Guest wants to cancel within 24 h but I don't want to

[Jedrzej2]

Hey,

My policy allows cancellation at least 24 hours before arrival.

A guest asks to cancel and have a full refund just 4 hours before checkin - because the weather is not good enough for her to come over for the weekend.

How do I deal with it?

I see 3 options and none of them seems to be optimal or even fair:

1) I just accept and fully refund them - bad for me of course, there is a reason why I have a 24h+ policy

2) I don't let her cancel and she still decides to come because she would rather come than loose the money for nothing (my place is not too far from the guest's location so she is flexible to drive here).

BUT THEN: she has all the reasons to  be mean and at the end give me a negative review

3) I don't let her cancel and she doesn't come. Does she still have the right to give me a review? I suppose so? So then I'm obviously in a very bad situation because the review will surely be negative, even though she might not have stayed here at all.

How to resolve that? Does Airbnb have any policies for this kind of situations?

[Elaine701]

@Jedrzej2 

24 hours is the policy. That's it. You've lost any chance of another booking. I'd be firm on the policy. 

The only potential problem is if the guest can still write a review (I believe they can, if the cancellation takes place within the calendar day of arrival), in which they can say anything they want and it will never be removed. Even if they never set foot on the property, and fabricated the entire thing.

Retaliatory reviews can be very damaging. Even cause your listing to be suspended, even delisted. So if this is the case, better to give them their refund and chalk it up to experience.

[Jenny349]

@Jedrzej2 

I’d just stump up the refund (cursing all the while waiting f course!). Not worth the risk of a horrible review if you don’t, but that’s only my opinion.

I would seriously consider changing your cancellation policy ! I think moderate still gives guests 5 days to cancel, which would at least give you a chance to rebook!

[Sarah977]

@Jedrzej2  A guest can cancel if they want to- it isn't a matter of the host "not letting" the guest cancel.

Just tell her that Airbnb handles cancellations and refunds, not the host.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jedrzej2  If you agree that she cancel it means you agree that she cancel ON YOUR BEHALF. This is the same as if you cancel so you will be penalized (100$ fee, blocked dates, losing super host status etc..)

NEVER agree to cancelation. If she wants to cancel she can do that without your consent but she will be refunded according to your cancelation policy. That's why we have cancelation policies.

[Colleen253]

@Jedrzej2 Obviously by now you’ve made your decision, so how did it go? I hope you held the guest to the cancellation policy they agreed to at booking. I don’t agree with this notion of giving in just to avoid a retaliatory review. That’s exactly what Airbnb wants. Airbnb and the guest win, host loses, either way. If you get a retaliatory review you have the opportunity to respond. “This is a retaliatory review. This guest never checked in. Please see our 5 star reviews for an accurate representation of guest experience.” After awhile, that review gets buried beneath newer ones anyway.