Failure to flag message

[Adam24]

Dear All,

I'm new to hosting but have been having a great time so far. This is the first issue that I'm unsure how to resolve. This is what happened...

1. Guest inquiry: wanted to pay outside of airbnb
2. I very politely replied: no, everything goes through airbnb
3. Guest books (instant booking activated)...
4. ...but I don't really trust this guest and I don't really feel comfortable with him coming to my home!

He booked one week ago. He's not due to arrive for another three weeks. I didn't flag the message. I know I should have done. It just... never occurred to me! I flagged it just now.

Questions:

1. Do I HAVE TO host this person, even if I feel uncomfortable about them having tried to pay outside of airbnb?
2. Once airbnb have noticed that the message has been flagged, can I cancel without losing the superhost thing?

[Clare0]

@Adam24 There are special waivers for cancelling Instant Book reservations.  You can read this article where they are explained: 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work

If you have further concerns about this guest, you can flag their profile using the little flag icon.  That will send it to Airbnb for review.  Or you can discuss directly with Airbnb: 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Tips-Tricks/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165/highligh...

Would be interested to know how it worked out!

[Marit-Anne0]

@Clare0

I notice that the Instant Book allowance to cancel penalty free if uncomfortable with guest now has been removed from the article.  

[Clare0]

@Marit-Anne0 Coincidentally I was just talking to some other hosts about this.  I guess the get out of jail passes for IB hosts has been rescinded.  Maybe it was abused?  Sad for new hosts who have IB set as default...they are the ones that get into trouble right off the bat. I would suggest that new hosts with IB get a grace period, perhaps a week or two after first publishing their listing so they can figure out what's going on. 

I'd be interested to know how the cancellation experiment in Italy is going.  Guests can get a full refund if they cancel within a certain period of time of booking. 

We'll have to wait and see how this goes.  I think Airbnb needs to totally rethink their cancellation policies and procedures as it is one of the biggest issues, it seems, on Airbnb. 

All the best, Clare

[BJ-and-Joe0]

Hi there

I'm interested to hear how this goes too!

I've recently received a couple of 1st time users enquiries where the potential visitor's second message is about trying to book outside of Airbnb. First time this happened, we kept politely replying no, we only book through Airbnb, and allowed them to stay thinking this might be a language barrier and first time user - that guest was challenging.

Because of that, as I have another new user, that is trying this approach, I'm flagging it.  But I don't know if this suspends the user or that they get a notice from AirBNB that they're message is being reviewed....

[Clare0]

@BJ-and-Joe0 Airbnb's Trust and Safety team will review the flagged message.  More than likely their account will be terminated for violating Airbnb's Terms of Service which state that guests and hosts are prohibited from doing off site reservations. 

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

While it may have made you uncomfortable, I don't see a reason not to host this guest.  It seems they probably wanted to avoid the Airbnb fees associated with the booking so figured they would ask.  Not ALL hosts are as prudent about saying no to requests to book outside the Airbnb system, even though they should be.  If they went ahead and booked through the system without putting up a fight or hassle, I would accept their reservation.