Need to Cancel for a Reservation Tonight

We have one guest who hasn’t cancelled, to arrive tonight for one night.

Four cases of Covid-19 have been identified in our area, as of an hour ago.

We need to cancel this reservation. This guy is coming for a medical convention, and I can’t believe the event hasn’t been cancelled, but apparently it hasn’t.

I can’t cancel the reservation online because it’s for tonight. I messaged the guest to ask him to cancel online, if he can, and I explained why. (I had messaged him earlier this week to suggest cancelling, but I got no response.)

I’m on the Superhost help phone line now to ask for them to cancel it, but the wait is “a few hours.”

Is there anything else I can do to get this reservation cancelled? We don’t care what happens to our account at this point. And our listings are already unlisted.

If you think that the first diagnosed case in your area is the first case you are mistaken. It’s nearly impossible for doctors to test their patients. I wouldn’t cancel the guest just inform him.

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She said the first identified case, she didn’t say the first case in town. While I agree with you based on reason and our best available information, people’s feelings in a time a crisis matter.

I agree with Lynn that you don’t have to get it cancelled, just don’t let him in the house. I’d call him on his phone and tell him ASAP. Shoot, maybe you haven’t heard from him because he’s in the hospital or dead.

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I understand that testing is abysmally behind and there are undoubtedly many more cases in our area.

I am at high risk. We have to cancel.

Thanks. My husband just left a message on the guest’s phone.

And Airbnb just answered me, after only 90 minutes on hold. Airbnb is cancelling tonight’s reservation without any penalty to us and with a full refund to the guest. The Airbnb customer service rep was professional, thorough, and kind. He is also going to try to reach the guest by phone.

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gosh, hopefully the guest can get another place in the short amount of time. Then again, perhaps all the hotels are empty considering no one wants to travel. I am happy you were able to cancel without penalty since you were not comfortable.

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Shame you are under this stress and hopefully don’t have to resort to turning him away IF he chooses to arrive.
If guest does not reply to you through the AirBnB platform or his phone I would resort to putting a note on the door explaining you are at high risk and unable to host.
Don’t even open the door to him

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Wonderful, thank you for the update.
I just turned down a reservation for 2 families to come here in a week for 3 nights.
Its a whole house rental but I have to come back into it and need to limit my exposure.
Going to follow KCC’s path and block my calendar for a bit.

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Exactly. He’s a doctor, he should be able to judge for himself. Unless your last guest or one of you had the covid19 I wouldn’t make big fuss out of this. Truth is you might be carrying it and not knowing, he might be carrying it and not knowing.

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EDIT Just saw that you were able to resolve this with Air. Hope the guests communicates with you.
Text him, call him directly. I’m sure the conference has been canceled - the CV-19 conference has canceled. He’s probably overwhelmed at this point.

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I’m actually not blocking my calendar.

I temporarily blocked May to think about trying to get a longer term booking, like for a travel nurse, but decided against it for now. I still haven’t been able to unblock my calendar. I got three days unblocked when I got a notification that said "lots of people are looking for these days (22-24 May), unblock those days now. I clicked on it and it worked. I guess I’ll also put a statement in my listing that May is available. Then if someone inquires we’ll figure something out.

My apologies, I misunderstood.
Hope they can fix that soon.
I still do not get any notifications from AirBnB since I set up my summer rental account last year. It is not my cell as I have had technical support from my provider. Will have to work that glitch out down the road.

Well, I did go to bat for some elders. I just called HomeAway to cancel a reservation for a couple in their 80s advised not to travel (they were planning to visit a relative in an assisted living home here yikes). I got thru after about 7 minutes on hold, but the rep had repeated computer problems due to volume and it took 15-20 minutes to complete.
Of far more concern is that he told me he felt so sick that it was difficult for him to work. I could hear from background conversation that he was in a boiler room setup with other CS reps, not working remotely. So they are caring for their guests better than for their employees, it seems.

Airbnb could hire hosts like me to do CS work. I could get up to speed quickly since I already know more about their policies than most of them do. They need to invest in that technology and quit sending the work to the Philippines.

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That would be smart. Get people in the US who are actually helpful. I am sure they don’t want to pay regular wages.

Better for the executive level people to get $20m bonuses and for the customers to get crap for service… :roll_eyes: that will keep a business healthy.

Or me. I’d love to block 4 hrs a day to work on a VPN with VOIP to manage CS for AirBnB. It would be an education for me and I bet that it would wildly improve the guest/host interaction

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That really did make me laugh. Cheers mate, just what I needed!

:grin:

JF

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I hope it’s just a joke. Rebecca never did hear from him.