Will guest get full refund?

It’s not your dilemma it’s theirs. And they should be cancelling this isn’t even something they need authority to do !

HI cassid, did the son call air himself? I don’t think I’ll be able to get this guest to call air. He’s just requested me to cancel. He’s booking for friends and probably will just find somewhere else to book. At this point if he does nothing, the reservation will cancell at 11:00 on the 21st and I will be penalized.

This is what the message to me says: You have until Mar 21 at 11:52 AM to respond_
If we don’t hear back, the reservation will be canceled on your behalf. Standard host cancellation penalties will apply. And then when I click on the penalties it says this:

Host Cancellation Penalties

Your listing may be temporarily paused if you cancel multiple reservations_emphasized text_
The listing would be removed from search results until you reactivate
Cancellation fee
It’s your first cancellation in 6 months, so we’re waiving the fee
Automatic cancellation review
An automatic review will be posted on your listing
Blocked calendar dates
Your calendar will remain blocked for the dates of the canceled reservation
Loss of Superhost status
You’ll have to wait a full year to regain Superhost status

If it was an IB booking, cancel using the ‘I feel uncomfortable’ option and you will not be penalized.

I did call them one more time and once again, got a very nice customer service rep that told me “she didn’t have the tools” to help me. She also told me there was no supervisor I could speak to. She said my case was marked URGENT, and that someone would get back to me. When I asked how long it typically takes she said I should hear something within 3 days. I told her that I only had until 11:00 am on the 21st to do something and she didn’t have much to say. We are going out of town tomorrow and I need to devote time for getting ready for our trip, but now I see how air treats the people that are making them money. I’m thinking maybe we should just turn it back into an LTR and not deal with all the hassle. I love hosting, but I do want to be treated with respect. I suppose it’s possible that there really isn’t anyone that can do anything until tomorrow. We’ll see what happens with this and then I will have to do some thinking.

It was IB. Why am I getting the pop-up above then about blocked calendar dates and loss of superhost status? The second rep I talked to even told me, “DO NOT CANCEL” if you don’t want to lose your superhost status.

I just did an IB cancel about 2 weeks ago and didn’t get any penalty. I would not listen to the rep, but that’s my experience.

Are you a superhost?

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reservation

You get 3 penalty-free cancellations for IB bookings, which mean the penalties are waived. See above website from ABB that says that.

If I do the cancellation, rather than following the guest’s “request for me to cancel”, then it says I can cancel without penalty. However, i do, for whatever silly reason, care about my Superhost status, and don’t want to lose it due to something the guest did wrong. Do you think I should just cancel it to free up my calendar and then deal with airbnb about my superhost status later?

Penalty free means you won’t lose your superhost status

Read the links! You get 3 PENALTY FREE cancellations.

Just quickly scrolled through this thread so apologies if I missed the crucial point: what is wrong with these guests and why are you worried about them?

Okay, I got the impression that regardless of the reason, if I cancel I’ll lose superhost, I just won’t have any other penalties. Because in the superhost requirements it says: Completed each of your confirmed reservations without canceling. Anyway, I went ahead and canceled because I don’t want to deal with it anymore. If I lose my superhost status so be it.

Because the person that booked said he was booking for three people from Germany; he is not staying there. I tried to encourage him to cancel and have the people book directly, but he just sent me a request to cancel. He probably didn’t want to cancel because my cancellation policy is strict. I asked him if any of them had an airbnb account, but he didn’t reply to that either. He also listed three people but only booked for 2, not paying my extra person fee. He has no reviews (not that it matters since he wouldn’t be staying), and I snooped his Facebook page to see he is in the music industry and talks about partying, etc., a lot. I just didn’t feel comfortable.

OK, fair enough. If you have a whole rental I can see that would make you uneasy. And third party bookings are against the rules. If you do IB, though, you have to accept the occasional potential dodgy guest. I’ve been doing IB for ages and actually now accept absolutely anyone - experience has taught that me that screening guests means nothing in reality. There has been no difference in the quality of guests since I switched to ‘anyone can book’. My absolute worst guests have been those that presented well at the outset.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable” is a bit lame, to be honest. The guy is arranging his travel, maybe your questions are not his priority right now. I know this goes against most hosts instincts but honestly, we are just a place to stay!

So you don’t care if it’s a third party booking? I think I’d rather know who is staying.

Third party bookings invalidate the host guarantee because they are against the TOS. Therefore I don’t get the CS reps stance towards this.

Yes, I told him that the booking will be cancelled and he rang airbnb and explained the situation and he cancelled and got all the money back and his mam booked then. Air rang me I told them I was happy to host his parents either way, I kept all my contact via air but he wanted to do it off air. He could have found me easy enough as our children are in the same school but I prefer to keep everything on the airbnb system