So, this is a new one for us after hosting for the past 13 years.
This is just a cautionary tale and it’s not through Airbnb that this happened, it’s through BDC. I know that this is an Airbnb forum, so, please don’t hold this against me.
We had a guest check out on Monday morning (June 30, 2025). He and some friends stayed only 2 nights at my brother’s unit here on Maui (we manage my brother’s unit and well as ours).
There were some strange things that happened prior to his check-in. Originally he had booked for the same time next year (2026), so when we heard from him on Friday, June 28, 2025 saying he was arriving on Maui at 10:25AM from Honolulu today and he hadn’t received his door passcode yet, we were caught off-guard. As I was driving when I received the message, I had to just send him a quick note saying that he booked for the following year (same month/days). In the meantime, he called my husband’s number and spoke to him. While they were on the phone, the guy said “Oh no, I see I booked for next year. I hope this can be fixed”.
We were thinking that we were all very lucky, because just a week or so before, a guest that was booked for these dates had cancelled. And we had guest checking out that same day (Friday, June 28). So, we told him that we could make it happen.
He asked if he should cancel or just change the dates on his reservation. I told him that to change his dates would be the quickest way, but I’ve never had a BDC guest that has ever been able to do that. Usually they have to cancel the original booking and rebook. Just as I was writing that to him, he was able to modify his reservation and all seemed smooth. Although I was surprised at the ease he had with changing the reservation. This was a first.
Anyway, he stayed for the weekend, contacted us a couple of times via WhatsApp (he’s from Italy) and we offered him a late checkout, but he said they will fly out at 10:30AM, so no point.
I go to the unit to clean it up and 2 hours into the cleaning (I’m slow - as mentioned in other posts), I get a message from BDC that says I have a cancelled booking. I assumed it was a future booking, but as it turns out, it was this guy that just left! He was able to somehow cancel his booking and BDC allowed it! (BDC Glitch #1) Because of our cancellation policy, we still will receive the nightly rate and the taxes, but the cleaning fee is not paid and we’ll see if we have to pay the commissions (currently it says we’ll owe zero in commissions, but I don’t trust).
I immediately called BDC and was on hold for 25 minutes before speaking to a rep. Then I remembered that they don’t want to go further with you until they do a “call back security verification”, which means they hang up with you and then call you back to make sure you are the one on the listing. This NEVER EVER works. For us, this has not worked for YEARS! (BDC Glitch #2) But you can’t ever make them understand. They say they have to follow protocol, but then we never hear from them. I called 2 more times and spoke to two more reps and explained the whole thing and that the “call back” never works. They assured me that they will call back, and if they can’t get ahold of me, they will message me. Again, I received nothing. No call back, no message.
So, I send a message through their website. They say it takes up to 2 days for them to respond. They still have not responded and it’s been over 2 days.
The next step is for us to contact the guest and see if he realized that he screwed us over or if it was an honest mistake…I’m not sure how it could be. I’m thinking he found a work around and I’m not sure if the whole “book a year in advance, then contact the host the day of arrival saying “I’m here!”” has something to do with it. But cancelling a couple of hours after you have left and get a bigger discount depending on the host’s cancellation policy - did he figure something out? Is he a grifter?
Anyway, I have let my brother know that he’s not going to get as much money for that guy’s stay and that he still has to pay me for cleaning, even though he’s not getting paid for it. Luckily, he’s all about Karma these days and he said “Of course you’ll be paid for cleaning” 
Now every time we get a reservation through BDC, we will be suspicious.
), but tell us that because the reservation was automatically cancelled by their system and is no longer active, we will need to get the payment directly from the guest.