What are my options as a guest when my guest has been here 5 days and would like to leave early? her apt. is ready early is all..

[Lukas209]

my guest checked in on Sunday and is asking to leave tomorrow because her apartment is ready earlier then she thought. I have my settings set to strict return policy. she was a. great guest and I would like to know my options. thank you 

[Sandra856]

Hi @Lukas209 🙂

If a guest decides to leave early the guest must cancel and she will get refunded according to the cancellation policy you got and she agreed on when she booked. You don't have to do a thing it all happens automatically when she cancels. Tell her that it is how it works and that airbnb takes care of all money transactions etc. 

Whenever I have a guest who cancels I tell the guest that in case some of the days are rebooked I will gladly refund those days but as she booked and blocked the dates as noone else could book the cancellation policy always kicks in. 

An important thing is that she can sent you a request to cancel. NEVER accept such a request as it will then look like you cancelled. She will have to press the cancellation button all by herself and you will receive an email that she cancelled and the reservation will get updated saying she cancelled. 

When she cancels your calender will open up and you can of course refund her whatever you like via the reservation after the cancellation has been made. 

[Mika8]

... another problem with cancellations on airbnb is, that you could only cancel immediately. For example if you made a booking for 2 weeks, but due to some circumstances you need only one week, you could not cancel the second week.

If a guest of mine has such an issue I alter the booking to one week but I let the costs for two weeks (or whatever my cancellation policy would be) .. (because the guest blocks my calender before). And of course, if I get another booking for the second week, or some days of it, I give this money to my first guest. Therefore the calendar is open more timely and there is a higher chance for rebooking and refunding my first guest .. but in case I could not rebook, I still have the same money as due to my cancellation policy.