I have been operating successfully for 6 months but due to family issues I am going to have to stop hosting mid May. I’d like to notify and cancel guests already booked after that date (I’ve already blocked all other dates). I know AirBnB will deactivate my listing once I make that many cancellations. My question is - will it cancel the bookings I want to keep up until mid May?
If you don’t have a lot of bookings after mid-May I’d explain to the guests and ask them to cancel. You can call Airbnb and see if they will help you. They are usually helpful if a host has an emergency but for very understandable reasons they don’t like hosts to cancel.
Don’t just cancel a bunch of folks and wait for your punishment. Try to get guests to help you and then get Airbnb involved if guests don’t cooperate. I don’t think Airbnb will cancel bookings before Mid- May but lets us know if they do.
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Oh I didn’t think of asking guests to cancel. I will do that. I really hate to wait and leave people scrambling to find a place. I emailed AirBnB asking if I’d be permanently blackballed if I cancelled several guests due to a family issue (I may have to move my elderly mother into the AirBnB unit) and they automatically deactivated my listing! I told them I was only getting info and they reactivated it. So I’m wary of talking to them. Thanks so much for your help!
It’s risky and getting worse.
It’s always best to handle things yourself if you can. I’d imagine most guests would be very understanding if you explain the reason why to them. And if there are any that don’t then call Airbnb back.
The people I talked to had a hard time understanding me because they did not speak English well. I am not against people with accents but they didn’t seem to understand what I was talking about - which seems important when it’s your business. Thanks again for advice!
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I think if your guest cancels and you haven’t coordinated with AIrbnb that the reason for the cancellation is to accommodate your family’s changing needs, the guest will lose / be charged the Airbnb booking fee.
It is tricky to research your options and this is a challenging situation. Please let us know what you end up doing
Ok good to know. The AirBnB reps were very difficult to talk to. They did not speak English well and they didn’t understand what I was trying to explain. Frustrating. But guess I’ll try to talk to them again.