cancellation in future 2019

[Barry109]

hey - had a guest book more than a year in future. dont even know if i will be doing airbnb, i updated my calendar through 2018 but never thought about booking or blocking 2019 ans beyond. i emailed the guest, who understood and agreed to cancel - this has happened a few times with no issue, the guests changes his mind or no longer needs accommodations, so they cancel, i have flexible policy.

this time, he tried to cancel but it came back to me for action - i need to cancel, which im sure means airbnb will punish me unmercifully. 

i searched the site and old emails for about 20 minutes trying to find any person to talk to, just to get it resolved, no obvious place to do that, so i am dropping a note here.

i dont want the guest to have any trouble and dont want myself in any trouble 

barry 

[Marit-Anne0]

@Barry109

You can decline that request, but as it is your responsibility to keep your calendar up to date, it could also backfire. Try and explain the issue to the guest and ask again for a cancellation from their end.  Even with a flexible policy, it is possible that the guest does not get a full refund when cancelling from their end.  airbnb may not be refundable. In such case you could offer to refund the guest these expenses out of your own pocket.

I suggest you change your calendar settings to blocked by default and open up dates manually when you are ready.