Instant booking house rules broken.

[Heather97]

A guest has instant booked. Has a child 3.5 years. My house rules say not suitable for children under 12. Can I cancel without penalty? He also has not included this child in number of guests.

[Linda108]

@Heather97  Yes you can cancel this reservation under the IB rules given that the guest did not comply with your house rules.  Be sure to keep all communication on the Air BNB platform.  Make sure to watch the dates on your calendar to ensure the dates are made available. 

[Heather97]

How do I cancel? When I go to the part where I have to give a reason to cancel , broken house rules are not an option.

[William100]

Frankly I turned instant booking off for this reason. And, in spite of what Airbnb says, I don't think it has hurt my rentals. I am much happier having a conversation with my future guests prior to accepting their requests. 

A perfect example was was a woman who wanted to bring her small grandchildren to my cabin - which is not child-proof and has a loft area. After a brief conversation I was comfortable that the children would never leave her sight and that they would bring a gate for the loft. 

They wound up up having a wonderful time and left me the best review ever. 

[David126]

Call ABB and get it cancelled.

[Lilian20]

There's no penalty for cancelling a booking that doesn't fit in house rules. Make sure that the guest understands this and cancel by himself. If no reaction from the guest, contact airbnb support team by phone to get them to cancel the booking and amend your calendar. 

[Andrea9]

@Heather97

A short while back ABB changed the wording from "Not safe or suitable..." to "May not be safe or suitable for children".

If I were a parent I might see this as a very flexible statement. For this reason I  additionally added in my text section of House rules that it's not safe or suitable to leave no room for the imagination.

[Heather97]

@Andrea9  This is exactly what has happened. I had no idea that the wording had changed and my guest has decided he would just take it as a warning and go for it anyway. I persuaded my guest to cancel but have had to contact Airbnb as they stated that I will be penalised. It is under review at the moment.

[Tanya30]

I have just had exactly the same situation happen to me.  Now I will have to cancel or persuade the guest to cancel.  May have to turn off the instant booking as well because this past week I also had a booking that once they booked they informed me they wanted to throw a surprise Birthday party with 10 - 12 guests.  Really people do not read the rules!

[Andrea9]

@Tanya30

I'd iron-clad the house rules more. Begin with something to the tune of:

With booking you confirm having read, understood, and agree to house rules. Breaking house rules will be grounds for cancellation.

I'd also again list "Absolutely no parties"

Your listing seems to allow visitors since it doesn't say anything, if no: Only booked and registered persons allowed on property.

Accommodation is not safe or suitable for children 0-12 (or whatever age). This one is important because ABB's wording is "may not be" and there was a recent case mentioned yesterday in which the host's complaint was overruled.

I would also mention the coyotes and cats in shorter and concise bullet points.

There are too many guests who think it's okay to stretch the rules. This forces hosts to think like a business to protect their business. 

[Tanya30]

Thanks so much for the wise words.  I have made changes already.  Appreciate the help.