Guest Indicating They Will Cancel But Not Doing So

[Sarah-And-Tom0]

Hi all,

Im after a bit of advice how to handle a situation with a guest:

Im in the Blue Mountains in Australia and have a guest who has booked the long weekend in June 2019 for 3 nights.  They booked it well in advance (booked in early February 2019).  The June long weekend in the Blue Mountains is one of the busiest of the year as it is peak season in the mountains (and a long weekend, Monday being a public holiday). Last Sunday the guest sent me a note saying they were now unavailable to come that weekend and had tried to cancel the booking through Airbnb, but when they did the system had indicated they would get a refund well less than what they had paid.  Cheekily the guest was asking me to confirm they would get a full refund.

I told them that we has a strict policy setting for cancellations, and that this was clear in the listing, and that it meant they would only get a 50% refund, and what they had been quoted seemed about right. Since then I have heard nothing from them, and strangely they still have not cancelled the booking (5 days later).  Yesterday I wrote to them asking their intentions and explaining that it is the busiest weekend of the year in the mountains and the chances of getting our place re-booked are getting lower and lower (most people looking to go to the mountains have already booked), and to please firm up their plans with me. Still no reply.  I'm concerned she is now going to leave it to the last minute, where I will have no hope of getting a re-book. Im also a bit concerned they might be looking for ways to get around the policy and get a full refund. 

It's simply not fair, we offer our place in good faith, we get a guest that can't plan, or simply changes their mind, and then they muck us around like this, and WE are the ones who suffer (possibly getting little or no income for the busiest weekend of the year). 

Any advice from the leaned Airbnb community??   

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Sarah-And-Tom0  The guests obviously don't see any advantage to themselves in cancelling, since they are probably assuming they will lose the 50% either way. Perhaps say you neglected to mention that you would be happy to refund the other 50% if you get another booking for those dates, which is highly likely as it's a long holiday weekend, but that until they cancel, those dates remain blocked and can't be rebooked.

[Sarah-And-Tom0]

Thanks Sarah,

Ive made that clear to them, however weve had a cancellation before and its not as straightford as 50% (even though that is the policy!) I think Airbnb take their cut which means we (and the guest) dont get 50% back.  The figures she quoted for her refund werent quite 50% of what she paid (she quoted both figures) so the way we appoach it is if we get a full booking we can return what we get back.

As usual Airbnb dont make it easy with these negotations ( actually they dont make anything easy for the hosts/owners Ive learnt)