Late cancellation -Covid travel restrictions

[Barbara637]

Hi

i host a  small Airbnb on the central coast of NSW( on the ourskirts ox Sydney in NSW Covid has been well controlled since the first outbreak and up until about 2 weeks ago zero community transmission for over a month . 
in the last 2 weeks we have had an outbreak of community transmission in NSW which has led  restrictions around travel in Australia . Since December 20 the ACT has required people who have been in NSW hotspots to quarantine at their homes on returning from some parts of NSW (including the Central Coast ) for two weeks .
On the 24 December a guest arriving on the 28 December (for a 5 night stay asked me for a refund as he comes from the ACT . 
i responded that I wish he had contacted me earlier . ( he waited 4 days during a period when many NSW residents were searching for alternative accomodation due to cancelled interstate travel) I advised him to cancel ASAP as I would provide a refund if and when I had a new booking . A day later-  now December 25 the guest has not replied to my message or cancelled . 
I’m not sure whether to reach out again? 

I’m also concerned that they might keep the reservation and not show up but leave me a bad review . 
i find this all a particularly frustrating as we had a pretty good chance of getting another booking and providing the refund . 
I look forward to your thoughts on this . 

thanks 

Barbara 

[Vivian860]

If guests do not respect the house rules or get back to me in a timely matter I cancel their bookings. I have only done this twice. They can leave you a bad review all they want but as a host you can flag it or write a public response to their negative review explaining what happened. 

I don't mess around. I am not going to wait hand on foot for guests when they can't get back to me in a respectful and appropriate manner. Their loss. I would cancel and move on. Hope this helps, Good Luck!