Guest cancelled now wants to rebook - special offer question (help!?)

[Heather133]

Hello there brilliant hive mind,

Perhaps you can help with this question. I have a guest who cancelled their reservation. They received the cleaning fee plus associated taxes back. They now want to come after all. If I send them a special offer for just the cleaning fee, would that take the place of the previous payout and therefore result in our receiving nothing for the booking? Or would it be in addition to the expected payout? 

Has anyone done this successfully before?

Thanks for your help!

Heather

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Heather133 The suspicious side of me says this could be a scam and the guest will ask for a full refund of their first payment and you might end up with nothing.

Sadly other than gut-feel there is no way of telling.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Heather133 On second thoughts - If you do go through with your super-cheap plan for the second booking then make sure all is recorded in the messages with Airbnb for the original booking as well as th new booking.

Alternatively get the guest to request on messenger to reinstate the original booking and than call Airbnb and ask them to do so.

[Colleen253]

@Heather133 I would just ask the guest to initiate a new booking request, so things don't get get tangled in the wash. Once you have been paid out for the original cancelled booking and the new booking, you can reimburse the guest whatever excess you've received. 

Yes, the guest has to trust you to do that, and may balk, but they should play nicely since they're causing you some hassle and time spent on this, due to their waffling about. The last thing you want is to be out money on a stay, or have a further mess on your hands = more time spent.

[Nanxing0]

There are two ways to do it. First you can ask the guest to book, and then tell him you will refund the extra after his/her stay is completed. That should guarantee that you don't get nothing. Just be careful, when you issue the refund, use the reservation code of the original (cancelled) reservation, not the new one.

The other way is what I usually do. I would ask the guest to contact Airbnb to reinstate the reservation. Airbnb used to have a way to do it although I'm not even sure if they are still doing it these days, but worth a try.

[Heather133]

Thank you everyone. I asked them to initiate a new, shorter reservation. I'll issue a refund after the payouts are confirmed.