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If you read the thread through @TheInsider you will see that we have already queried this and @justMandi said that she had chosen to ask the guest to cancel and said she would cover the Airbnb fee - therefore unfortunately the guest won’t be able to take advantage of the 10% uplift to find somewhere else.
We have already suggested that it would have been better if she had asked Airbnb to cancel on the grounds that she was uncomfortable.
never ask a guest to cancel. If a host is uncomfortable and needs to cancel, the host needs to do it. I’m shocked this wasn’t done as a mutual cancellation if both parties agreed to the cancel? I’m so confused.
This is why I was confused. The general advice I have heard here is to try to get the guest to cancel. I didn’t want him to be out anything so I offered to cover his expenses.
This is a house with rooms and I live here. I have every right to ask what a guest will be doing and what their itinerary will be, and I choose to ask where they will be working. It is not a vacation spot. If you have different situations I understand. In the same breath this is my business, thank you.
Sorry, @TheInsider, I usually agree with your advice, but I’m with Mandi on this.
This isn’t a situation where a local couple wants a weekend break from the kids - this is a guy with an insecure housing situation who will be in Mandi’s house, sharing space with her, for 3+ weeks. That would make me nervous. People on vacation want to go home at some point. A local with nowhere else to go, who just needs to extend his stay another week to establish tenancy rights? She’d be an idiot to not fully suss out the situation.
If the guy can’t understand the risks from her POV enough to provide assurance by answering her questions then he can find a living situation that’s a better fit.
How were you able to pay back his fees after he canceled? That is AirBnB’s job to refund him the service fees. Did you use Paypal or something else outside of AirBnB? When I refund guests who cancel, I’m not able to refund them for more than what I received as payout. I’m thankful for this feature so I don’t accidently payback the AirBnB fees (they need to ring up AirBnB themselves if they want those back).
Hosts with a lot of fine print should not be on IB. As easy as that.
Best route would have been for you to cancel and say not comfortable with guest. You can do this unlimited number of times. The 3 cancel max pertains to mix up in your calendar or something like that where you double booked. Not guest related,.
Are you sure about that, Brandt?
That’s what Airbnb says in its Help Centre @justMandi
Hosts who have Instant Book turned on for their listing
can always cancel
without penalty, if they’re uncomfortable with a reservation.
Some examples of when a host can cancel penalty-free include:
Thats why I advised you when you initially posted to have Airbnb cancel as you felt uncomfortable with the guest.
I always think its worth reviewing the basics around how Airbnb works in its Help Centre and reading their newsletters with key changes in, as things change so quickly it’s hard to keep up sometimes.
Naw, Eff that.
Airbnb made the playing field uneven with IB - I’m on the first page of search results with it on and several pages back when it’s disabled. There’s no way I’m giving up that advantage because a guest refuses to read the fine print.
My house rules are very clear on what info I need from guests. If they read and agree to those terms they’re welcome to instant-book. If they can’t be arsed to read the fine print I’ll message to get what I need and cancel them if it’s not forthcoming.
You can use the resolution center to send money. It can be for anything. I had a guest who told me ants were in the room and pointed out where they were coming in. She still gave a 5 star review with just a single star deducted on cleanliness. I sent her $5 (on a $40 stay) to thank her for as I put it, her “investigation into the ingress point for the uninvited guests.”
Why is that? What are the disadvantages?
If the host needs to cancel, they need to be the ones to do it. Same goes for guests. Too many users convince each other to do a mutual cancellation. There isn’t an advantage or disadvantage, just more of if an agent recognizes it when a guest says host wants me to cancel, it could (technically) be done as a CBH if agent reviews message thread and sees host was pushy for it to be done by guest. From an agent’s eyes, it could be because the host doesn’t want penalties. Some agents will complete the cancel as a CBH just to be an ass without hearing both sides. This is rare, but does happen. A SH just had it happen with a reservation and agent pushed CBH, now that SH just lost that status and won’t win an argument on it.
Of course Helsi. That’s what I am doing with your help. Thank you, all of you.
This! We should never put any such thing in writing.
Last week we had a guest book a room in our apartment for 1 person. I confirmed his reservation “Room with private bathroom for 1 person” +QUESTIONS. He didn’t react to my questions, so I confirmed again “Room with private bathroom for 1 person” +QUESTIONS. He didn’t react, but did ask for our phone number.
On the day of check-in he calls us at 6pm to tell us that his girlfriend would be arriving earlier than himself and if we could give her a key? “Girlfriend? You made a reservation for 1 person (BIG SIGHHHHHH), but no problem we will send you a change of reservation. She can come anytime, we live here so it’s no inconvenience.” - “What you live there? We didn’t rent the entire apartment?”
What would have been the right thing to do? It was already after check-in.
(We asked him to cancel BTW. This is not the kind of guest we want to have. He did so.)
You did the right thing for the most part. It’s not your fault most guests don’t read. The only thing I’d change is I’d say for you to call support, explain what happened and that you offered an alteration but he wasn’t satisfied so you asked him to cancel. This will just prevent guest giving any bs to the agent saying you pushed the cancel. More of a cover your own ass situation because some agents are fairly naive and will instantly side with guest or simply the first person to call in with their version of events.
Yes, but the reason I asked him to cancel was the fact that he was expecting a whole apartment instead of the clearly indicated room we offer. I felt we were never going to satisfy him and I also felt that he was a lousy guest (not communicating, making a reservation for only 1 guest, …) so I just didn’t want him in my house.
One minute after he canceled, we sent him a message “You wanted an entire apartment, but made a reservation for a private room. We take note that you cancelled for this reason.” This was to keep us safe from BS agents 
.
If I called you with this problem, what kind of cancelation would you give me? Would the guest get a full / partial refund?
Does the resolution center allow hosts to refund more than the amount of the booking?
If it was me, the guest needs to deal with a cbg and get penalities for reduced refund, if any, based on host cxl policy. I can’t stand guests who feel entitled and can’t read. My favorite is “well I’m cancelling within 48 hours so I demand a refund” ok ya sure… You also forgot to read where it says AND 14 days prior to local check in time.
If host is an ass, on the other hand, I’ll do a CBA mutual cxl so host doesn’t get penalities but guest gets full refund. Agents have alot of discretion on what they do so it always pays to be nice to support.