Alteration request below minimum night requirement

[Nick30]

I've just received an alteration request to a 2 night reservation from a guest who had made a reservation on a listing with a minimum 3 night stay. Is this something new that Airbnb are allowing, I've never received such a request before?

I don't really see the reason for allowing such a request to be made to the booking? Why do I now need to justify this minimum requirement to the guest? All it results in is either an unhappy guest or host, or both.

[Nick30]

I'm now anticipating a cancellation from the guest, who is likely to rebook a new listing nearby which has those dates available for a 2 night stay. Some might argue that this at least allows me to compete with the new listing but personally I feel it only encourages the behaviour from the guest. 

The booking is only 10 days away so I think I'll probably have to reassess using the moderate cancellation policy if Airbnb continue to allow such alteration requests.

[Ton11]

Hi Nick,

I agree that this should not have been possible and that the guest should have been informed that his alteration request is not possible due to minimum number of nights set by the host.

This may be a bug in the system. To know this for sure, and maybe to avoid this from happening again, best call Airbnb and report this.

I hope this helps.

[Nick30]

Thank you Ton, I will query this with Airbnb. It will be interesting to hear if any other hosts have experienced this recently or if it is indeed an existing Airbnb policy.

[Glen42]

Hi, I had the same issue just this week.  Guest requested to alter reservation into less than the minimum required to book.  Sent report to support about how guests could abuse this loophole into tricking hosts to accept booking just to hold the place, thinking that they could reduce the length of stay anyway.  This is wrong, unfair and system should be corrected.  In my case i do not have enough staff to accommodate more frequent turnovers as a result of this.  I also lose more nights as i set my preparation period to one night before and after bookings... plus the fact that we make them unhappy if we decline, a negative feedback to us..

[Glen42]

Reply from our techical support:

“Yes,it allows them to change if the reservation is only accepted but its still needs approval of the host before it got confirmed. We understand those changes during the reservation dates, for ex. family emergency, or work schedule issue that guest may need to go back right away, and Airbnb understands this type of situations.”

My reply:

This one puts our hosts into a losing end.  Although hosts are in control, we are now basically inclined to accept whatever guests requests, otherwise the probability of getting a good feedback is almost impossible.  This gives guests a certain amount of control, its good if their reason is totally understandable but as I have stated, the platform is giving them a loophole as well that they can also abuse.

I do not complain about reducing the reserved nights after booking them.  But not to the extent that it already goes below the minimum number of nights set by the hosts.