Cancelling a guest

[Susan16]

I have a guest on January 13 for one night. I have someone who wants to book my room for 37 days from December 29-February 3 or so. I want to cancel the one night booking but it seems the penalties are severe for me? Any suggestions?

[Peter0]

Very good question.  You have some choices here.

First, just cancel.  You will lose any chance to be a Superhost until 1/1/17.  If it is your first "offense" you won't be penalised (but you won't get your Superhost travel voucher) but if it is your second or more then you will have to pay a financial penalty (Airbnb hates cancellations by hosts).  

Secondly, you could explain this situation to your one-nighter and invite them to agree with you to a cancellation and help them find somewhere else.  If you and they agree and they cancel, you need to pay them also the Airbnb fees they won't get back.  Done openly you will win credit.

Finally, you could do what I once did in a situation like this - invite them to alter their visit for a later date for no cost.  I just altered the price to 1 dollar and changed the date to a new one.  So they got their holiday for free (and I got to take the better booking).  

The best thing is to be absolutely open with the guest.

Good luck.