an unsatisfied guest

[Marzieh4]

Hey guys,

I have a situation here. My guest has arrived yesterday and they have booked the place for a month about 14 days ago and now they want to leave cause they have a problem with the area, it's apparently far from the location that they wanted.

Now they are asking for a refund and I haven't received any money to pay them back. What is the penalty for this? 

[Ana1136]

@Marzieh4 there is no penalty for you, they nees to cancel and when you get the money and if you get some nights rebooked you can choose to refund them that amount. But don't cancel yourself, let them handle that. 

[Marzieh4]

They have sent me an email asking for their money through "Airbnb", I either have to accept to pay them back, or decline. or If I don't do anything the request will be canceled on Sunday. @Ana1136 

I've also sent an email to Airbnb support explaining the situation, they haven't responded back. Do you think I should wait?

[Helen3]

Hello @Marzieh4 

Write back to the guest and say you are sorry that they didn't check that your listing was in the location they wanted. Confirm that they have done the right thing in approaching airbnb to process their cancellation..

Let them know that you won't be able to agree to them having an additional refund to that, that they would be entitled to under the cancellation policy they booked under.

However, say as a gesture of goodwill IF you are able to re-book any of the days that they cancelled, you will consider a refund from your side of any dates that are re-booked.

Then decline their request for an additional refund.

In this way you won't be out of pocket and you are being flexible in offering the guest a refund for any dates you get rebooked, which is showing you to be flexible. (Of course the guest might not see it this way, but please stand firm).

Leave your guest an honest review.

[AdventureTim0]

It is the guests responsibility to FULLY read the listing before and after they make a booking.  Effectively the listing serves as a Contract between the guest and yourself.  When they book they are effectively signing the contract they agree to the terms of the contract, the terms being the attributes mentioned about the listing in the description including the Location section.  It is also the guests responsibility to undertake due diligence when making a booking by researching the area they are expecting to visit, including asking the host questions relevant to the location. Based on what you have said in your post it would suggest the guest has done neither of the above and therefore these are points you should mention to Airbnb in event they raise a dispute for money back.  

In my view they are not entitled to a refund and it is them that should cancel the booking, not you.