blocked dates as a result of cancellation

[Kathy180]

Due to a covid in a sailing event out guests switched their dates from June 2020 to June 2021.  Now the event has been moved to Aug. 2021 but we are already booked.  If they canceled it would cost $1200 of the $1500 fee!!  as i'm a superhost have never canceled a reservation i was able to cancel their reservation with no penalty payment.  but now the the June 2021 dates are blocked.  how can i get those dates released? 

[Emiel1]

@Kathy180IMO

If you can not make the dates available again in the calender, then you need to contact Airbnb and ask them to also remove this "penalty". IMO the guests should have cancelled the reservation, as the cancelled event is not your responsibilty. If the guests made the orignal reservation already before 14 March 2020 (?), the probably could have cancelled in 2020 with full refund. And the 2021 issue is also not your responsibility. The guest could have contacted Airbnb for help (relocation ?) or you could provide manually some refund after they cancelled.

[Sarah977]

@Kathy180 You should never cancel a booking yourself if it is the guest who needs to cancel, as one of the penalties is the dates being blocked to other bookings. As a host, you always have the option to refund guests if you want to, regardless of the cancellation policy.