"No mutual cancellation" policy is severely flawed

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I had a guest check out on Sunday and after checkout they let me know that the showerhead had snapped off (they offered to pay for it but I believe it was on its way out anyway). Monday, a guest requested a booking for the same-day – I have Instant Booking disabled if it’s not 24+ hours out. So I let them know, before accepting the request, that the showerhead was broken but that the shower would still work, but it’d basically be a full-flow situation with water coming straight out of the shower stem/pipe. The guest didn’t quite seem to follow so I wanted to send a photo to make it clear. However, you cannot send a photo unless the reservation is confirmed. So I accepted the request and also gave an extra 20% off for the inconvenience, and then I sent the photo.

After some back and forth, the guest decided that it wouldn’t work for them but asked me to let them know once it’s fixed so they can book the house in the future. I asked them to cancel the reservation which he said he did, but I think he actually “cancelled” my 20% off offer, so the reservation still stood. I told him I’d take care of it, thinking that the chat conversation was very, very clear that the guest wanted to cancel / it was a same-day reservation / etc., and figured this would be easy. But I couldn’t cancel directly and had to call Airbnb Support.

I explained everything to the first support agent and he eventually “got it” and said they no longer do “mutual cancellations” and that I’d have to pay a penalty ($100 he said). But then said he would do waive the penalty this one time. I said thanks, but questioned the policy since it makes no sense in this situation, given the 15 minute time since the guest requested, the back-and-forth, and the final cancellation request from the guest, that there should be a penalty. So he said he understood and transferred me to another support agent.

This support agent was very nice also. I had to explain everything again, though, and at the end we ended up with Airbnb charging me a penalty and it would be waived after I sent proof that the shower was fixed. I pushed back but eventually just said “fine”. I chatted with the agent after the call and pointed out (again) that the previous agent said the penalty would be waived. She re-read the transcript and agreed and put in for the cancellation w/out penalty. That request was later denied and so we were back to the “temporary penalty until it’s fixed” thing.

The reservation was finally cancelled it shows $0 for everything on the reservation. Not sure if they apply the penalty separately, or what.

So in the end, I was trying to to right by informing the guest about the issue, and sending a photo for clarity. And being honest and upfront … and then Airbnb penalizes me for it! I’m just putting this out there as documentation that this policy seems very flawed, and curious to hear feedback from others. I wish I could have sent the photo w/out accepting the reservation, but for w/e reason we can’t do that (another issue).

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Airbnb is cracking down on hosts who aren’t doing what they need to do. Renting places with broken showers, not having the place cleaned by check in time, not sending the check in instructions on time or those instructions not working and so on.

Whereas you see it as “not your fault,” Airbnb wants to make sure you don’t keep renting to guests while the showerhead isn’t fixed.

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I’m not sure why you engaged with Airbnb about cancelling. If it was apparent that the guest had not cancelled, you could have just told the guest that and gotten him to try again.

It is never a good idea to accept a new booking if you know there are issues with the amenities, the place isn’t clean, etc. Block the calendar until you get it fixed.
Discounts for inconveniences are appropriate if the guest is already in residence when an issue develops and indicates they want to stay anyway, not at the booking stage.

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I want to say this gently but I can’t find the words. So, actually, why didn’t you just go to Lowe’s and pay $20 for a new shower head…before the old one broke? You knew it was failing?

The place isn’t rentable with no shower head. If you checked into a Holiday Inn and there was no shower head, you would be justified in complaining to the front desk.

@KKC is absolutely right, ABB is trying to stop host cancellations for preventable reasons.

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Well, that is not strictly true. There are places in the third world where one would be grateful that there was water, let alone hot water or a shower head.

And personally, water coming straight out of the shower pipe wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me as a guest.

But I do agree that if a host is aware that something seems ready to break or functions glitchily, they need to attend to it before it completely breaks, rather than after the fact.

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If the rental has a shower listed, it should be provided. We all know that if the guest called Airbnb to complain about the missing amenity, they would be rehomed and refunded.

This isn’t a developing country situation and unless he’s renting an off grid yurt with no bathroom or something of that nature, then he shouldn’t be renting it with a broken shower.

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I was just being nitpicky re a blanket statement that a place isn’t rentable without a showerhead.

