We had a booking request from a family who said they were visiting a very sick relative who was dying of stage IV lung cancer. This was for the Thanksgiving holiday-- Wed-Sunday. I have a "strict" cancellation policy and accepted their reservation a couple months prior to check-in. Three days prior to check-in, the guest emailed me to say that his daughter had contracted pink eye and they were afraid of exposing her to the sick relative whose immune system was compromised. He didn't say they definitely could not come but they were essentialy "fishing" for a refund. He did make a strange sort of threat saying that he would hate for them to infect our household with her pink eye.
Our kids have had pink eye before and we know that once they get the drops in their eyes, it is only contagious for another 24 hours. This was three full days before they were due to travel. Anyhow, I apologized and said there was nothing I could do. I wanted to ask-- why did you book my home, knowing it had a strict cancellation policy, given your situation visiting someone who was terminal but I did not.
I contacted Airbnb, and they said the guest could submit medical documentation to them if they wished to do so. I relayed that info to the guest. I asked the person on the phone from Airbnb what would happen if Airbnb accepted their excuse. She said we'd still get paid out minus the cleaning fee. Sure enough, we did get paid out (about $700) on the day they were supposed to check in. So I thought we were set even though we did not get a new reservation for Thanksgiving. (who plans a thanksgiving trip 2-3 days in advance?)
We are only occasional hosts--- we rent our place to fund our own trips-- so for us to get our house ready to rent it is a major project. It takes 3-4 days of work. So this week was our first time renting again and on the day new guests checked in, Airbnb deposited the money from them MINUS the $700 or so from the previous guest. I called to find out what was going on and they said the Thanksgiving guests were able to provide a doctors note recommending against travel and so they took the money they had paid out to us back! I was shocked. We are always full for thanksgiving and I dont' know why their poor planning/decision making-- booking a strict cancellation policy place and failing to get travel insurance-- are supposed to be my financial burden?
Do we have any recourse? Aside from the lost revenue, we also spent days getting the place ready for the reservation and got $0 for our effort. Thank you.