Cancellation and refund

[John-and-Alison0]

Hi,

I'm new to hosting on AirBnB, and have a guest coming in a few weeks. They booked online and the next day had to cancel. I was agreeable to their reasons for cancelling and am happy to provide a full refund. My cancellation policy however only provides for 50% to be refunded...I'd like to have the full amont refunded. I do see that there is the option of doing so...but am unsure of how this works.

I would greatly appreciate any input or advice.

Many thanks

John

[Clare0]

@John-and-Alison0 To give a full refund, go to the Resolution Center.  Here's a helpful guide for using it: 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/The-Resolution-Center-A-Community-Help-Guide-Request-or-Offer/...

[John-and-Alison0]

Hi Clare,

Thank you so much...does the guest need to cancel on their end first? Or do I cancel it for them?

[Clare0]

@John-and-Alison0 The guest needs to cancel before you can issue a refund.  Don't ever cancel on behalf of a guest.  Why?  Because Airbnb penalizes hosts who cancel and you don't want these penalities.  Read about them here: 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work

[John-and-Alison0]

Excellent...Thank you SO much.

I spent a lot of time reading the policies on this but wanted to get clarification.

Thanks again.

John