Strict cancellation policy - Make guest cancel not change reservation

[Magic3]

Your a great host. You've delivered a high quality home with great service. Still, you have a guest who, for whatever reasons beyond your control, wants to cancel early during their stay. This will leave an unexpected hole in your calendar that you may have trouble filling as a result. Here's what I recommend you do based on my experience. 

1. Stay calm. Remind them you have a no-cancellation policy and your policy is to enforce all terms and rules consistently. 

2. If you decide to offer a refund, inform them any refund will be calculated and issued about 3 weeks after checkout. 

3. Make the guest CANCEL. DO NOT accept a "Reservation Change". See below...

4. Use the "Send or Request Money" feature to send the refund amount that you deem appropriate and after the review period has ended.

5. Leave an honest review to politely give future hosts a "heads up". See below...

My Experience:

We where thrilled when we received a corporate booking for 12 days in January. The booker has over 30 reviews, so clearly they are familiar with the various Air BNB cancellation policies and chose our home with our Strict Cancellation policy (no refunds).

On the second day of their stay I was told they "may" finish 7 days early, and if so, asked if we would give them a refund.  2 days later I was told they would in fact check out on day 5 and they requested a refund again. I told them I would "consider" a refund only if we are able to re-book this last minute hole in the calendar. 

So, they submitted a "Reservation CHANGE". I started to accept their change. While doing so I noticed that there was no option for me accept the change without issuing a 100% refund for the cancelled dates! So, I DECLINED the change request. Instead, I required that they actually CANCEL their stay. By doing so, I was able to keep the money and free up my calendar for more bookings. I can then send a refund for any amount I deem appropriate. 

They continued to pressure me to issue a refund. They said they've done cancelled early on more than on occasion and NEVER had anyone say they would only refund if they could re-book the dates. Clearly they have a habit of intentionally over-booking a property, cancelling early, leaving the host with a hole in the calendar, and getting refunded anyway. So, now here I am, a super host who works hard to provide high quality accommodations now being put in a position to "disappoint" my guest by not refunding them. 

They subsequently sent a follow-up message listing the reasons why they felt I should issue a refund including: You would not have booked those days anyway, and, we cancelled with sufficient notice for you to re-book. Clearly these statements are ridiculous. If you don't think we would have booked those dates a week in advance, what makes you think we'll book them now that you cancelled and we have even less time to re-book?  And in what universe is cancelling mid-stay "sufficient notice"? Sufficient for what? My argument - an experienced booker like you knew what you were doing when you booked my home with a no-refunds policy. You knew your schedule was subject to change and you booked a home with a strict cancellation policy anyway.  We both agreed to the same thing. I held up my part of the deal. You need to hold up yours.

I informed them that I would issue some kind of refund about 21 days after they check-out. This gives me time to reflect on how well they treated the property, whether I was able to book any of the days they cancelled and for how much, and factor in how fairly they treated us throughout the entire process.

I left a fair review that alerts future hosts about this issue in a way that is a nice and fair as possible, given the circumstance. Reviews are for the hosts benefit. We can't let habitual overbookers like this go without any notice to other hosts that they can expect a problem. Hopefully this review will prompt the booker to think twice before trying to get around the no-refund policy. 

My Review

The crew left our home in very good condition and we would host them again. 5-Stars for the guests! XXXX, the booker, was communicative and professional. Hosts Be Advised: the nature of their work schedule is subject to change and they may have to cancel early as much as half of their stay or more. Even if you are a host with a Strict cancellation policy (like we do), be prepared to discuss refunds anyway. 

[Mary996]

Thanks Ricardo. That's very helpful. Your places look stunning. Goggle couldn't translate your nightly fee into £. Can you help. I had a friend from San Paulo going back 30 years. I wonder how he is from time to time or how to find him. Are you near there?

[Ricardo85]

@Mary996 

Thanks!!!

Unfortunately my accommodations are all in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and your destination is the city of São Paulo which is 435km away!

Ricardo

[Mary996]

@Magic3 

Also see comments above.

I think you handled yourself very well. I thought the review was more than generous. Do you think these Guests are themselves being cancelled from some sort of open-ended Gig? Am curious as to their circumstances? But well done for going 'strict'. Are there any downsides to the designation from your point of view? Might it deter Guests somehow? I've only ever booked a place with the intention of staying there (so was unconcerned about such a policy). I have 'moderate' ... so as far as I understand that means no refund for leaving early. Curious about others experiences and choices.......????

[Magic3]

Hi - Thanks for your questions. I don't know much about this company and why they booked 12 days and then cancelled after 5. We have four vacation homes, all strict, and all booked constantly. I think it only deters those folks who want the option to cancel. This is our part time business and full-time investment, so steady cash flow with no surprises is key.

