Cancellation

[Andy98]

I have a guest who booked after March 14 for a Christmas stay. At the time my cancellation policy was strict, I've now relaxed it, but the strict policy still applies to this booking. My guest wants to cancel with a full refund, and I want to allow her to do that. She has been advised that she can not apply for a full refund based on extenuating circumstances until 2 weeks before her arrival date. This is what she is going to do. Assuming her application is successful, that leaves me with less than 2 weeks to get a replacement booking. It would make much more sense for me to authorise a cancellation with a full refund straight away. Is there a way I can do this, e.g. a retrospective change to relax the booking policy?

[Elena87]

@Andy98 

The refund policy is unchangeable from the time of booking.

Why not send a modification change to the guest in order to reduce the booking length to a single day - this will mostly clear your calendar up and refund the guest. Afterwards you can mutually decide how to deal with the remaining day.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50/as-a-host-how-do-i-make-a-change-to-a-confirmed-reservation

[Debra300]

@Andy98,

Here is a workaround that might work.  If you make an alteration of the reservation, the current cancellation policy will apply.  Since you have a moderate cancellation policy, the guest will have 48 hours to cancel for a full refund:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50/as-a-host-how-do-i-make-a-change-to-a-confirmed-reservation.