Beware of AirBnb on 30+Day Stays, Guests Can Leave Early

[Bob Mueller Jr.]

I am running a 30-day minimum property on AirBnb/VRBO and just had a bizarre and bad experience with AirBnb that others might want to look out for.  A guest booked my property back in April from June 15th - September 15th (90 days).  The guest was relocating from California, and moving to St. Petersburg, FL to find jobs and look at local housing.  Everything was good until July 5th, when the guest reached out to me and asked if they could cancel the reservation because they wanted to move to another property that was "closer to work" and "closer to where their kids would go to school" even though they were happy with the house.  I told them I wasn't sure, and I contacted AirBnb who told me yes they could cancel early but they would need to pay a 30-night penalty per the AirBnb long-term stay rules.  I reported that to the guest, so then the guest called AirBnb and this is where it gets interesting: 

AirBnb rules allow guests to "amend reservations, but not cancel them" as long as they are greater than 30-nights away from the check-out date and the host does not have to approve the change.  With this, the guest simply changed their check-out date from Sept 15th to July 15th in the system and they are getting to walk away from the reservation with zero penalties.  Upset at this bad policy, I have called AirBnb several times asking what is different between an "amendment" and a "cancellation" when the end result is the same for the host---the guest is walking away early.  

Booking 30-day stays isn't easy, and AirBnb has put me in a bad spot with basically 7-10 days to rebook my 30-day calendar that this guest had 100% locked down since April.  Has anyone had this happen before on a long term stay with AirBnb?  Am I overreacting?  I just feel this guest should have paid "SOMETHING" for walking away from a 90-day reservation at the 30% point, but they are literally only paying the # of nights they actually stayed and then AirBnb is leaving me holding the bag....       

[Lisa Graesser]

I do not list on airbnb, I have read more negative than positive threads regarding how they seem guest friendly vs. Host friendly.  I have several 30-90 day reservations, but these are basically all direct bookings. I have a no refund cancellation policy. I have had guest leave a few days early to beat the snowbird traffic in April from Florida and have had one guest who rented 60 days and notified me 2 days in advance that they were leaving 30 days early due to a family situation. I did not give them a refund, but if I could have rented it during that time period, I would have refunded them that amount. These are with direct bookings. I seem to have a different demographic than most of the regulars here. I cater to the retired population, snowbirds in the winter and most of my VRBO reservation are the younger generation, wanting a place to stay while visiting family in the off season. Most of you would probably be surpised to know that the majority of my inquires and reservations when I have availability come from Zillow. I think it may be due to my generation target. But if I were you @Bob Mueller Jr. I woud list on Zillow, the older generation love Florida and I think there is a comfort and familiarity with Zillow and you can book direct and make your own rules.