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Sorry if this is redundant but I can’t find anything more recent than February and I am absolutely baffled right now.
Since when does Air require in home/shared hosts (fewer than four rooms being offered) to accept ESAs? My understanding has always been that we fall under the Mrs Murphy exemption and do not have to accept them.
This screen grab is from today and supports my view. CS specialty support is saying otherwise.
Anyone have any current experience with this?
Are you in CA or NY?
If not, you don’t have to accept an ESA no matter what.
Contact another CS or ask for your case to be escalated. The person you spoke with seems not to be up to date on Airbnb’s policies.
I am not and my state further doesn’t require ESA acceptance at any public accommodation from what I am reading online.
I am now at the 3rd level of hell.
No wonder everyone gets so upset with CS. I’m almost 7 years in as a SH and up until this summer have only contacted Air one time for a minor issue. All three of my experiences this summer have been absolutely horrible and have taken weeks to resolve.
Tell the guest, plainly, that their ESA can’t come and stay and that you are not required to accept them. Send the link to the policy to the guest.
Yep. Tell the guest that ESAs only have rights in residential housing and not in short term rentals.
I think it’s probably faster to deal directly with the guest. It’s at least worth a try.
I wish, she is her own special case. Not only is she forcing it she says her husband is a disabled vet and we are “required” to take them as well and I need to learn the rules.
She says she’s not cancelling.
This stay is two days out and tomorrow is the final day of my interior painting that I waited a year and a half to get done.
My head is spinning right now.
Can you cancel their reservation? Call CS and use the excuse that the interior painting might not be dry or that it might not be finished on time. I would also upload photos of the rooms that are being painted, hopefully there is masking tape all over and paint cans everywhere, and the receipt for the paint as proof.
Is it an Instant Book??
I’d be afraid of that one. That could go belly-up very easily and @DozerPug could end up with a host-cancelation. We’ve seen it happen before.
Unfortunately, no. He’s 99% done. Just a few minor blemishes to touch up tomorrow. I’m going to wait for the next call from CS. I requested another opinion and did send them the screenshot I attached above.
It was, but unfortunately this dispute has been going since 1:30 this afternoon clearly showing the pet issue. At one point the guest even attempted extortion by saying if I cancelled and refunded her fully she wouldn’t report me??? I pointed that out to CS and they didn’t care.
One of the other two issues this summer was me calling to cancel my first ever guest, a third party IB who had inquired first and I told her I couldn’t accept her booking because it was not allowed. All on message thread. She went ahead and booked 2 days later. I called to cancel and was told I would be penalized for the cancellation financially, blocked calendar and losing SH. It took 3 weeks to resolve that one.
Btw this guest has one stay under her belt and a 3 star review. Honestly.
Don’t call in to cancel, do it online. And choose something like “uncomfortable with the guest/guest is going to break my house rules.”
Normally I would have but this guest made a threat that if I refunded her fully and immediately she would not report me for discrimination. I wanted to get out ahead of that threat for fear she would get a rep who would shut me down and ask questions later.
The agent who emailed and said ESAs had to be accepted in shared homes just contacted me back and apologized for the misinformation. She said it only applies to service dogs. I’m not sure she’s right on that but I’ll save that for another time.
She also said she has cancelled the reservation but it is still showing. I’ll see what happens next.
It shouldn’t be this hard for them to follow their own rules. Grey areas, possibly, but not when it’s right there in print.
Thanks.
keep refreshing and then block a day in the desired booking window, so she cant book via her husband!
She’s right on. You finally got the right rep.
Apparently it’s not resolved and still on the books. Air reps are telling me I will lose SH status, will be fined $50 and have an automatic negative posting. Also, two of them have told me I need the guests permission to cancel since I accepted the reservation. It was instant book…
I’ve tried to cancel it online but am getting the same warnings and must confirm that I accept the penalties, am I doing something wrong?
How can something so simple go so sideways?
I might not remember correctly but I think that when you go to cancel that you get that warning no matter what. And then when you go to the next page, it says that the penalties have been waived because it was an instant book. But I don’t want to screw it up for you either. Maybe someone who has canceled an IB online recently might know.
It’s so strange. It’s in writing in their own policies. Have you tried Twitter?
Just did. This is beyond frustrating. They even gave me an incident number to reference when I called in to do the cancellation and the rep still told me I could not cancel, the guest has to initiate the cancellation. And she won’t cancel because she’s outside the refund window. Which she was already when she booked.
Honestly, I can see why so many people make posts about “I’m quitting Airbnb forever!”
Have you tried offering the guest a full refund if she agrees to cancel?
