Yes! And I have done this a few times with airbnb’s blessing.
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Agreed that within the next hour is too soon. It might be OK if the the booking is for today or tomorrow.
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FFS. Bloody behave, please everyone.
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You’re right to be concerned about Covid. It is surging in many places, along with flu and RSV in kids. My local hospitals are at 89% capacity, excess is mostly viral infections.
Respond within the hour??? No way. What are you going to do if they’re late, call them? Cancel them?
@muddy is also right–your guests are confirmed when they Instant Book.
Of course your House Rules and your listing description mention that you require proof of vaccination against Covid? House Rules have become a bigger deal–more powerful-- since the ABB policy revisions in November.
I must say if I received the message from you worded just this way as a guest, I would cancel the booking. I have enough experience with ABB hosts to be if they do anything too out of the ordinary. Your message as written is that to me.
If guests refuse to comply with your card rule then you have a choice to cancel them.
ABB does not look kindly on host cancellations. Asking your guest to cancel doesn’t completely protect your interests because ABB asks them why they are canceling, and specifically if the host asked them to. You can be sure his information is tracked.
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One formulation is to say in House Rules and then reiterate in messaging that if the guest does not provide the required vaccination cards for each member of the group in the reservation by the earlier of 48 hours from booking and 12 hours before the earliest permitted check-in time, such failure will be treated as a guest cancellation under the existing cancelation policy.
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I agree.
I’m really wanting THAT new button
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It’s your rental; you can make whatever rules you want and state them how you want. As long as you’re hitting your occupancy/income target, it’s all good. You can always change up your wording, it’s cost free, if you get negative reactions that you perceive are affecting your business.
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If you ask for advice on this forum, you’re going to get it! Some will be insightful, some will be pointless, much will be off-topic haha! Take what’s useful and leave the rest. It’s not unusual here to ask, “How should I tailor/tweak this thing I’m doing?” and get responses of, “Why are you doing that thing at all? Bad idea!” You may get some unexpected useful insights from that. Or not.
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I really like this forum, and I try to take the attitude, “I did x or I’m planning to do y. Whaddaya think? Face punch me at will.” Or I notice some OPs will state "I’m looking for comments specifically on [insert narrow topic here], not my [insert “hosting philosophy,” “general approach to life,” etc. here]. And even, “I’m just venting/looking for validation.”
Maybe another auto-response button, “You’re absolutely right. Your guests are selfish clods, and Airbnb is an evil overlord.” I’m trying to think of an emoji that will capture that.
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@jjd at least you’ve moved on to trying to provoke someone else. You’ve invested a lot of time. Have fun with that.
Did you mean this? I hope so.
Thank you for the apology. I’m stepping back now. Your sense of humor does not come across as clever as you think.
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Thanks all for the help! Here is what I have so far…
“Thank you for your booking. As is stated in our listing info, we require proof of Covid vaccination to protect both hosts and guests. Please send a screenshot of your vaccine cards ASAP. You can upload them here in messages or text it to my number below. We’d hate to have to leave you in the lurch on a last minute booking, or have you miss the free cancellation period if you can’t comply with the vaccination status proof, so please make sure to send this info as soon as you possibly can. We can’t let anyone check-in before receiving it. Thanks! (If you have already stayed with us, no need to upload again).”
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I like 90% of your wording. I need to think about it, it’s a little long.
Are you working on wording for a guest who’s reservation is less than 2 weeks away? (No free cancellation)
Edit added for your consideration:
Thank you for your interest in my rental. Before all can be final, please send to me copies of your Proof of Covid vaccination as mentioned in the rental description.
If you chose not to share that information, please take advantage of the free cancellation /full refund period (48 hours from booking request) so you may book a different property.
After 24 hours send a reminder & request a time/date by which they intend to comply
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I meant it more as a warning. It’s funny we closed one and then the OP just gives us the finger and starts a new post. For the most part we mods would rather not police the adults. And closing a thread because the kids are “kicking dirt on the playground” is policing. Telling people that only supportive posts are allowed or to not post at all has never been effective. At least one former member was privately asked to quit being an ass and he just sulked off altogether and never posted again. Kind of a shame.
By popular demand, we have zero tolerance for spammers, anti-vaxxers and bigots. Otherwise people can scroll past objectionable posts or use the mute and ignore features.
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As usual you are correct. I need to use those buttons. I am painfully tired of a consistent recurring behavior. It’s partially my perspective too - after the same person consistently kicks the dog, it doesn’t matter what the intentions are, the dog expects that person to kick them.
I didn’t see that as giving you the finger- I thought that the original thread was closed because it got highjacked and devolved into a vax efficacy debate rather than answers to what Rolf was seeking input on.
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Wish those worked for me, on MacBook Air and it keeps asking to put in a date, I do and it’s ignored, deletes user. Just for you to know it doesn’t work.
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It won’t be, though. The best a host could hope for is a neutral cancellation (no penalties to either host or guest) by Airbnb, which it seems Rolf has had success with in the past.
A host can’t initiate a guest cancellation because the guest failed to provide requested info, and neither would Airbnb. The guest gets their money back in a neutral cancellation, I’m pretty sure.
You might well be right but what makes you say this if a Host shows that to be a House rule? On what basis would Airbnb not honor that rule? Is this based on experience rather than any principle stated by Airbnb? I assume that’s the case, which doesn’t make you any less correct.
There is no way that Airbnb would consider a guest failing to provide some host-requested information as breaking house rules. Breaking house rules regards a guest’s behavior during a stay, not prior to the stay. That is totally different from Airbnb agreeing to a penalty-free cancellation because the guest is failing to provide info or ignoring messages, or indicating that they intend to bring children to a no children listing, pre-check-in.
And even if a guest gets booted out with Airbnb’s agreement because they were breaking house rules, Airbnb refunds their money for days not stayed.
A host can’t ask for a guest booking to be cancelled, either before or during a stay, and expect to be paid according to the cancellation policy. It doesn’t work that way. Guests are only held to the cancellation policy if the guest initiates the cancellation.
No, I have no personal experience with this, I just know how Airbnb operates. No way would a guest not get a full refund if the host asked Airbnb to cancel the booking before the guest ever checked in.
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The newest version of the ground rules for guests agreement
Yes the host will probably need to escalate but here is the Airbnb policy answer
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