If I had a moderate policy, then these folks would have received an automatic 50% refund for the remaining days, minus one 24 hour period (one day). So 50% back on 6 days. Then I would have next to no time to try and rebook these days. 

[Douglas188]

Good solution. Thank you for this insight

[Dawn11]

I've given a full refund for an issue that wasn't exactly MY fault, but definitely wasn't the guest's fault and in their shoes, I'd be pretty disappointed as well. 

I've also faught hard against a case manager trying to give a full refund to a guest for a 30 day booking because they whined that my place wasn't suitable for their infant and only has aircon in the bedroom.  The listing clearly states that there's only aircon in the bedroom and that it's NOT SUITABLE FOR INFANTS.  The case manager somehow expected me to care about their baby, even though I don't want children of any age in my home, and to pay out their refund.  We got a new case manger who was capable of reading airbnb's own policies on long term, strict cancellation bookings and we were 100% in the clear.  We also had the guest, in writing, in the airbnb messanger threaten that they'd be forced to leave us a bad review if we didn't give a refund, which airbnb frowns upon, so we didn't feel like they were able to hold us hostage on that either 🙂

[Chinny0]

Hi  Dawn

Think you are just lucky 🙂 because you got the good case manger. Case mangers have different qualities based on my experience, some are excellent but some use their power irresponsibly. And their decision is final, there are no way to dispute case manager's decision. Our hosts should work on this issue. I had quite a number of guests who booked in advance but then wanted cancellation due to the work dates changing, etc. (my listings are strict policy), and then they wanted full refund. I agreed every cancellation /shrinking the dates even just before their check in dates or during their stay, until some times last year, one guest abused me  via the phone calls many times in one day. Since then I have only agreed full refund a several times on spacial occasions (guest wrong judgement of the distance of their study but want to cancel on same day, guest who have kids then realised something not suitable for kids just before their arrival(one of houses no backyard for kids play but all clearly stated online). The trouble is, even you don't need to give them refund airbnb still ring you on behalf of the guests , can you consider to give guests full refund,but airbnb always charge guests the 10% service fee on cancellation. Eventually I was so sick of this, so I told airbnb please leave a note on my profile, from now on, anything to do with cancellation please just follow the rules you set up, if they entitled yes please go ahead, if not then please don't chase me about it,unless I call you to agree the full refund. Hope there is a better solution to save hosts time on this issue too. 

[Mary996]

Excellent points.

Sounds like we need to insist on some boundaies with Airbnb staff.

[Mary996]

sorry...boundaries

[Huma0]

I used to have a flexible policy but found that some guests abused that by waiting until the last possible moment to cancel and get a full refund. I can't believe that's a coincidence as it happened too many times. Rather than cancel when they know they don't want/need the reservation anymore, they do it just before the deadline in order to keep their options open, without any consideration for the host, who is left with unbooked nights last minute. This happened most often during peak seasons, which was really infuriating as the room would have been booked five times over with more notice, but is then left empty.

So, I switched to Strict and no, I don't think it puts most guests off from booking. They have 48 hours to cancel penalty free, which I often remind them of and encourage them to make sure they read the listing before that time is up.

Unfortunately, some people don't read or are unable to digest information, so very occasionally you get a guest who doesn't understand the cancellation policy at all. I had one guest who booked for two months but thought she could leave after one month and get a full refund. She got extremely agitated every time I tried to explain the cancellation policy to her.

Her reasons for leaving were not valid. She said the commute to her college was too long (something she should have worked out before booking and a 10 minute subway journey is nothing in London) and that she was uncomfortable around my cats. I really stress to all guests that I have cats and they need to be comfortable with that. Anyway, this girl was constantly fussing over the cats so that was nonsense.

In the end, I just refunded the rest of the stay, because she was such a pain in the backside that I was relieved to have her out early. (if she wasn't going to get a refund, she was going to stay). I managed to rebook most, but not all of the nights, so there was some income lost, but some things are just not worth the money. I wonder though how Airbnb would have handled the situation if the guest left and I stuck to the cancellation policy?

[Chile1]

 Not updated! Now once the guests find case manager, broke some place, take photos, and claim they see something even ghosts, Airbnb will refund all to them immediately, even they have not go yet! 

[Sophie595]

In this uncertain climate Im  thinking of changing from flexible to strict cancellation policy. Can this then apply to guests who have already booked or only for future bookings?

[Ricardo85]

@Sophie595 

"Can this then apply to guests who have already booked or only for future bookings?"

Only for future bookings

Ricardo

[Frankie85]

A confirmed guest contacted me 4 days before check in with positive Covid test. Wanted to cancel but the cancellation policy is strict. Opted to reschedule reservation for December then canceled the NEXT day for a FULL refund. Lesson learned...be leery hosts.