cancelled the reservation immediately. The Air rep. did apologize and said the first two reps. should have cancelled the reservation yesterday. And the Air rep. said he has 3 penalty - free cancellations a year.

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I see what you’re saying but punishment spent or not, the crime involved stealing from individuals so the last place I would want this person is in my home. And if that’s discrimination so be it

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No one signed up to be a social service agency.

And as @bigappledude said, that’s not the point. If Airbnb has a policy of three penalty free cancellations then they need to honor that. There are plenty of people put off IB already and if they won’t even follow their one protection, it’s going to get worse. Thankfully it appears he finally got a CS rep that knows Airbnb policy.

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