On September 21, 2017, I booked a room over the New Year’s holiday in a resort town in Southern California. I made the reservation and paid in full in good faith. Yesterday, my host canceled my reservation. She got a better offer; I was dumped. This was her message:
“Regretfully, I will be cancelling your reservation as I will be out of town and have a family interested in renting the entire house for the holidays.”
Besides being pissed and having to scramble to find another place to stay in a popular location over a holiday, I have two basic questions (both likely rhetorical). Why do I not have the ability to leave public feedback about her regarding this? My host could have penalized me if I would have cancelled on her by retaining a portion (up to half) of the money I paid her. Yet as a guest, when my host cancels on me, I have to just take it. Why is she not monetarily penalized for my inconvenience as I would have been for hers?
I would slick with the Hosts that have equity on Airbnb; namely, the Superhosts. You may pay a bit more, but you have built in references. And they have a lot more to lose if they cancel.
Yes, I’m a Superhost.
As Mary said, the host will have the ‘cancelled by host’ review on their website. They will also be non eligible for ‘super host’ status for a year and may be fined by Airbnb (for me it was $130.00). I am a host and my guest asked me to cancel their booking, unfortunately I did and I’ve been paying for it ever since. So no, the host does not get off that lightly at all
Host will actually automatically have a message ‘cancelled by host’ on his listing and cancelled dates are blocked for booking. That said, the host could well have his properties published on other platforms…..
It’s outrageous! Similar thing just happened to me – the price I had already paid was jacked up on me, and when I refused to pay the new higher rate, my reservation was canceled. Your suggestion that we, as guests, have to just bend over and take, while the hosts have their way with us, seems spot on, sadly. 🙁