When a guest is trying to cancel a reservation

[응석0]

When they're trying to cancel a reservation, 

the amount that will be refunded to them is automatically calculated and shown to them. 

Yet there are guests who still trying to 'negotiate' the policy, trying to get a full refund. 

I'd say 98% of guests do that. 

I finally figured out why they would even think to try to haggle with hosts.

It's because when they reach out to Airbnb customer service, they tell them "I can't help you with it, unless the host agrees to grant you the full refund. Have to talked to them yet?" 

I know this because several guests showed me screenshots of the convo they had with customer service representatives. 

First of all, hosts are not obligated to grant any refund. 

Policy is policy. If there is no fee refunded to them upon cancelling, that's it. 

Of course there are situations that they should be granted refund, for example: 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1339

But why do they even give them 'option', or an idea to talk to hosts, for a refund, when they are trying to cancel for 'personal' reasons (i.e. a change of heart)? 

Instead of informing them "It's up to hosts, they can choose to grant you refund", why not inform them that the policy has been decided and hosts do not have to offer you exceptional waiver to the cancellation fee, since the policy has been available to view before booking? 

If you have had similar experiences I did, where customers kept messaging to say that they want to get refunded, even after being informed of the policy once again, please join me in letting the Airbnb host customer service center know this is not okay. There are 2 options - One: we can chat with them. Two: we can send a feedback to them, letting them know that this has been causing inconvenience and extra work for us to explain everything to the guests - which I believe is the work for the Airbnb customer center. How to send a feedback: https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback 

I was about to send a feedback myself, which I will be doing after posting this, but I thought I should let other hosts to know about this, to avoid future frustrations caused by guests who try to take advantage as a 'guest' to the Airbnb customer center, and also by customer center representatives who have no idea what it is to be hosts to deal with such situations. More feedbacks from us will make it faster to make changes. Am I right? About 80% of times I talk to the customer center they're always prioritize making guests happy - which I understand since they're the source of income. But what about hard working hosts? Have we not established what Airbnb is today? For commission they take from every booking we get - I think we deserve more than that. There are a lot of things to improve for hosts, but today I'll just focus on this cancellation policy thing. 

Thanks for reading. Happy hosting! 🙂 

[Hello6]

@응석0hopefully the new Superguests initiative from Airbnb will significantly reduce the heckling for refunds and last minute guests who cancel to jump to another deal.  "host reviews of guests remain the most powerful flagging tool for the community." - https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/airbnb-answers-guest-info-and-flagging-guest-behavi....   We feel for you and all hosts.  The majority of guests we receive are amazing people.  Then of course there are the few that take up up countless hours of time / typing and heartache to placate despite all the other countless hours of time / typing etc we put into our listings to accurately describe them and of course our cancellation policies.   We too have caved more then once to guests asking for refunds the day of their scheduled arrival or few days before a scheduled arrival and in some cases after they were no-shows.  despite the guest having blocked the calendar and space for a month or more in some cases.  Why?  Because the refund policy is not set in stone.  It would be nice if no refund for cancellation meant just this and it was as hard as stone - of course this would be ripe for abuse by fly-by-night set ups.  We get travel issues happen and take every guests concerns case by case.  If we could give the best advice: Don't refund if you don't have too and you Don't want too!  We happily listen and take the time to hear our guests and even those who ask to cancel with us.  With the newest cancellation policies including Strict No Cancellation we have said No to refunds more then in our past.  Especially if the guest takes the extra 10% off their booking for a No Cancellation Booking.  Good Luck.