Thank you Donovan in taking your time to go through my post and for your detailed explanation.
I think that you perfectly found a solution to that particular situation; at least you managed to get some money. I always say "50%" is definitely way better than "zero", 🙂
And as you mentioned, when you discuss things in advance with the guests you avoid later surprises and, besides all other things, that should also be a reason why guests do not 'punish' you when reviewing their experience.
I use the special offer button, instead, and adjust the price; but I think your method is much better.
But what I am trying to do is taking the advantage that Airbnb is offering us of 'suggesting' things that they can do to improve their service and/or our experience as a host, and I think that it would be great if they just add a button where we can set a discretional fee for early check-in or late check out. So guests they would not even have to ask. If they are planning to check-in/out at a different time that the one we just set, they press the button and automatically that extra fee is added to the total price 🙂
Cheers,
Andrea