First world guests renting first world homes would definitely expect a showerhead.

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Or maybe…it’s a minimalist shower or an industrial shower.

@JoshM the main issue, to me, is that you did not spin this correctly. You could have pawned that off as the latest Urban Outfitters shower style, something you saw at Coahchella, or the like and you didn’t. :rofl: But, seriously, why didn’t you just buy a new showerhead?

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Josh, everyone is giving you a hard time because you didn’t fix the showerhead and I’m going to too. So please let us know why you didn’t do that.

It seems such an obvious and sensible thing to do so you really have to explain.

I know that your beef is with the cancellation system but you’ve opened yourself up to scrutiny about your less-than-perfect hospitality skills.

Most of us have had amenities problems - I’ve had the AC fail (in the South Flirida summer), loos refusing to flush, bathtubs not draining, windows broken, blinds falling from their moorings, dodgy internet - it’s all part and parcel of hosting and supplying hospitality,

Why couldn’t you fix the shower? Please let us know.

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Exactly. Stating that one has a shower doesn’t mean there is a showerhead. I’ve seen some not inexpensive listings in my town that have some artistically twisted copper pipe as the shower head, or even a piece of bamboo used as a spout, also no showerhead. It’s part of the unique styling of the place.
However, if it’s a normal, traditional shower, where it is obvious that the showerhead has been broken off, the guest would obviously perceive that as something broken. If I were the host, and for some reason couldn’t manage to run out and get a new showerhead before my guest arrived, I would simply apologize, say the previous guest just broke it and there wasn’t time to replace it and that one is on the way within hours.

As Jaquo asked, why was it not just replaced? Unless the pipe itself was damaged, eg the threads broken off, requiring some actual repair, it seems like it took more time to communicate with the guest about it, then Airbnb, than it would have to run out to the nearest hardware store, pick up a new one and screw it on before the guest arrived. Even a cheapo dollar store model would suffice- a better quality one that matches the other fixtures can be substituted in the future.

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Thanks. In the chat transcript with the guest I was more than clear about the issue. The shower was functioning, just not as one would normally expect. (E.g. the guest would still be able to use it.)

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Because I was trying to make it easier for the guest (provide good customer service) – which apparently was a mistake.

Of course. In hindsight I should have blocked the days, but as mentioned before, the shower was still usable.

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Because I live 9 hours away and couldn’t get anyone to fix it ASAP. I had tightened it up before, because it seemed loose. Again, if only I could see the future, I would have replaced it when I was there last because apparently it was cracked (I assume).

FWIW I do ALL of the work on the house myself, and hate hiring others to do work that I can do myself.

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I didn’t realize it was “on its way out” at the time (I thought it was just loose), that was in hindsight only!

Very presumptuous of you! I’m still a new host (since Octoboer) but we have excellent reviews – 30 5-star and 2 4-star. I care a LOT about guest satisfaction. Though I’d never claim to be perfect in any regard.

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Thanks for the comments everyone. The issue also stems from me being new and not having had to deal with this sort of issue before (never had to cancel a booking). I didn’t understand the policy and to me, it would have been obvious to Airbnb that the guest wanted to cancel / it was mutual. I considered posting the de-identified chat transcript with the guest here, but didn’t think it’d be necessary.

Next time I’ll be better about blocking dates if such things go wrong.

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You want to do all the work yourself but live 9 hours away? Anyone who lives 9 hours away needs to have a local co-host, or contact of some kind. You need to have professionals (plumber, electrician, HVAC) you can call on.

The guest canceled because there is no showerhead where there would normally be one. Your insistence is that the shower is usable just doesn’t make sense to me unless this isn’t…ahem, how to put delicately… a very nice Airbnb. The shower is one of the most basic functions of a STR along with a bed and toilet.

To me mutual cancel means neither party is at fault. Your inability to see that a shower with no showerhead shouldn’t be rented seems like the problem, not Airbnb’s policy. Airbnb’s policy on this won’t change though it might be unevenly be enforced. So that leaves you and your stubborn insistence that paying guests would be willing to bathe under a stream of water like kids in the yard under the garden hose.

If things go wrong and you have no one to fix them. Sometimes you can’t have your cake and eat it too so if you’re going to insist on trying to do everything from 9 hours away with no local help then expect something like this to happen again.

