Guest cancellation

[Zoe34]

Hi everyone!  I enjoy these conversations and just wanted your input about how to reply to a guest.  It's Wednesday evening, and a guest messages me that he needs to cancel his stay for Friday check-in.  I requested that he be the one to actually cancel the stay since I will be penalized as a host (I didn't state the reason).  He did, almost immediately.  However, after he cancelled, he messaged again and ask that due to his "extreme extenuating circumstances for cancelling" (which he did not divulge why), he should be refunded more than the $10 cleaning fee.  The stay was a total of $80 for the guest.  My cancellation policy is modest, so a full refund 5 days prior to check-in.  Being that this is only 2 days prior to check-in, how do I respond kindly?  "I'm sorry, but through Airbnb's policy on my specific cancellation policy, I'm unable to cancel within 48 hours of check-in."???   I've never had a guest cancel, so just want to know other's best policies.  

[Granada-Beach0]

It’s great to have a cancellation policy and to follow it... however we stopped accepting AirBnB reservations as AirBnB wouldn’t follow the cancellation policy of their we offered!

We had a guest, same situation as yours... cancelled 3 days before check-in. We declined a refund. He complained to AirBnB who asked us to reconsider. We declined again. They then over-rided our decision and issued a full refund and refused to pay us. So don’t be surprised if he complains to AirBnB as you may end up out of pocket anyway.