@Rosanne10: Unfortunately, Rosanne, when a Host cancels, Airbnb penalizes you, both financially, and in not allowing you to earn SuperHost status for 12 months. I would contact Airbnb and explain that you are new and didn't realize that the Guest really could see how to cancel and could have cancelled. (Don't believe the Guest when they say "they can't." I've pushed back with Guests on various claims they can't do something, and then they do figure it out.) Initially, we chose the Strict Cancellation policy after we started for at least 6 months, and then experienced a cancellation that cost the Guest 50 percent of all their booking fee (they had to cancel as we won't cancel for them); so we changed our Cancellation Policy to Moderate. Guests have up to 5 days before the booking to cancel and get their money back. That is certainly very fair, and may still leave you in the lurch if you can't re-book in that time. Flexible Cancellation policy, in my opinion, is TOO flexible; and doesn't provide an incentive for a Guest to continue their booking with you, if something inconvenient to them comes up on their schedule. So, make sure that you have the right Cancellation Policy set up on your listing that suits your needs - knowing you shouldn't cancel. Also, I recommend you spend time learning lessons from other Hosts on this Community Help Center. You will learn how to manage your listing from many many very experienced Hosts, some who have hosted for years with hundreds of bookings in their home or room(s). Doing this helped me tremendously to be prepared to host when it came time last June. I literally spent two or three months just reading this website before I listed our property. Good Luck! Lois
