Guest wants full refund because she says Trump may close the border

[Eduardo506]

I have a property on the beach in Mexico, with a strict policy. A guest booked in September for 3 nights on the second weekend of November. Trump has been tweeting with a threat to close the US-Mexico border over the convoy of Honduran migrants: “I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”

My guest says she's very concerned about this posible scenario and she's afraid that at least his husband, who has a green card, may have a hard time to return to the US in case that Trump really closes the border. And maybe this won't happen at all.

She is asking for a full refund. She doesn't want to change dates. She called AirBnB and they told me to ask me for this favor. I will have 3 weeks to try to fill her dates. I have all the weekends in November fully booked already.

What would  you do?

Regards,

Eduardo.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Eduardo506

Usually hosts would refund if they are able to rebook.

Personaly, we have flexible cancelation policy and if someone wants to cancel then he is free to do it.  We don't want unhappy guests . Fortunatelly , cancelations are nlot common here at Airbnb as they are at booking.com. For the same reason we don't host on Booking any more.

[Eduardo506]

Yes, I will refund them, because as you said, I don’t want unhappy guests. It’s just the reason is too uncommon so I wanted to share.

[Lisa723]

I would refund only to whatever extent I was able to recoup with rebooking. I'll refrain from political commentary but I am very sorry this happened to you.

[Eduardo506]

Thank you Lisa!

[Helen3]

I wouldn't refund just because a guest has concerns about something that may or may not happen. You have your cancellation policies for a reason.

I would say that IF you are able to rebook part or all of the time then you will consider a proportional refund.

[Susan1028]

Yes, without getting into politics...

This is probably not the first time an international Air BnB guest has asked to cancel for safety reasons. It is a new and unsettling varaible for hosts and guests who've never faced this concern before, especially in such a previouslywelcoming free-flowing global market.

Humanitarian compassion comes to mind initially.  The guest is already facing contractual restrictions by Air BnB cancellation policies (which are far less  of a concern than the stated reasons for cancellation).  Air BnB will handle that as they will, and likely check to see if this guest has a habit of cancellations, and you have the option of declining should this guest ask to stay with you again.

It sounds like you have a thriving business and the dates freed up will be booked...perhaps at an even higher rate for those last minute planners lol...

You can transform this into a "win-win" with kindness and optimism, which is a perspective  that could serve well in many arenas...

[Eduardo506]

Hello Susan, thank you for your comment. I couldn't fill this weekend, I slashed my rates for these dates at 80% off and use Facebook ads to promote them, but this Veterans Day my home will remain empty, my first unbooked weekend in several months 😞

I really hope the fear of this guests was real and didn't ask me to cancel and the full refund just to go book someplace else, because President Trump hasn't closed the borders yet.

[Helen3]

Are you saying you chose to refund these guests?/

????

[Eduardo506]

Yes 😞

[Daniel1992]

Not political, but Trump never said he was closing the southern border outright.  He just said he would close it to assylum seekers.  Your guests will be fine, especially if they are flying.

[Eduardo506]

They're traveling by car, from San Bernardino Calif to Baja Mexico. She was also concerned that his husband could get a hard time at the border because he is a permanent green card holder.

[Sarah977]

@Eduardo506  I can see this as a legitimate concern for a green card holder, whether it's just empty blathering threats from on high or not. I had a Canadian guest who is married to a Morrocan who is a legitimate permanent resident of Canada, with a steady, quite high-up-the-ladder job at a bank, yet she said they have to try to find direct flights to Morocco when they go visit his family, or at least ones that don't go through the US, as her husband gets profiled and detained every time. Even before the current administration.

[Eduardo506]

I guess I did good deed by refunding their booking in full, too bad for me that I didn't get enough time to fill their dates. I live in Mexico right accross the border from the U.S., and although there is supposedly military vigilance there, border crossing have been business as usual. I hope the situation doesn't scalate, although I don't feel like it's likely to happen.

[Sarah977]

@Eduardo506   Yes, it was a good deed. Sorry you didn't get it rebooked. Sometimes we just have to let it go. There were threads here a couple months ago from hosts on the east coast of the US, upset because Airbnb let guests cancel because of the hurricane warnings, the hosts saying they were in an area where they felt there wouldn't be any damage. But you really can't blame guests for not wanting to take a chance, however slim, on being stuck in a predicted national disaster zone. Same with being fearful that they might not be let back across the border to where they live.

I've run into quite a few Mexicans down here lately who speak perfect, unaccented English, who told me they were deported by ICE, not because they were dangerous criminals, but simply because they entered illegally, even though they had been leading normal, productive lives in the US for many years.