guest cancels two days after no show

[Brian813]

Hello. My current guests booked for a week, arriving yesterday. They never showed up. After I messaged them at 10:00pm they replied saying they could not get transportation and would arrive today, missing their first night. Now they say they still cannot get here and are asking about cancelling and refund. I have held the room for them for two nights, so I'm guessing I will keep that portion and refund the rest. Not sure how this works. Any suggestions are appreciated. thanks.

[Giedre-and-Andre0]

@Brian813 be aware that this guests probably able to leave a review, even they did not showed up

and canceled after check-in date!

Here my standard text if it comes to refund questions

(you can modify to your situation, as I assume that you already got your payout):

We can offer you a discount for your next NYC trip, or let’s see how fast the days getting re-booked and I’m open for an additional refund after payout of new booking....
———————————————

GENERAL INFO REG. REFUND:
A host is not on hold of any guest payments
until the next day of check-in.
Airbnb is holding guests payments in escrow
until 24H after planed check-in.
All accounting will be done by Airbnb.
A refund will be issued as of Airbnb policy.
A host can agree to additional partial refund.
A host can ONLY order Airbnb to issue a refund
for the charge per night and cleaning fee.
The host is not involved in approval or disapproval
of any refund of service fees.

[Alon1]

@Brian813

The answer to your question is firstly determined by a Host's choice of Cancellation Policy.

I see you have a Flexible policy.

You can find the exact terms by checking on HELP: type: 'CANCELLATION POLICIES'.

So click on FLEXIBLE. You'll see the breakdown of dates vis-a-vis your policy. 

You're at the last stage: During Trip  .

'Cancel during your trip and you may be eligible for a partial refund.

  View refund breakdown'

In this particular case, you are entitled to keep the 2 nights booked. The Refund is issued by clicking 'CANCEL or CHANGE'.

However, it's vitally important that you don't undertake the Cancellation yourself. It's Guest's request so they need to do it. (If you did it, you will receive a financial penalty and  automated review of cancellation).

If you have a problem you can call Airbnb Customer Service to talk you through it.

[Sam397]

@Brian813 I had almost the same thing happen with a guest over Christmas. They booked for two weeks,(giving them a 20% discount given for 2-week stays) and they ended up not being able to get off work and missed the first 2 days and then said they had to leave 4 days early changing a 2-week stay into an 8-day stay.(disqualifying them for the 20% discount )And asked for a refund for the days they weren't there. I have a strict refund policy so I didn't have to refund anything back but knew if I didn't give them some kind of refund  I would most likely get a bad review and I am pretty sure they knew they had that to hold over my head as well. What I did is I made sure they knew I didn't have to refund anything back and explained that I couldn't refund the first two days since I could have booked them out and was out of that money. but I would go ahead and split the 4 days at the end of the stay giving them a refund for two days. The guest was happy to get the 2 days refund(gave me a 5 on my review) Knowing I could most likely rebook the 4 days at the end of the stay, along with the extra money from them not receiving the 20% discount that I would make more money even with giving them the refund. My point to this is even though you dont have to refund the money it might be best to give them something. If you give them something and let them know that you are doing them a favor in doing that they may not give you a bad review and maybe even give you a good one. My advice is to offer to split the days with them. 

[Cormac0]

@Brian813

Presumely you do not want to cancel this booking your guest does, so let him do so and if he contact you again tell him to deal directly with Airbnb.

These sort of people are time wasters, so don't let them waste your time and put you to even more inconvience, remember you're at a loss here.

[Quincy]

Hello @Brian813,

Welcome to the Community Center. 

I was wondering if you've seen all the helpful replies above? It'd be great if you could let us know how everything went for you.