Long Term Reservation for next year Cancelled, Guest wants full refund now.

[Darren18]

A guest booked my place for a 30 days stay, starting in February 2019. Guest has just cancelled reservation and has requested full refund now. As I have not been paid anything yet, how can I give them a $1000 refund out of my own pocket, if I haven't been paid. Airbnb says payment will come out of next guests stay, they arrive this week. Under the cancellation policy for long term stays, it says I don't have to refund them. Airbnb will make a judgement if not settled today.

[Emiel1]

Hello @Darren18

it is not clear to me if the guest requested the refund from you or from Airbnb.

It is between the guest and Airbnb, if cancellation does not result in a refund and if you are not willing to refund. Airbnb will probably contact you if you would consider full or partly refund, or they refund the guest themself if there are "extenuating circumstances". So maybe wait for results. Your transaction history pages will show the financial status of the reservation.

Best regards, Emiel

[Sandra856]

Hi @Darren18 🙂

Tell the guest that you don't have any of his money. When he books he pays directly to Airbnb and you are not payed before after the guest checks-in. When a guest cancels a booking he will get his money back automatically according to your stated cancellection policy. If he has any questions he should contact airbnb as you can't do a thing from your side of the table.

Kind regards, Sandra

[Grace329]

As indicated by Sandra advice the client that you do not handle finances they are handled by Airbnb so the guest should request for the refund from Airbnb. 

I had a similar experience before and I simply advised the guest to talk to Airbnb. I don’t know how they resolved it but she never came back to me