Fees "deducted" from cancellation

[Cat4918]

We have a request from a guest who cancelled due to the impacts if COVID-19.

They have requested money that they were charged for the reservations (they cancelled over a month in advance).

When we look to send money the wording is that it "will be deducted from your next payout".

We do not have clarification if we end up paying out of pocket for these fees or if they just are never credited and it is all returned to the guest , making it a $0 transaction.

Obviously we are not in the business of paying people to cancel.

We cannot find the answer and we are not getting an answer from AirBnB.

[Linda108]

Since Air BNB is in charge of the money transaction, perhaps it would be better for you to direct the guest to request cancellation through Air BNB.  Air BNB will process the cancellation according to your cancellation policy unless there is some reason to apply the extenuating policy.  Rather than your trying to second guess what should be the refund,  Air BNB will process.  If you have not been paid and are seeking to send money to the guest, the only way Air BNB can send money is to deduct from the next payment.  If you want to refund more money than the sysem will allow, you can do that after the fact.  Again, let Air BNB sort with the guest first.

[Debra300]

@Cat4918,

It's poor wording from Airbnb, but you shouldn't even send a guest money for a canceled reservation.  Let Airbnb process the refund according to the cancellation policy you've chosen or the extenuating circumstances policy, if it qualifies.  If you send the guest money, and then Airbnb processes the refund, the guest will get twice the money.