I’ve only had an Airbnb host cancel on me 2x with short notice–one was 1 day before and another about 3 weeks before–but that was London in the summer so expensive to find another place. Airbnb did give me some $$ for cancellation but not enough to cover the increased cost to me. Owner claimed plumbing problems, okay, but then why was your place listed a week later at 3x the price? Same with the first one. I’m all for people having legitimate reasons for a cancellation, and I’ve canceled some Airbnbs myself, but always way before the time and within the allotted cancellation time. Just be respectful is all I ask. And give me a good reason. Spiff happens.
In light of what you said, I actually went to look at my next Airbnb booking and I didn’t see any stats or data available for this host or indeed any of the hosts to determine their cancellation rate. Very odd. Literally nothing at all features on their profiles.
I’ve never been cancelled on before through that platform and this will be my 11th Airbnb stay in seven years.
@Chatsetchiens On Airbnb you’ll only see cancelations under individual bookings which were canceled. Instead of a review you might see “host canceled x days before” or something like that. If you don’t see any there aren’t any. I’ve been a host for a decade. Never canceled anyone.
Oh I see what you mean. I’ve never actually seen any of those in amongst any reviews I’ve seen before but now that I’m aware of this, I’ll look a bit more carefully in future. I’ve obviously been very lucky with my experiences so far!
I’ve been on this site for 5 years, have done 40 sits and never been cancelled on yet. I have however had hassles multiple times with hosts mucking me about with dates and I’ve had far too many early returners unannounced. It’s been quite the learning curve that’s for sure!
There are clear-cut cancellations made months in advance or just days before the sit, but there’s also the scenario of a sitter leaving early or a homeowner returning early for reasons that may seem valid to them but not to others. Numerous posts highlight sitters leaving due to concerns such as aggressive animals, surveillance cameras, or hygiene issues, while homeowners also deviate from agreed-upon dates for various reasons. Drawing a line becomes challenging in such circumstances. Tracking cancellations alone overlooks the broader context of commitment issues. However, managing this comprehensively would be an administrative challenge. It’s unlikely that THS would undertake this without resorting to a simplified solution like the overlap ‘fix’, which ultimately benefits their operational efficiency and reputation. Crafting a solution to address this multifaceted issue will undoubtedly be a daunting task for the product team.
I agree. It happened to us with the first sit arranged through THS and i thought I’d been super organised arranging for a sitter 9 months before we travelled. I was let day 10 days before we were due to leave. I was told by the sitter, its OK you’ll get another sitter! The sit was a 3 week stay in August so 10 days really wasnt enough notice! I was so annoyed as we had 4 pets who needed caring for! I support your idea that membership should be withdrawn but the difficulty is there probably are many genuine reasons a person may pull out and they could lie about their reasons. So difficult!
My solution when a sitter cancelled at very short notice was to arrange my own cover, keep the sit open with the arranged sitter, even though this person was obviously not going to turn up and then give them a 1 star review and state the reason was because I was let down at very short notice! Hopefully it warned future hosts!
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Well said Joe, this is definitely happening a lot more. I believe this is due to many younger sitters, who are just not commited. They see something better or other opportunites and just decide they do not have to do if they change their minds. I am finding more and more that I am being contacted, as owners have had sitters cancel on them at the last minute. Last year I did one sit just to help out as owners were desperate. They had sitters who had canxcelled on them twice. The second ones cancelled only a week beforehand. I myself had actually been looking forward to a few days to myself as just returned from holiday but ended up doing it to help them out for a long weekend. Others I have not been able to do, as too far away and too short notice or doing other things etc. I am being contacted more and more due to cancellations, so it is getting a problem.
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Yes, I suggested likewise on a thread where a host had a sitter not turn up (just didn’t show as scheduled, without any word, and then days later got in contact without any legit explanation) — don’t cancel the sit, so the host could review that crappy sitter and warn other hosts.
To me, THS should just boot a sitter like that.
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@Jacqui I will just add HO’s should understand that by not canceling the current confirmed sit, they would not be able to repost.
New HO’s on the forum may not know that part.
I agree with your solution to not cancel the sit since you were able to secure home/pet sit care elsewhere.
