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I’ve been reading about some of the cancellation stories and thought I’d share one of my own and see if anyone might have had a similar situation or an idea of what Airbnb will do.
A guest booked our home for about 15 days stating that they are closing escrow on their home and need a place to stay. A day later they said they wanted to cancel due to their buyer canceling their escrow. The buyer cancelled their escrow but was before the deposit could be earned. I think this is a lie and she was looking for a way out, but I actually have no proof. The only thing I could think of is, why would anyone try to book before they are sure that escrow will close? I do have a strict policy on Airbnb and my response to her was I sympathize with her but the policy is what it is (of course not in those words). I figured she would call Airbnb and then I will receive some sort of settlement offer. Nothing so far, but the booking date hasn’t come yet.
SoCal, she’s not really giving you an extenuating circumstance. I doubt Air would side with her but you never can tell. You held your place for her, losing other bookings while it was being held and now that she wants to back out it is not your problem. You did your part. She did not. Why should you be the one to take the hit.
I would just continue to say no and wait and see. Don’t worry. She can’t leave you any sort of review on a trip that cannot be completed. Her bad planning should not equal your loss of income.
If she wanted to cancel after just one day - what really is your loss. Let her go and get somebody who wants to stay at your place. In 24 hours not likely you missed on many inquiries and you are in high demand, you should re book in no time. Have some compassion -not everybody is a lair.
I don’t understand your guest’s issue. She is welcome to cancel and forfeit half the amount plus booking fee.
I find it interesting that there are so many posts where the guest is asking the host to cancel so that they can get all of their money back. And it will hurt the hosts bookings going forward.
If you want to be nice you can tell her to cancel so that your calendar is re-opened. If you receive a booking for the dates she had blocked, then you can give her a credit for a future stay. Or you can send her the money through PayPal or something with her paying the fees. Either way, I would not take the hit for canceling. Even if we get one cancellation freebie, you may need to use it in the future
The guests in my experience try this because Airbnb encourages it. I have this trouble with locals and with people who are “moving to the area”. They book huge blocks of time and then after a couple days want to leave and all their money back, even though I have a moderate cancellation policy. Airbnb actually tells them to CALL THEM, then the rep explains not to cancel but rather submit a change in reservation so that the host can give them a full refund. It is a problem, why have a cancellation policy? If I was ok with full refunds after someone blocked my calendar for a whole month, I would set to “flexible”.
It wastes a lot of time on the part of the guest and host - they call, you call, the guest calls, airbnb calls you back - on and on, then the guest gets the idea you are trying to rip them off somehow because you “refuse” to give them a refund - when it was clear from the time of booking how it would work if they cancelled. Airbnb puts this idea into their heads that the policy is more of an option - not policy by telling them to just make a request change. Then I have to say “no” to them, and now I’m the bad guy. If it is a day or two, no big deal - but when it is weeks, I have a problem with that. And Airbnb turns it into an adversarial situation by intercepting these cancellations (they cannot do it online - when they try it says “call us at xxx”.
