Cancellation payout

[Leonette-and-Rudi0]

Hi all. I hope someone can advise. We have had a cancellation from a guest who was due to arrive in December for 12 nights. We have a strict cancellation policy in place which will obviously mean that they will get a 50% refund. However, after the guest contacted Airbnb support, admin just decided to override our policy and give the guest a full refund. How is this possible??!! Why do I even have a policy in place if they can just disregard it?! Surely that cannot be legal? 

Has anyone had a similar experience? I have been in contact with the support centre, but they seem to be more interested in bending over backwards for the guests, and not so much the hosts.

Extremely frustrating!

[Jeff158]

@Leonette-and-Rudi0 

Its probably an extenuating circumstance, click the link

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoid...

[Leonette-and-Rudi0]

Thanks for your reply @Jeff158 . It is actually such a long story, that I cannot go into all the detail. But basically the guest cancelled because we don't have a TV (she booked 5 months ago already), and then changed her mind again, and wanted to go ahead with the booking. So she contacted support to sort it out, and that is where they took it in their hands to refund her in full. My problem is just that anything can still go wrong, and I might end up losing this booking in its entirety, as well as the "safety net" that I had in my cancellation policy. I feel that in such a case, the host needs to give consent. 

[Mark-and-Julie1]

We have had similar. A very upsetting time.  Didn't really feel that Airbnb support did much for us. 

We too have strict cancellation policy. Our guest notified us a month before she was due to stay, that her daughter would rather go to Spain with her Aunt & Uncle than holiday with her so she she would be cancelling the booking with us so she could pay for her daughter's flight. 

This woman hounded us for weeks and kept taking it to resolution centre. Each time support assured us that would be the last we hear. 

The outcome is we will give her half of her deposit back if we manage to get another booking. 

I have found this to be very stressful. Made me wonder what the policy is for ?