Refunding a guest who canceled three months in advance of their stay.

[Martine250]

One of our guests, who has stayed with us multiple times, had to cancel their reservation in late March because their party now exceeds the number of guests we can allow. I am totally fine with refunding her the total amount, but I am confused about the process. I received an email from Airbnb stating "You can also refund the full amount to the user by clicking the button below." If I go through the process, I can send her the amount they say will now be our payout. Problem is when I go through the steps to do this it says the money will be withdrawn from the account connected to our Airbnb hosting side. We have not received any payout as a result of the cancellation and it seems we will not until late March (24 hours after her original reservation) based on what I am reading, so I am hesitant to refund money from our account that has not been deposited in our account, How does this process work?

[TracieandJason0]

@Martine250 Sounds dubious to send her money this way. Can you just call Airbnb to cancel it? I had a similar problem and in my airbnb messenging it showed that both me and the guest mutually agreed to wanting the reservation being canceled with no penalty to either of us. The rep I spoke to cancelled it on my behalf with no penalties to either party. 

[Jeff158]

@Martine250 good advice from @TracieandJason0 

Your guest might have only paid half upfront with the balance 10 days before arrival.

[Kathy-Lee0]

I had the same thing happen to me, received the cancelation notice in the email with info saying that the payout would be paid to us on March 6th.  When I went in to give him a full refund it said that it was taking it out of my account.  Since we are not paid until March 6th why would they take anything out of my account?  Very odd and confusing.  

[Luke-and-Claire0]

Hi 

Same issue here. I just followed that link in the email to fully refund a guest who cancelled her may booking (febuary as i write this). I sent her the amount i would have received the day after her booking date and it says i will be deducted that amount from my next payout which will be in a few days! This is an unfair system. Has anyone gotten an explanation so far?