This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Has anyone ever inquired with a guest who books and cancels shortly afterwards to understand why they canceled? And, in such cases, have you ever directed the guest to check out your direct booking site?
I’m particularly interested in whether this approach is acceptable when the main booking platform we use is Booking. I’d appreciate insights or experiences from other hosts who’ve written something similar.
Why would you think a guest who booked and cancelled shortly afterwards would be interested in a link to your direct booking site?
Most guests tell me why they cancelled. If they didn’t, I can’t imagine they would appreciate being asked by the host why they cancelled, and I wouldn’t consider it any of my business.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I understand your point about guests not wanting to be asked why they canceled—it’s a fair concern. However, in my experience, most guests don’t voluntarily tell us why they cancel. I suspect price is often the reason, and if that’s the case, letting them know about our direct booking site, where prices are significantly lower, might be helpful for them.
I see it as offering an option that a prospective guest might appreciate. Of course, I’d approach it respectfully and only if it feels appropriate in the context.
Since booking an airbnb means paying in full up front to book, assuming remorse and cancelling is, to me, quite a stretch. Do you think the potential guest simply cancels and walks away from their trip?
Reminder: soliciting an airbnb guest will get you booted off the platform. And also reminder: your ‘competitors’ are hoping that you do - less competition for the travel dollars.
Guests are often booking and canceling far enough out in the calendar to take advantage of the no-penalty cancellation window. There could be various reasons for this—perhaps they book quickly to secure a place before conducting a more thorough search, or they later discover that they can’t get a visa, or the location isn’t ideal upon closer inspection. However, I suspect price is often the deciding factor.
Our primary bookings come through the other platform, not Airbnb. I recall reading somewhere that some hosts provide direct booking information to guests who cancel, and I was curious if others have had similar experiences.
Regarding your point about platform rules, I understand the risks involved and wouldn’t want to violate policies. At the same time, I can’t assume that either platform is monitoring all host-guest communication. My intention is to better understand what has worked for other hosts in these situations, not to breach any guidelines.
I’m not sure guests who cancel without comment within the cancellation window are really only doing so on price. Guests cancel for all sorts of reasons and if they were that keen about looking for a cheaper deal they probably wouldn’t book in the first place, or would be messaging about the possibility of deals etc etc. So I personally wouldn’t bother following up.
I do get guests who book through airbnb and then find my own website. If they message me directly through my website requesting to book without airbnb fees - I simply tell them they can cancel the airbnb booking and book directly. Which they usually do, although I have also had guests just stick with airbnb because it is easy to do so, even if more expensive. One set of guests in fact always booked through Airbnb even though they must have stayed a dozen times over a couple of years. Most returnees book direct after the first stay.
One trick that I know some hosts have used is to add a photo to their listing which just happens to also include a clear poster/ image of the direct contact details, web address etc.
Ummmm, yes you should assume.
People are on airbnb for many reasons; price is possibly a consideration, but our airbnb competes on cleanliness and convenient access to the locality - we actually are more expensive than other Airbnbs in the area, and certainly more expensive than cheap chain motels nearby. Almost all cancellations for us are due to business scheduling changes and the like. We also have strict cancellation and of course use Instant Booking, which filters out most of the’ let’s make a deal’ folks.
Finally, if you ARE competing on price as a main selling point, and you are getting many cancellations, perhaps your prices are too high. But perhaps it is because your airbnb does not compete in quality.
You absolutely should assume that. I’ve been a host for over 10 years and had over 1000 bookings, either direct or on Airbnb. I don’t use another platform. Airbnb does monitor messages. It looks like this when they let you know; I assume they don’t always let you know.
There isn’t some person who is monitoring the messages- they have algorithms that do that. They are programmed with key words, like “direct booking”. And those algorithms are always activated.
I’m not sure why a host would do that. Many hosts, including me, have their own sites that bring in a lot of business.
I have to say though that although I rarely have cancellations, most times the potential guest has explained.
And I can’t remember one instance where the problem was the price.
I’d really like @Dnakay to explain more about this ‘problem’.
I had what seemed to me to be harmless messages flagged by Airbnb too. I tried to scroll through my messages to find one but it’s just too much and I stopped when I found the screenshot I posted above.
We never ask a potential guest why they cancelled, but if
we think they might come in the future, I have saved their number from the cancelled booking and can reach them directly if I want to.
I write down all guests’s phone numbers off-platform as soon as a booking is confirmed. I mostly do it as a precaution in case there’s some platform glitch, or in case Airbnb decides to suspend my listing for some reason. I don’t anticipate that, but you never know- if some guest made some fabricated complaint and Airbnb cancelled all my bookings pending an “investigation”, I’d want to be able to contact upcoming guests to explain what happened and let them rebook direct if they wanted to.
I know their algorithm sometimes flags inquiry or initial request messages that have numbers in them, assuming they are phone numbers, even if they aren’t. It also flags “whatsapp” if that appears in a message before a booking is confirmed.
No, most of our guests that cancel tell me why, or they cancel so quickly that I don’t care. I don’t feel the need to bother them to see if I can convert them to a direct booking. I suspect most of them cancel because they can’t get their group to commit (we have a three-bedroom house), they can’t find reasonable airfare, or they realize only after they book that we have a strict policy and they just aren’t sure enough yet to risk a lot of money.
I don’t feel any need to risk being de-listed by pushing our website on them over the AirBnB platform. We’re easy enough to find by searching for our name or Google lens on a picture that they can find us.
Yes. Always send every guest a message off platform inviting them to book direct next time. Why not? Sometimes your price is too high because Airbnb fee is too high. Or maybe they want to reschedule dates.
Just make it sound like an automated thank you message or something generic. Best way to do this is via text. Or if you have a PMS software that collects guests email, that works well.
Thanks for your interest in (listing name). Sorry it didn’t work out this time. In the future you can book direct at (your site) and save up to 17% by not using Airbnb.
Hope to host you soon!
Host Name
Directwebsite.c0m
AirBnB has an email address that does through their system, so even a channel manager like OR won’t get the actual email address until the guest provides it.
What I do is to give a guest that’s booked our website within about 6-12 hours after they booked. I say (truthfully) that’s there is a lot of planning and pricing information on our site (xx dot com) they can access, or they can give me their actual email and I’ll send them some files.
Then if they cancel, they have our website in case they want to see if the price is lower and book directly with us. I can’t think of any that done that, though.
Yeah… My system doesn’t even bother with the airbnb pass through email.
Automated SMS messaging would be best. But I don’t have that until next year.
