Guest booked today, now asking for refund

[Blair-and-Steve0]

Hello all, a guest booked today with instant book, I approved the booking. Her payment initially did not go through. Later today it did.  She sent a follow up message asking for restaurant reviews.  7 minutes later she sent a message requesting a refund and wants to know if I'll refund her in full since she booked today. My cancellation policy is 'strict.' Unfortunately, I lost another booking/pre-approval opp because of this woman.  

Any suggestions on how to handle this? Thanks.

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Blair-and-Steve0,

First off, if it was an Instant Book, you did not approve the booking as you do not get a chance to approve it as it gets automatically approved.  

In any event, there are several ways of dealing with this.

1) Follow your cancellation policy and have her cancel and she will be refunded the amount according to your cancellation policy.

2) Have her cancel and offer to refund any money not paid out if you are able to find a replacement guest.

3) Choose option 1 and offer to provide a credit for a future stay in whatever amount you wish (this is something you would need to track as Airbnb does not provide credits

4) Provide her a full refund

5) Have the guest continue with her booking.

There may be other options but it really depends in what you are comfortable with.

Cheers

Dave

[Jonathan6]

It's best to communicate with the guest and try and work something out.  First you can ask why they needed to cancel and see if it's something you would want a host to accept if it had been you.  Next I would offer a different date to the guest and have them book now for the future date, then issue the refund.  

This is all about feel, you have lost out if in fact you had another booking opportunity (not sure how you would know that since once the instant book was in place nobody else could have booked), so you have to weigh this against a future opportunity with this guest.  

Another way to go is to tell the guest that you will re-list the property at a 50% discount and if it rents you will refund the 50%.

I have run into this situation and I did as the other poster stated and offered a 50% refund with a 50% credit to another date.  That made the guest happy and I eventually got another booking.

Remember you are in business and a happy customer is a return customer.

[Clare0]

@Blair-and-Steve0 Sounds like a high maintenance guest to me.  If you have a strict cancellation policy, you have it for a reason. Yes, you can do all the things that @Jonathan6 and @Dave-and-Deb0 recommend, but my personal opinion is since this guest caused you to lose a booking with another guest, I'd stick to my cancellation policy.  That's why you have it set as Strict, right?

[Simon36]

Stick to your cancellation policy especially if you lost another booking because of it. If you didn't lose someone is say refund her but given you did, no refunds.

It's the guest's responsibility to read your listing and cancellation policy