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We’re removing “The listing doesn’t fit the needs of the guests” as a valid reason for a Host to cancel an Instant Book reservation without fees or other consequences. You’ll still be allowed to cancel without consequences if you have evidence a guest intends to break your house rules.
Am I reading this right? If a guest instant books my STR and they want to bring kids or dogs or more people than allowed are they saying I can’t cancel this booking without penalties?
yeah… seems like they are making it difficult for hosts to cancel on scammers, and bad guests.
It also looks like there is no upper limit to penalties. This is terrible for hosts who cancel and terrible for hosts like me who benefit when other hosts cancel.
A lot of homeshare hosts don’t use IB, so can weed out the inappropriate requests without having to cancel.
Love how Airbnb pushes IB, then institutes policies that make IB really risky. First it’s taking away hosts’ IB requirements, so now newbies can IB, then it’s cutting down the acceptable reasons for cancelling without penalty. And now they have uncapped the fine for a host cancelling for whatever they deem an “avoidable cancellation”.
When I’ve used this to cancel it is because a guest asks stupid questions like “will we be sharing the space with anyone else” indicating they have made zero effort to read the listing. I usually reply at first like “No, you will not be sharing the space with anyone else. Please read the listing first as it contains all the information you need to know”. And then it’s like “Yes but can I bring my pet frog?” at which point I cancel them because they are going to be a pita and leave a poor review.
They are copying Booking dot com. I don’t advertise there because I’d be liable for rehousing guests in a “comparable property” if I cancel on a guest, even just a few minutes after they book. The only thing comparable to my home nearby costs $500-$2000US a night more, especially for larger groups. The calendar sync process isn’t robust enough to risk that kind of a penalty.
Please let us know what they say. I would think the standard stuff you select as part of the listing (max number of guests, no parties, no smoking, etc) should not have to be repeated in the house rules. But ABB isn’t good about precise communications/policies, so who knows!
Sadly, but not unexpected, I’m not getting answers that make any sense. They think I’m filing a claim or an incident. Then they are talking about my state’s laws which I never mentioned. It’s just so frustrating dealing with Customer Service.
The only reason I ever cancel IB is if it is a third party booking. I should still be able to cancel these as it is against AirBnB TOS and also listed in my house rules.
However, I am concerned about how to cancel guests who ask for amenities I don’t offer. For example: scent-free cleaning products, previewing the listing beforehand, airport pickup etc.
Guests who ask for special services should of course be sending those in the form of an Inquiry msg. before booking. For the ones who don’t, and IB and make demands after the fact, I guess you just have to be firmly polite and say you don’t offer that, and if it’s a deal breaker for them, that they cancel within the free cancellation period.
Might also be a good idea to mention to guests who do this that in the future, if they have special requests or questions, they should click on the “Contact Host” button before going ahead and booking. So they don’t do this to other hosts.
If I’d had IB turned on I’d have had majority third party bookings and one was a 14 year old boy but airbnb threatened to deregister me because I was knocking back too many bookings I rang them to explain that I was an older female and these bookings would be sharing my house, they told me to turn on IB which luckily I didn’t. It’s a strange system
