My experience with a guest cancellation

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Dear @Catherine-Powell ,

I thought I would post my experience with a guest cancellation as many seem to write about poor experiences here.

Our guest cancelled as his daughter has been selected to play for her country and hence wouldn't be attending a local tennis tournament. The date was about 5 weeks in advance so they were refunded 50%, our calendar was opened up, and our payout set to 50% of the original payout minus the cleaning fee.

The guest asked nicely if we would refund the rest.

The website options available were to send money to the guest but this wouldn't have got the guest their service fees back.

A quick call to Airbnb Customer Services (1 min wait) got everything sorted such that the cancellation changed from 'guest' to 'Airbnb' and the guest was refunded in full with no impact to me (other than the service chap making it clear we would be paid nothing).

All in all a simple process that could only have been bettered if I could have done it all online.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Dora486 Just message the guest telling her that if she cancels soon then you will refund her. Once she has done this then either wait and see if Airbnb send you a link for a full refund or call them and ak them to process a full refund.

[Helen744]

@Dora486 Mike is correct . Request the guest cancel from her side. Your bookings should then open up but if you refund her out of the goodness of your heart then it is up to you. The guest wants you to cancel so they get a full refund , that they are not entitled to. If the communication is all on the messages in Airbnb then ring a rep . They will see the guest requesting to cancel and then the cancellation will go ahead without talking to the guest again. H

[Helen744]

also Dora beware of changing the booking as this then changes the parameters of the cancellation policy and the guests often use this to cancel again and get the full refund when they actually have no genuine reason to cancel. Only offer another time if it is requested. H

[Dora486]

Hi @Helen744 @Mike-And-Jane0  I’ve emailed support, they say they’ll do an Airbnb cancellation with no penalties for me on this one….guest being a pain already and I don’t want an unhappy guest staying…I guess that’s what I’ll do..when she booked we still had covid restrictions so price was low, now all back to normal so think I’ll gain financially and also have peace of mind.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Mike-And-Jane0,

It's great to hear from you! Thank you for sharing the positive experience you had with our Community Support team and how quickly they were able to resolve your issue. This is wonderful news!

Warmly,

Catherine