Guest cancellation after checking in

Hello. This is my post. I need to know my fellow hosts respond to the current situation I’m in.

My current guest had an unfortunate fall on 16 Apr (outside my premises, thank goodness) and has informed Airbnb that the fall resulted with “broken face and leg” and she needs to return home on 21 Apr. Her reservation was for 43 nights from 12 Apr to 25 May. She informed me that she has nothing broken only skin scrapes on face and knee. Nothing life threatening or any other physical disability.

Airbnb has informed me on 18 Apr that they have refunded her with the balance of her stay (without prior notice to me) based on “extenuating circumstances” supported by documentations. They “altered the reservation” instead of “cancelling” the long term reservation.

By altering the booking she does not have to pay the first 30 days. And me as a host will be paid for the 9 nights only. I need to pray that a replacement booking comes for those previously booked nights. My location is not in high demand touristy or downtown Toronto area.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Airbnb’s decision to “alter” instead of “cancelling” the long term reservation? How would you respond to Airbnb? Am I being unreasonable to expect any compensation?

We talked a lot here about extenuating circumstances.
This is a total absurd and people should be taking their travel insurances but not have host somehow responsible.
What would make sense if they created an option for a guest to have their money back at least partially, if you rebooked to someone else.
When I travel and plan to stay somewhere for long time I never book non refundable or strict policy stays. It’s just too much risk.
I can book 2 nights non refundable but not 43 days.
It’s all on a guest , but Airbnb puts all of this nonsense on a host.
There are other issues too that started to piss me off …I am trying to rent as much as possible with other platforms . Thought I used to admire how Air operated

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Yana…if an individual books for 30 days or more the regular cancellation policies are over written by “long term” stay cancellation policies in which you are gtd’d at least the first 30 days or subsequent 30 days amounts. IE’s are a work around to those situations. If the guest has provided documentation to ABB showing reasonable explanation as to why this this should be waived it is up to ABB to make that determination. I would suggest she contact ABB for additional information and clarification and possibly make a claim against the account thru the resolution center.

I am aware of.policies. I guess I didn’t answer the OPs question.
It shouldn’t be up to Airbnb whether a host should refund or not. It’s a very stupid and unfair policy and it’s not the only one.
A claim in resolution centre in this case will not work. OPNwill receive a standardised email saying that their decision is final.

What if this guest booked few months ahead of time? And then she cancells the last minute.
This is up to her if she wants to risk or take out travel insurance
Anyway…she wouldn’t be even covered by insurance anyway in her case.

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The most helpful thing I can offer is to call Airbnb customer service and ask for some concession like a coupon or maybe a search ranking boost promotion to help you fill in that lost reservation.

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I was not aware that you could not escalate IE decision based on additional information. Unfortunately, there would be some hosts that would not refund no matter what which is probably why IE was created. Finding a fair and balanced resolution for both parties can be difficult.

I dont understand: did she or did she not break her leg? If yes perhaps she’s in cast, God knows, I broke limbs a few time in my life and I’m telling you it’s not pleasant and i had to be in cast couldn’t go to work etc… so if this is true, and she submitted medical certificate to ABB, yes, they did right to alter the reservation and pay you only for 9 nights. In this case, i dont think you should be compensated more than the 9 nights… Accidents do happen and it’s nobody’s fault.

If her claim is fake then is ABB’s fault for not asking her medical certificate and siding blindly with the customer.

I’d talk to the customer service to find out if she presented evidence of breaking her leg.

what’s IE? to me IE meas Internet Explorer

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I was thinking the same thing …have no idea what it is .
That’s the thing…it shouldn’t matter what happened to her . We as hosts are not responsible or can control our guests lives.
Guest should be taking care of this by buying travel insurance .
As I mentioned my father paid 1000$ insurance on 8000$ trip . Because he can break a leg or for whatever reason he doesn’t want to loose 8k.
He is not holding his tour company liable for his possible misfortunes .

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Probably you can but there will be no result. I had situation twice and all they do is prolong process until we get tired of it and let it go.

Ooops…sorry… EC… have no idea why I said IE…

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And this is hosts rights to not refund no matter what. I am not one of those hosts, I do refund and very often especially if guests cancell almost right away . But the system needs to be solid , not some wishy-washy something where noone knows where they are with their own business and can’t project or plan anything .
Air takes in a role that has no grounds . In cases like these they should be minding their own business and serve as a booking platform not as a peacemaker or a judge.

Not one booking platform has these ridiculous policies , platforms who existed long before Air.
Another one is to refund guests even if they stayed a week

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That would be travel insurance not host insurance.

When you book on my direct site I offer to sell you travel insurance, most decline but if something like this came up I would be asking them did they buy the insurance?

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Did you meet the guest face to face?

Do you or any neighbors have cameras that can examine footage of the guest going in and out walking normally without a cast?

I would write AirBNB noting however you can, either the guest’s statement and/or camera footage, that the guest stated to you specifically that she DID NOT break her leg or any facial bones and was walking normally (if you have evidence).

is English her first language ? if you put “skin” between the 'Broken face and leg" it then makes sense.