Would I be unreasonable to cancel on an Airbnb guest arriving tomorrow?

[Abouttogonuts]

I’m about to explode with stress. Got a sick child (been cleaning up vomit all day) and another child on half term. We’re going away tomorrow to stay with in-laws and putting our place on Airbnb (as we usually do when we go away).

Got a cleaner coming of course, but haven’t been able to organise or do anything because of sick child, other child on half term. (I usually lock up one room with all our valuables, but haven’t been able to start doing that yet.)

And there is laundry coming out of my ears!

Also behind on the one day of work I had to do this week (yesterday but couldn’t because of said sick child).

I know I’d get fined by Airbnb, but would I be unreasonable to cancel on guest? We live in London, there is other availability locally. Though pricier for less nice (making me also think I undercharge!).

If we cancelled, I’d go to in-laws’ a bit later this week, when sick child is better, and stick the telly on for him tomorrow to properly sort the place out and finish my work...

Yabu.

If you cancel you need to find them alternative accommodation and pay the difference if it's pricier.

Cancel. It is unreasonable to have someone staying in your house when it has been full of vomit bug the day before. I would be absolutely furious if I caught a vom bug from accommodation when I was away or on holiday. It’s an inconvenience for them but catching norovirus would be far more of an inconvenience.

YANBU. I’ve found that London AirBnBs often cancel with very little notice (much more than other places) which is annoying but is part of the pay-off for relatively cheap accommodation. The whole idea is you’re staying in someone’s home, not a hotel (an idea that has become lost where I live...), so these things happen. Just explain the circumstances

Jesus Christ, nobody has norovirus. A kid is run down towards the end of term and has been sick. The house isn't "contaminated" OP has promised her home on air b&b and hasn't been organised. She should've had most of it ready way before now anyway.

What did you do op?

This is why I won't book with Airbnb. It's not a professional organisation at all, and anyone could be putting their house up. I'll stick to professionals. You don't seem to care about potentially ruining someone's trip, just that it is inconvenient for you.

would love to know whats happened...
the right thing is to contact airbnb so they can offer the visitor some alternative accommodation whereby they aren't inconvenienced or out of pocket. To just cancel and leave them in limbo on the day they are arriving is awful.

This is why I won't book with Airbnb. It's not a professional organisation at all, and anyone could be putting their house up. I'll stick to professionals.

depends who you book with.
The OP is clearly unprofessional and doing everything last minute by the sound of it. Fine to cancel because of a sick bug, but you contact with a LIST of similar and alternative arrangements and pay the difference. That's what any hotel does anyway!

But some listings are of professional settings, not all AirBnB are a room in someone's house. I use them a lot, I have never stayed in somebody's house! You can even find some hotels on there.

Unreasonable. Half term was hardly a surprise was it?

I don't list on AirBnB or use it.

It's more than time that short term rentals became regulated

Another host here. I’ve never cancelled a guest. Not even when I had a family bereavement earlier this year. I had the news while someone was staying with me. I simple explained to her why I was so upset, and asked for her understanding. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask her to leave, which is what another guest told me had happened to her.

Fortunately I had no future booking at that point, so I was able to block my calendar until I knew the funeral dates. If they had clashed I would have just gone to my co-host who would have been on call if anything had gone wrong in my house while I was away.

I’ve had someone tell me that she arrived in London to find her hosts had cancelled. Airbnb gave her a full refund, but the money took a couple of days to arrive back in her bank account!! This meant she didn’t have the means to pay to go elsewhere on her day of arrival. She had to call a friend to transfer her some money to tide her over.

Be warned! This is what Airbnb need to sort out. If a host cancels the guest should have their money returned straight away!

YANBU London is choc block of AirBnB places to stay. They can easily find somewhere else.

They can easily find somewhere else.

it shouldn't be up to them to find another place. It's not impossible either that last-minute bookings are less appealing or more expensive, so they shouldn't be out of pocket

Yes you are. We had our accommodation cancelled two days before and almost had to cancel our trip. The stress for us was horrendous.

I hope you didnt OP. we've had this done and it's very stressful. I'd never dream of cancelling on anyone that last minute.

What did you do in the end?

There seem to be lots of people on here who think it's fine for OP to cancel essentially because she's stressed. (yes, I know some posters have said they wouldn't want to stay in a house where a child had been recently ill, but that wasn't the OP's actual reason for doing it - her reasons were entirely selfish.)

Do they not think having to find somewhere to stay at the last minute might be incredibly stressful for their guest?

I've never used AirBnB but was considering giving it a try for our next trip....this post has made me realise how easy it would be for a booking to just be cancelled on a whim. I don't think I'll be booking with AirBnB after all.

Purple me too, we looked to book one in Rome recently but we're put off when the 'super host" stated on her listing that once booking and € were taken she would only correspond with customers via WhatsApp, no emails or calls .

OP what did you decide to do?

Don't think OP is coming back as she'll get flamed either way (not cancelling exposes guests to possible virus and cancelling inconveniences them).

Redsky has it.

I worked for a very upmarket French all inclusive once.

You could easily be sleeping in a bed a man died of from a heartattck two hours ago, a vomiting child/family, someone who had shat themselves and vomited all over the room, someone who had had an all day anal sex session.

You would never have known or thought to have asked. The room would have been clean and immaculate and possibly repainted in those few hours.

The OP is simply making awful excuses. Her DC (ONE of them) was sick, the rest were fine, the old 'vomiting bug' has been picked up by others and is irrelevant,

I also rent a villa, I would never, ever ,ever cancel someone, ever.

@redskytonight I totally agree.

She want saying oh no, I might pass on a bug to my customers. She was saying oh I have lots of laundry to do, I'm behind on my.work etc. Wtf. That poor family looking forward to their holiday.

we're put off when the 'super host" stated on her listing that once booking and € were taken she would only correspond with customers via WhatsApp, no emails or calls

Yeah, that sounds super, super dodgy. WhatsApp is end to end encrypted which I think would make it a lot harder to prove what was actually said in any conversations.

I have used it a couple of times on my own or with friends, without any issues, but I would never book one for a family holiday, as it would be too stressful if anything went wrong.

yes of course you would be

This is the risk you have when you try and earn money on Air bnb

Ironically renting through Airbnb is equally stressful for the host.

The guest can cancel up to a week before for a full refund. Which you may well not get back.

They have by far the shittest cancellation policies of any rental site.

Homeaway and VRBO are much safer in that regard.

Which you may well not get back.

If you can’t rebook I mean.