I understand that stuff happens, but we’ve been with THS two years now, have had 8 successful sits (we’re homeowners) and we just had a sit cancel-AFTER the time had started. We reached out a few days prior to ask if we could pick them up from the bus station and they informed us their flight had cancelled, and been rescheduled for the next day. We were flying out on that next day, two hours prior to when they would land (their flight was 4 hours to get to our airport). We arranged for friends to meet them, pick them up, and intro them to our dog and house.
Unfortunately, when we landed, we had a flurry of messages from friends & the sitter—their flight had been cancelled again (they mentioned something about engine issues?) and now they were unable to arrive until five days later-for a 12 day sit.
Luckily, we have a good village, and our friends stepped up big time. But it was very stressful to try to find new sitters (we wound up going with paid care in our home) and now my wife is gunshy about using THS further.
Additionally, when I contacted THS to let them know about the problem, they told me that customer service had already cancelled the sit for the sitter. We had agreed with the sitter that the sit should be cancelled (so we could re-list it!) but that goes contrary to what others have said in the thread about only HO being able to cancel.
We are premium members, and I’ve filed a claim. This just happened on 24 Jan, and claim filed yesterday, we’ll see what happens. But yeah, after our experience, I’d like to see a record of cancellations within the last 3 years. Stuff happens, and I know there are issues with the Max 9 airplanes, but the airline they were flying doesn’t have any of those. I have had 8 previous good experiences, so I’m willing to go with majority.
Edited to remove listing details as per the posting terms
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When for example HOs are returning by air, I always ask them for their flight number so that I can see on Flightradar if there are any problems.
It is not uncommon that flights get cancelled or delayed or rerouted. This week, my daughter was on a plane that turned around halfway. Technical problem, scary…
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I think there should be a system in place for THS to track ALL cancellations done by both sitter and HO.
A lot of companies use case tracking systems with multiple record types and issue detail.
Ex.
Record type > issue detail
-Sitter / HO Cancelled agreed sit (record type)
Flight Cancelled (issue detail)
Life threatening illness
Family death
Financial hardship
None (this issue detail could apply for all the flakey reasons).
This is just an example and idea. There could be multiple record types for any violation of the T&C.
Out of 9 sitters I have had I’ve only had 1 sitter cancel on me who had a death in her extended family. I had at least a month to find someone for just a 2-3 day sit and ended up having a lovely family that were driving through Chicago sit for us. I saw last year that the sitter who had cancelled on us was not an active member anymore so I don’t know what happened but we really liked her.
If THS has something like this in place for keeping track of complaints, they should be able to track and have the data for cancellations when a HO or sitter files a complain against a member. Maybe they do and it’s just not something they would share with their customers (us).I work for a big corporate company and work in the analytics department, and we use these type of metrics for customer satisfaction and quality assurance, but I also know that this is not data we share with everyone in the company, let alone customers.
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As a former executive in corporate America, I think it should be clear at this point that THS is focused on user growth and revenue growth. A KICK THEM OFF policy that you describe is not going to further that end. For the same reasons, THS does nothing to enforce the no third parties policy and I see countless listings of HO that include a third party who will be present the duration of the stay. There is no report button and nothing in the process to stop HO from doing this and getting away with it. THS wants recurring membership renewals. I also don’t think of sitters as a “workforce.”
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Sitters can’t cancel from their side, it has to be the HO who unconfirms them.
I’m confused how THS is anything like Airbnb, if you have paid for accommodation via Airbnb and you cancel then you’ll probably lose the money, if the home owner cancels you (which I can’t see is of any benefit to them) then you’d be entitled to get your money refunded?
Thank you, you are right. The same happened to me, HO changed her dates constantly for two months (back and forth by ten days at the start and four at the end) she still had no clue on her dates so communication broke down completely and with nine weeks notice I said she should find someone more flexible as I’m full-time sitter. Now she’s lied about the situation on another thread. Always three sides to a story.
But my first sitter cancelled on me. How was she able to?
@Jeannine17 unless her membership expired I don’t see how she could do this if it was a confirmed sit . Have you asked member services about this ?
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@MC81 I was just on AirBnB regarding a reservation we have. I am logged in but don’t see anywhere to check on the host’s cancelation rate. I’ve looked on the mobile app as well as the website version.
Where exactly do you access this info?