Non-refundable booking - guest wishes to cancel

[Catherine1286]

I know there have been other posts about this but I have a guest arriving on Saturday and would appreciate some advice. 

The 14 day booking was made using the non-refundable 10% discount which gave a total of £150 off the booking.  The guest contacted me last week saying he wished to reduce the booking to 7 days as his partner was now working.  I said as it was non-refundable the booking was fixed and could not be changed.  

The guest has now contacted me saying he wishes to cancel the booking in full and requesting a full refund.  I don't think guests who booked with non-refundable discounts should be able to do this - the cancel process should flag ' this booking is non-refundable and cannot be cancelled'.  

My feeling is the guest was offered the discount in exchange for it being fixed and non-refundable.   The guest is clearly getting agitated that I'm not giving a refund in full.  I consider myself to be a sympathetic and kind-hearted Superhost with lots of 5* reviews but in this circumstance I feel taken advantage of if I offer a refund.  It's likely I won't be able to make up the booking given the short notice and the dates have been booked for some time on my calendar.  

[Ann72]

@Catherine1286  Although it was a non-refundable booking, did that mean it couldn't be changed at all?  I don't understand why you didn't agree to changing the length of the stay.  You would then have had a week's booking and an opportunity to re-book the vacated dates.

However, I agree with you that guests and Airbnb should honor the policies we set in place.

[Danielle476]

Perhaps my patience has been worn thin with COVID and AirBNB's lack of host support, but no, I wouldn't allow a refund.  Non-refundable means just that; not, 'maybe get a refund if you really need it.'  Tough nuts for your guest.  Don't be surprised if they contact AirBNB and they give them a full refund without your knowledge or permission, though!  Good luck.

[Linda108]

Perhaps this new non-refundable option is not well understood, @Catherine1286 .  Does reducing the number of days from 14 to 7 trigger the policy or not?  Of course you have the option to refund, but I would direct the guest to Air BNB to address any cancellation.  Meanwhile, contact customer service and become informed for yourself.  Please share outcome with the community for our learning curve as well.

[Sarah977]

@Catherine1286  Non-refundable means non-refundable. No way I would agree to refund. That just makes the 10% off for non-refundable a total pointless joke. If I buy a non-refundable airline ticket and can't fly, I'm not going to get any money back, so why should an Airbnb be any different.

Unfortunately, if the guest can convince Airbnb that their cancellation falls under EC policy, which seems to be as easy as pie these days, that will override the non-refundable policy.

I can't imagine why any host would decide to use this policy. 

[Inna22]

This guest had a choice of paying your price or to get a discount. She was already prepared to pay full price, you can’t see the non refundable discount option until you check out. This was a choice. This was not Covid striking out of the blue. Please stand your ground on behalf of all of us

[Russell49]

I have had guests try to change the dates only to cancel the booking all together and get a refund. Now I no longer change dates that will exceed the refund time frame.As a host, you have to be aware of people trying to take advantage of the system.Be one step ahead of them.

[Catherine1286]

Thanks for all your replies.  I refused the change and cancellation request.  The guest then cancelled themselves and was offered a refund of the cleaning fee only.  

i was worried the guest would arrive anyway but they didn’t and we received the booking fee.

As an aside the current system puts the pressure on the host to enforce the non-refund which I don’t particularly like.  My partner by the end was saying  we should refund as it was easier but I felt this was unfair on us and other hosts who might encounter similar. 

[Brenda328]

@Catherine1286   Good for you!  Too many hosts are being taken advantage of.   Now I just hope for your sake that this guest does not contact Airbnb Customer Service and convince them that they are due a full refund.  This recently happened to me and several weeks after I received the payout Airbnb took it back out of another one of my payouts.

[Armin246]

you were very lucky. your calendar was opened and you didnt have to worry about a bad review. had they kept the booking they could have left a review

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Catherine1286 

You were right in sticking to your policy, and it's great to hear that you received the booking fee.

What was overlooked on all the previous comments was that if you had accepted the change in dates, that constitutes a 'new' booking. That 'new' booking then has a free cancellation period which the guest can take advantage of and then cancel completely for free, robbing your booking fee.

So, good result.

[Debra300]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0,

Thanks for pointing out that bit about the cancellation policy.  I think that's what @Russell49 was implying, but I wasn't picking up what he was dropping.  Here's the link about host initiated booking changes:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50/as-a-host-how-do-i-make-a-change-to-a-confirmed-reservation.

In @Catherine1286's case, there would have been a new cancellation policy only if the arrival date changed.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Debra300 

Thats good to know too!

I didn’t notice Russell’s post, but as he said - one step ahead  is always a good thing.

[Mark116]

People amaze me.  Constantly booking places with strict cancellation and then complaining that they can't cancel w/out financial penalty, or as in this case, clicking that they trade a discount for a non refundable stay, and then, wanting a refund when they cancel.  I truly don't get it.  There are literally millions of airbnbs to choose from, including a multitude w/flexible cancellation policies.

[Debra300]

@Mark116,

Excluding Airbnb's propensity to favor the guest, I am going to highlight that people just DON'T READ, and want someone else to make allowances for their poor planning and lack of paying attention to details.