My guests cancelled the day before they were to move in due to covid 19.

[Marilyn157]

Even though they cancelled,  I never received any email letting me know.  The guest let me know through the inbox that Airbnb sent me an email with the option to accept or decline the cancellation.     I never got it, so advised guest to call airbnb to see what the issue was.  In my experience if the guest cancels they just do so, and there in no need for host to accept or decline.  

So they called, and an airbnb staff called me and ased if I was ok with the cancellation.   I said, yes, thinking, I could not force them to come, obviously so what choice did I really have.

All dates and circumstances lined up with the covid cancellation refund criteria.  Yet  now for some reason I am not getting the 25%.   It is marked as an airbnb cancellation instead of a guest cancellation.  But it was a guest cancellation.  I did not ask them to cancel and neither did airbnb, they requested to cancel.

  Why is this and where did I miss where this is made clear?

Thanks

[Luana130]

The guest did not cancel, they sent you a request to cancel (I have received a couple of these), and because you agreed it kind of becames a host cancellation. I always refuse these requests, because I have read about a lot of hosts having trouble after acceting, including having the dates blocked after the cancelation.

Guests send these requests to try and avoid paying for whatever they own according to the cancelation policy. If you refuse and they want to cancel the cancelation policy applies.

The 25% is for hosts who had the reservation cancelled against their whishes and cancellation policy. Since you agreed you are not entitled to it.