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KKC, you’re making a lot of assumptions here.

Yep, I take pride in my work. This is not a “get rich quick” scheme, this is a house and location we love and care about. So I do the work myself, unless I cannot. We do have a co-host but recently they are not responsive (family issues), so we are working on finding another company to help out with such issues. Finding service people (carpenter, plumber, handyman, etc.) in this area (rural Vermont) is harder than hard, because they are all booked a month or two out.

There is also a generally negative outlook toward Airbnb owners because up there. We make homes harder to find for locals, and we expect services to be rendered ASAP and between bookings. My plumber explained this to me – e.g. he has X customers who don’t have hot water and some Airbnb owner wants some issue resolved “tomorrow between 11 and 3”. I get it.

Not everything is as simple as it would be if the rental was in or near a city. We are in the boondocks, in a lovely ski town, and it’s not ski season.

It’s probably not necessary for me to go on, I do realize this is my fault in the end. However, the timeline is important. I didn’t know the showerhead was broken until Sunday at 10:30 am when the guest who was checking out told me (after checkout). I didn’t have a photo or anything so I didn’t know the extent of the damage, and asked my cleaner to send a pic/etc. when she got there. As soon as she sent the pic, I messaged my co-host, called another co-hosting company who has helped me before, and called my plumber (who was already coming to rework some pipes for me on Wednesday).

While waiting for a call-back, the new reservation request came in for Sunday-Wednesday (same-day request – that’s important). I immediately informed the guest about the situation:

Hi. Thanks for requesting a booking!

I’m happy to approve your request, but the shower head recently broke off and won’t be fixed until Wednesday. I believe the shower is still usable, but I haven’t confirmed it myself. Also the plumber will be arriving on Wednesday at some point, not sure what time.

If you’re okay with all of that, then I will approve, just let me know. But I understand if it’s not an ideal situation for you.

I wanted to send a pic of the shower to be clear, so I accepted the request – in hindsight, I shouldn’t have, but it’s the only way to send pics. I said:

You’d basically get the full flow out of the pipe, so you can still use it, it just might not be too comfortable! Here’s what it looks like now: [pic]

If that’s no good, feel free to cancel the reservation. I’ve also just applied an extra 20% discount for the inconvenience.

The guest hadn’t cancelled or indicated they wanted to cancel yet, so I said:

…your reservation is currently confirmed. I’m not sure if you intend to stay or not. Please let me know if you’d like to cancel so you don’t get charged!

To which the guest replied:

I sent cancel request, not sure why you didn’t receive

Please cancel

When you fix shower let me know, I need place during rest of summer

Maybe that helps to show I was trying to do the right thing here. I should have blocked the days as soon as the previous guest said the shower head broke off, but honestly I wasn’t expecting a same-day booking to come in (this is the off season).

I guess you live and you learn.

One of the main points of this post was to highlight that hosts should be able to send pics to guests who requested a booking, before accepting the booking. I’ve had the need to do so in the past but could not. It makes it hard to answer certain questions if we can’t elaborate with additional photos which may not be included in the listing itself.

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I hope your defensiveness serves you well in life, Josh. You seem like a nice person. Learning the hard way may be your style. You wanted to complain about Airbnb, not be scolded, which is understandable.

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Okay, that’s one thing I would strongly suggest you change ASAP. A host who lives 9 hrs from their rental, with unreliable cohosts, should no way allow same day bookings. You need to change your booking setting to a minimum 1, preferably 2 days advance notice, so if issues arise, there is time to deal with them.

Your hosting location, rural Vermont, is not the sort of area where people would tend to book last minute anyway.

And when you got that message from the guest saying she had “sent cancel request, not sure why you didn’t receive”, your response should have been that she just needs to click the cancel button, not send you a cancel request. FYI, if you receive a message asking you to accept or decline a cancellation, that is registered as a host cancellation with all the attendant penalties. (Sneaky Airbnb thing) You must always decline those. Guests can easily cancel on their end, it doesn’t require host approval.

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I’d be a bit nervous about this. They can wait a few days, but then need the “rest of the summer”? That sounds local. You probably know this, but be careful of them getting tenants’ rights by an extended stay and then squatting.

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