Hi folks, thought I’d offer a different perspective.
I’ve hosted for two years and very luckily, only ever had one cancellation. My policy is strict, my guests were cancelling because of a change in business plans, I offered to refund only if I managed to rebook (ten days I’d held for them for four months.).
Last night my father-in-law died. Really. I adored him and me and my husband are heartbroken. We have so many issues now - he lived - along with the rest of the family, on the opposite side of the planet, so we need to organise going to New Zealand. We have commitments here - including hosting four lots of guests over the next month. And two weddings to play for ( we are half of a ceilidh band).
Oh, and two airbnb stays booked as guests while we travel to play for a wedding that has been booked and planned for nearly a year. So, we’ve a lot of planning, cancelling, covering what commitments we can (so we might need to keep one airbnb reservation, even if we curtail our tour and cancel the other), and also, it might seem from the discussion here, finding a way to ‘prove’ I am a relative. Hmmm…that bit might fall off the priority list as really, in the grand scheme of things, providing me with ‘documentation’ is probably the last thing I want to burden folks with who are freshly grieving and funeral arrangements still to work through etc etc.
I’m not saying that some of our guests don’t sometimes stretch the truth to swing a refund, but, ya know, sometimes shit happens. Yeah, really.
Hi everybody,
I know it can happen.But many people want to cancel for different reasons.I had three cancellation within 4 weeks.In the firsts case,which I posted her,the guy got refunded,because he provided proper documentation.Couple of weeks later woman cancelled,claiming her mother died and she said she will provide proof to Airbnb (she has not so far).Two weeks ago was the day she was supposed to check in so I checked her profile and found out that a few weeks ago she was on holiday in Australia.Obviously she changed her mind and instead of going to Scotland she went to Australia.I got paid 50% and managed to rebook my place as well.Another cancellation came a couple of weeks later,guy said his father is in hospital and he wanted to change his dates from June to October.I said he has to cancel,provide documentation and he will get refund.I have never heard from him back and I got paid again 50%.
People think you will feel sorry for them if they say a family member died and refund them.I do if it is true!
I refunded guest before when they cancelled months before their stay,because I knew I can rebook it.
Not all people say truth.
I’m sorry that your father in law died. I understand what you’re saying about things happening. Also, I wonder how one could produce “proof” that one is related to anyone else. My husband, my mother in law and I all have different last names. If one of us died or was hospitalized what would prove our relationship?
I think the best solution would be for Airbnb to either offer travel insurance or require guests to use travel insurance for any cancellation request more generous than the host’s policy (flexible, moderate or strict).
Cait,
I agree I would not want to burden any family members with providing real proof that I am related, etc.
But I also don’t bellieve it is another business owner’s responsibility if a “customer” does have a sickness/death in their family. I know of no other business that would allow someone to reserve (likely) the only dates on their calendar, and then the customer gets out of their end of the deal due to personal reasons. It’s just not right that Air doesn’t reimburse the host if that’s what they want to do.
They let the host eat the cost because they can. If the host doesn’t like the policy, then they can just delist their account. And what stings worse is they allow the policy to be exploited.
People who are grieving definitely don’t want to deal with “proving” their relation to someone. But also, we hear of hosts on here who have been violated by having things stolen, homes trashed, etc. and Air makes them jump through hoops to prove the obvious. In another thread there is a host who had Air guests steal her master keys, and she had to pay over 1600 euros to change various locks, etc. Now there are attempted break ins going on in her building. Air is no where to be found in all of this. It’s so easy to implement a policy when it is someone else’s money and livelihood they are playing with.
I agree, of course. With everyone.
The only other time I’ve had to cancel - as a guest - was when my husband broke his ankle three days before our travel and was in plaster - therefore no flying, or walking ( we were headed for a walking trip!) - airbnb offered me refund under the circumstances, but I turned it down as the host had kept the place reserved to us for six months, and, as you say, it wasn’t their fault we couldn’t show. So, yes, that’s why I have insurance, and other than the excess, and the $100 ‘superhost’ reward I’d used for that booking (bah!), I got refunded through my travel insurance, and the host kept our payment.
I wanted to add my perspective as above simply to offer an alternate view that every guest is out to scam hosts. Some are. Many (most) aren’t - I think, generally, guests should be pointed in the direction of their travel insurance. I’ve come across hosts considering returning fees because guests couldn’t get to their place because of flight cancellations - neither host, nor guest (it seemed) knew that the airline was required to compensate for the loss.
Anyway, I’m off to try to rearrange the reception plans for our own guests - all due over the next four weeks! We still don’t know what side of the planet we need to be on when yet 
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My condolences on the loss of your father in law.
Mind you he probably wouldn’t leave a review at another stay and even if that host wrote a review, it would never appear, only when they are swapped… it sounds a bit iffy… I’d love to know all the rules by heart 
I don’t think every guest is out to scam hosts, but it sure is interesting to look them up later and see that they actually stayed at another nearby Airbnb during that same time period and didn’t cancel their trip to Hawaii after all!!! funny how that dying mother in law rallied so quickly!