Guest wants leave 11 days early as her flat is ready

[Sarah4703]

Please advise - my guest wants leave 11 days early as her flat is ready now, and the other people have vacated early. 

My settings are moderate so I should give a full refund 5 days prior to arrival, but it says nothing about when she's in the middle of a stay.

 She's given me 24 hours notice. Please can you advise if I what I should do regarding her outstanding days. Do I need to give her a full refund for this even though I am unlikely to be able to rebook them?
Many thanks, Sarah

[Anonymous]

@Sarah4703   https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/475/cancellation-policies-for-your-listing

The policy applies the same if the guest cancels in the middle of the day as it does when the guest cancels less than 5 days before.

Moderate

• Guests can cancel until 5 days before check-in for a full refund, and you won’t be paid
• If they cancel after that, you’ll be paid for each night they stay, plus 1 additional night, plus 50% for all unspent nights

[Sandra856]

@Sarah4703 It is as Andrew explains. A guest is allowed to cancel whenever and the guest will then automatically get refunded according to the cancellation policy. Your guest will need to cancel on the day of check out before check out time (otherwise she will have to pay for an extra day). You will get paid for 1 day and 50% for the rest of the days. 
Your guest must cancel from her side alone and she will be able to see what she will get refunded before she presses the final cancellation button. You will get an email that tells you about the cancellation and updated payout. If you have already been paid from Airbnb - Airbnb will deduct the refund from future bookings. You don’t have to do a thing - the system will automatically refund the guest according to the policy. So just tell your guest that she will need to cancel the stay on the day of check out and that she will get refunded automatically by Airbnb when she cancels. Remember you don’t and should NEVER accept an alteration request as you will then give her a full refund. She must cancel from her side alone :-). 

[Huma0]

@Sarah4703 

What @Sandra856 says, but do please take her advice and get the guest to cancel on the day of check out. I had a guest who had to leave early (not because she was unhappy but due to circumstances) who was happy to pay as per the cancellation policy because she was getting refunded by her university anyway. Airbnb even spoke to the guest to confirm this was the case.

However, because she contacted Airbnb about it prior to her check out, CS took the cancellation from the date they spoke to her and not only refunded her all remaining nights despite this being totally against the cancellation policy in place but also for days she had already stayed. It took a month of constant fighting with CS to get my payout.

[Sandra856]

@Sarah4703 she most likely send you a request to alter the stay as Airbnb then will automatically give you 24 hours to reply. You should NEVER accept such a request as you will then give her a full refund and not a refund that follows the cancellation policy. Just decline it and explain to the guest that the guest needs to cancel from her reservation page on the day of check out and she will get refunded according to the agreement/the contract - and it all happens automatically. That is the procedure when a guest for whatever reason decides to cancel before or during the stay. You don’t have to do a thing. 

[Sandra856]

@Sarah4703 I also want to say that whenever I have had a guest that needed to cancel - I always tell the guest that in case someone new books some or all of the days - that I will gladly refund the guest those days. When your guest cancels your calendar will reopen so new guests can book. I think it is fair but it also makes the atmosphere lighter and it could be helpful for when the guest writes the review 🙂. 

[Huma0]

Sorry, tried to delete the above post but it wouldn't let me...

[Sarah4703]

Hi Sandra,

Thanks so much for your insight!

It's the first time I've hosted, so really appreciate your help. I tried to accept her reservation change before I had seen you reply, and fortunately, it came up as an error, so I've declined it now. I told her to cancel her booking on the day we agreed she would leave.

Many thanks for all your advice xx

[Anonymous]

@Sandra856   I'm not sure I understand - why would a guest cancel on the date of check-out? It doesn't make sense to terminate a booking that's already ended.

[Sandra856]

@Anonymous What I mean is the day the guest wish to check out.