Calendar unblocked by Airbnb

Hi, this is a little bit urgent, any advice appreciated.
Got an Instant Booking today for three nights next month, but when I checked my calendar I noticed the last night was one I had kept blocked. I have a minimum stay of three nights (most of the time), and only two nights were available. I can’t accept the booking as is, as I have family members arriving on that day. I have asked the guest to change to two nights but haven’t heard back. Airbnb help on twitter keep saying they are sorry and are escalating the matter to a case manager, but also advised to cancel the booking. Surely this would mean losing my superhost status which I have held for 3 years since starting to host.
How to proceed?

Click on the options you’re given. Those of us who instant book can do some cancelling penalty free. As long as it doesn’t seem that you are discriminating you should be fine.

I tried that K9KarmaCasa, and it seems unless you are uncomfortable with the guest because of what’s in their reviews, or because they are likely to break the house rules (as in bring a pet without permission) you cannot cancel without penalty.
There is no financial penalty, but you can’t have superhost status for a year.

The fact that the date isn’t available and was blocked doesn’t count? Well, hopefully you will hear back soon from the guest and they can cancel.

By the way, I have never cancelled a booking.

Yes, that seems to be the only penalty-free way out, the guest has to cancel. It’s just not fair.

You are waiting on the guest and/or escalation to the case manager. I know it’s hard to be patient…when is this stay? Soon?

Thanks, I really appreciate your advice, and it is hard to be patient! It’s not for another 6 weeks, but I know the guests are flying over, so have probably booked flights already.

So you probably just haven’t heard back due to the time difference. Thing is, they are going to get cancelled by themselves, or by Airbnb or by you. It’s in their best interest to get to it.

You’re right again, it’s late in the evening here, and unlikely anything is going to happen before morning. Maybe it’s not so urgent after all :slight_smile:

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Call THEM and ask them to cancel. I had this happen one time and they did the deed without penalty. If you do it yourself, they may not honor it.

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By THEM, you mean the company? Or the guests?

How can you see it was a night you had kept blocked?
Are you sure you didn’t just make a mistake when blocking your calendar? I must admit that blocking nights can be tricky and I always double check 2 times to see if the calendar has really accepted the blocking.

@GutHend. While you were renovating, this bug found its way into the AirBNB platform. This person is absolutely NOT the first person to report this type of snafu. AirBNB has been canceling guests at no penalty to the host regularly.

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Did you click the cancel free button? It is a little confusing because first Airbnb prompts you that you will be punished with all sorts of things. But there is a button you can check to cancel penalty free if it is insta book. I can’t remember exactly but I believe the choices were: already have a reservation, these dates were blocked, some and choices that i can’t remember. I just had to do this as my calendars were not syncing properly for some reason.

yes…sorry. Air…

My friend did it once ( asked guest to cn el) and Airbnb sent her a warning not to ever do it again

Hello @Barbara_Plesch

You don’t need to try and cancel using IB or ask the guest to cancel.

This is a well known bug at Airbnb. I have had this happen to me three times now where they allowed the guest to book on dates I had blocked out. Just give them a call they will sort it out and cancel the booking.

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Thank you, I am glad to hear this has happened to other hosts before.
I was beginning to doubt myself, but on my PC the personal note to myself reminding me why I was blocking these dates is still there, so yes @GutHend I am 100% certain I had it blocked.
@Brandt maybe things have changed, I couldn’t find the cancel free button anywhere.
I am expecting a call from Airbnb soon, will let you know how it works out.

Hi @Barbara_Plesch

If you use IB you can cancel for free if the guest doesn’t meet your house rules or makes you feel uncomfortable because of unfavourable reviews etc

However @Brandt is incorrect in saying one of the option is ‘these dates were blocked’.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2022/how-do-penalty-free-cancellations-work-for-instant-book-hosts

But as I said you don’t need to use the IB penalty free cancellations as you are cancelling because of a technical bug in their system. Just give them a call and they will be able to see you had the dates blocked and will cancel it for you.

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