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My guest, due to arrive on Saturday for 5 nights, just responded to my ‘see you Saturday’ text with “we may have to cancel or reschedule our trip; I emailed you yesterday”.
I never did receive the email. I responded to ask that she cancel asap so I can rebook the room.
(She booked late last year when my cancellation policy was ‘flexible’, it is now ‘moderate’).
Dang, if I hadn’t emailed her, perhaps she would not have gotten around to cancelling and we would have been paid for nothing.
Also, my prices are way higher now, so, I’d love to rebook. Even if for only 2 nights I’d be making more money.
ANYHOW - at what point should I call airbnb and ask them to get involved?
How did she email you? Wouldn’t she contact you and cancel through the Airbnb platform? I would call her directly and say that everything must be done through Airbnb.
Yes, that’s interesting, right? There is no message on the platform, so I sent her a message through the platform confirming our text conversation and asking her again to please cancel asap.
I am in the same boat, if they cancel I make a lot more. I am on ‘strict’ however, which makes that reality easier. A week ago, I got my first cancellation for a booking a mere week from now, a fashion designer got a great new employment gig in LA, but when they went to re-schedule nothing is now open till very late 2017. Now what?
WOW WOW WOW!! So, how cool! The guest did respond on the platform that she would ‘cancel when she gets home from work’. Of course I’m like “AAUUURGH, Woman, you are on line!! Just do it!!” But I didn’t know, maybe she wasn’t really sure what they were doing -
So after waiting for a few hours, on whim, I called airbnb cs AND THEY CANCELLED IT FOR ME!! It’s documented in the messages that she was going to cancel - so! My nights are open on my calendar!!
OK…so Air cancelled on her behalf and kept her booking fee I presume? I am still surprised they would cancel without having the guest confirm. Even if the guest said she planned to cancel when she got home…she could change her mind on her way home. I guess Air would refund her the booking fee in that instance.
Me too… Are you sure it was them who canceled and not her? Sometimes the notification looks like it is coming from them when in fact it did indeed come from the guest. You are saying you did it online with them?
Well, as I was speaking to “Eddie”, the air rep, he said “I already went ahead and cancelled that for you, as her message to you confirms that she was going to, and it’s not fair to you to have those nights blocked off. Time is of the essence. Your calendar is now open for those nights”.
I won’t get paid because she was within the ‘flexible’ time frame. Since my price is 25% higher than it was when she booked I’m hopeful that this will work out well in the long run.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Beyondpricing does with those nights when they sync my calendar at midnight.
I wonder if they had been in such a hurry to cancel if it were “strict.”? Then they’d be pressuring you to “refund” something–part or all–to the poor guest who had to cancel.
I just found myself in a similar situation as you. A guest booked for 4 nights on the July long weekend. THEN she started doing her research. She’s been messaging me with all sorts of questions about places that aren’t close to us. I got a message from her earlier today saying that she thinks she’s booked the wrong side of the island but I’m just so nice and my place is so amazing. Uh first of all we’re not on an island, and second of all, thanks for calling my neck of the woods “wrong”. I told her to cancel and to do it quickly so I could rebook those dates (said it nicely) but still no response. I’ve asked ABB to contact her and get this sorted out. I have a moderate cancellation policy…if I switch it to strict now will it affect her booking? I feel like she’s using me as a placeholder until she can find something else.
The cancellation policy in effect at the time of booking stands. If you go to ‘print confirmation’ it will show you.
Do you have this documented in the platform’s messaging? If not, reiterate things with her now. That’s what ‘saved me’. Air cancelled the reservation solely on her message that said she would cancel later today.
Still waiting to here my phone chime with a nice juicy booking to replace it…otherwise, I guess we’ll get the concrete floor in the kitchen painted.
Yes, learning the hard way - trying to balance between excellent customer service and excellent self-preservation.
It’s all documented which is good because it shows that she clearly made a mistake on location, but not good enough in that she hasn’t responded to say she will cancel. So my calendar remains blocked. At this point I don’t want her here - it’s bad review waiting to happen over things I can’t control.
So true!!! Which one won out in the end? Are you still set to moderate or did you kick it up a notch to strict?
