Was this an innocent error by a new host? Or is there a reason the host is intentionally misleading guests? I don’t see how he could get any good reviews if all his guests are pissed off.
When a host cancels a booking, he gets penalised in 4 ways:
- He looses the Superhost status
- An automatic message is posted on his profile informing of the cancellation and notice
- Those dates become blocked so it´s not possible to accept other bookings for the same period
- A fine ($50 or $100) if it´s the second time in 6 months.
I know for sure that 2) and 3) have not happened. He was not a Superhost when I booked so 1) can’t be executed. I can’t possibly know about 4).
But there is nowhere on the Airbnb website and terms and conditions where it says otherwise. And no one on this thread has confirmed it either.
I did read on Airbnb website that the host is not penalised if the guest cancels it, which is what happened here.
I can’t know the intentions of the host and why he is doing this. But I messaged him at 2 PM. Then I called at 8 PM. He said he would cancel it that evening. Then I called the next morning at 8 AM. He said “sorry I was not in the city last night, I will cancel it this morning”. At 2 PM (after contacting Airbnb) I called him again and he said “sorry I have been at work and I had no Internet, I will do it now”. He messaged me at 3:30 PM saying that it was already after the check-in time (3 PM) and Airbnb would not let him cancel it any more. To me it looks like he was fully aware of what cancelling a booking involved and gave me excuses (who is unable to access Internet for 25 hours living in a big city and being responsible for an Instant Booking listing?) until the check-in time. He was clever enough not to write any of this on the Dashboard and only communicate with me by phone.
Also: I can only write a review if I have stayed there. Obviously I can’t if it´s 70 km away from where I need to stay. Even if I don’t stay but I still write the review, it would be kind of an expensive review. So I can’t see many people reviewing about this situation.
Airbnb does have your address. They may not have directions and instructions but they DO have your address.
Not giving a paying guest access is a serious violation. If you do this more than once you’ll be hearing from them guaranteed. They won’t be very forgiving I can assure you.
Sorry for your experience though. It reflects badly on all hosts.
This one is news to me. Why would Airbnb blocks the dates if a host cancels?
To spank you for it. Also if you have synced calendars it will be also blocked on all platforms and it is almost impossible to undo.
Because you shouldn’t be able to rebook the room if you can’t accept the guest that had already booked. I understand that this doesn’t occur if it is an Instant Book guest and you “don’t feel comfortable.”
Ugh. This is definitely not the fun kind of spanking. By that same logic, I think Airbnb guests that cancel should then be unable to book for those same nights. Fairs fair.
I suppose that makes sense, in a way. But imagine a case scenario when the reason for cancellation goes away. E.g. I got a nutjob some time ago who first cancelled, then tried to rebook for part of that same period. With basically no explanation. I’ve told that story elsewhere. Airbnb didn’t stop him from trying to book.
another reason is to stop hosts from canceling a reservation because another guest makes a much higher offer. Or a host who forgot a major event was coming up and didn’t price their rates accordingly. So the host will want to cancel (and take the penalities) if they more than make up for it with another reservation. But they would need to do that through a different platform since Air’s dates will be blocked.
.[quote=“faheem, post:28, topic:12007”]
This is definitely not the fun kind of spanking.
[/quote]
Faheem…LOL! Fun kind of spanking?! Have you been watching 50 Shades of Grey again? 
1 Like
I think this was a scam. New host, no reviews, no sddress, and screwed around with cancelling until it was ‘too late’. This all sounds scammy too me
What’s the scam? The payment was for a short period of time and made through Airbnb. How does the scam work? take bookings and then hope Airbnb doesn’t ask for the money back?
Can you share the listing that scammed you?