Yes, they do. Hosts are strongly disincentivised from cancelling on guests at any notice, for any reason. On the one occasion where the apartment I own and let

Yes, they do. Hosts are strongly disincentivised from cancelling on guests at any notice, for any reason. On the one occasion where the apartment I own and let on Airbnb was unavailable at short notice, as the boiler (new, recently serviced) failed spectacularly, I ensured the guests were in equivalent accommodation or better (ended up better, as the only thing I could find with a few hours notice was a nine bedroom house), as cancelling would mean losing my superhost status (only book with superhosts and you will more likely than not avoid the cancellation problem), and failing to provide an adequate service could result in a poor review, which again could not only cost me superhost, but also tank the business - negative reviews hugely impact your search ranking and conversion rate. So, while there isn’t a huge amount of recompense in the event it happens (I’ve been on the receiving end, literally arrived for them to tell me that sorry, they can’t do this week - it sucks), they do penalise hosts who do this, and will almost always take the side of the guest in any dispute.