Guest cancelled same day

[Nicole2592]

Since switching to a strict cancellation policy, we have had two cancellations in a weeks time. This one happened the day the guests were supposed to arrive. His reasoning is that their baby arrived earlier than expected and his wife is recovering still. 
As a person, I would like to refund his stay. But as a business owner, it’s highly unlikely we can get these same dates booked, especially with him canceling the day he was supposed to arrive. 
Any advice? He is asking if there’s anything we can do. 

[Carly142]

Depends on the situation, but sometimes I do this: 

Try to stay open with the person and tell them exactly that. Tell them you are so excited for them, but unfortunately these dates will probably will remain unfilled because they have been blocked off for their reservation. Tell them that in order to help, since you totally understand their position, you will relist the opening and will give them a partial refund if you are able to fill the dates (Mention you will have to offer the dates at a discounted rate to try to encourage last-minute bookings. I would also reserve a bit for your time dealing with the situation) If the dates fill, give them something back. Maybe 40-50%? If they don't, then they understood the risks of booking something with a strict cancellation policy so close to a due date. 

ALSO- In your payout information, you can see promotions applied to the booking. If you offer a 10% discount for booking non-refundable bookings,  I NEVER GIVE REFUNDS. You cannot expect to get a discount for non-refundable bookings and then get your money back if you cancel, that is dishonest and a lose-lose for hosts. 

Also, depending on circumstances, you can offer to alter the dates if possible. That is better than a flat out loss to the guest. Even if the do not accept, at least you tried to work with them. 

[Gillian166]

oh yes, I had a guest choose the non-refundable option, got his 10% discount AND then asked me to honor an up-to-same-day cancellation should they get covid.  !!

I had no polite words for him, lol, so I said "hopefully everything goes as planned and we don't have to worry about this". And we didn't, it worked out fine, but the audacity of some guests who want the 10% discount and still want to cancel last minute. 🤦🏼‍♀️

[Pat271]

Unfortunately, unless you have an inside line to the situation, you don’t really know what’s going on. The guest may have travel insurance, and he’s trying to double-dip. Or, the real reason he’s cancelling might be much more trivial, but he’s trying the pull-the-heartstrings approach. Over the years, you will hear every sob-story in the book from guests whose sole ambition is to get what they want.

Guests should really have travel insurance, as we are living in an unpredictable world. On top of that, I wouldn’t dream of not getting travel insurance if I were expecting a baby around the same time as any type of travel!

Because you have almost 0 chance to rebook, I don’t think you should refund the guest. If you are really feeling magnanimous, another option is to offer to change the checkin date to some date in the future. Just make sure to call Airbnb to do this, to make sure that the guests don’t get a new free cancellation window. Tell Airbnb that this is why you are calling them.  I have rescheduled my guests a few times this way in the past, especially if the original reservation was booked far into the future.

[Sarah977]

@Nicole2592 "Since switching to a strict cancellation policy, we have had two cancellations in a weeks time. "

I assume you mean your strict policy was in place when these guests booked? Because if you switched to strict after they booked, their booking would be  subject to the policy that was in place when they booked.