guests leave prior to end of booking

[Alinta0]

Hi,  

Just wondering what to do about guests leaving before their stay was over?  I read through the airbnb site and thought the guests could apply for a refund (which they did and airbnb said to contact me) As far as I understand I can offer a refund but i havent been able to alter booked days on the calender to recieve new bookings.......I am new to hosting so its likely I am missing something obvious!!

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. 

Thankyou 

[Marcus0]

@Alinta0 guests that leave early (and with short or no notice at all to you) basically in my opinion should not be entitled to a refund of any sort.  Of course the guest will try and of course Airbnb will be happy to do it if you agree however the question you need to ask is, will i be able to rent out the remaining nights easily so i am not out of pocket.  You are in a position that right now, unless you do a refund (and have the calendar adjusted) no new clients can see your vacant nights. And once you give a refund and the guest gets their money back, you have no guarantee of getting a new booking.

If this was last minute and the guests gave you hardly any notice i would simply tell them that you are unable to re-book the nights and it will be a loss to you.  Of course the guest can cancel at their end but most likely they will not get a refund in accordance with the policy.

You can be nice to the guests but at the end of the day, due to their poor planning or whatever you have to financially suffer, is that the right thing?

[Alinta0]

Thanks for your response Marcus.
The guests let us know they would be leaving early (2 days prior) due to change in circumstances. My husband let the guests know you can apply for refund through Airbnb which they did (try to) and were informed to resolve with me? From what I understood it was for guest and Airbnb to apply for cancellation and then refund.
I was concerned I should have (although I didn't know initially) altered their booking for them when I knew they were departing so the calendar could be altered and maybe we could get another booking?
Although as you said before there are no guarantees we would get a mother booking.
Does it seem normal that Airbnb would ask guest to resolve with me?
Thanks for your time and feedback. Greatly appreciated.

[Frank1601]

I have read all refund policy's but I have a question about guests leaving early with only 4hrs notice. They are requesting a full refund. I got a new well in my very old beautiful country home, when guests arrived water ran a little brownish, I was told by well company have them run the water. The guest said okay they would do that. The next morning the guest texts me they are leaving water still not running clear. I addressed the problem right away and sent the owner of the well company over to assure the guest the water was fine for showering, washing clothes and brushing. Guest said she drinks bottles water anyway but they still chose to leave even after well owner got water running clear. guest wants a full refund and booked my house for 8 day's. any advice?

[Donna15]

@Alinta0, according to your cancellation policy (moderate):

'If the guest arrives and decides to leave early, the nights not spent 24 hours after the cancellation occurs are 50% refunded.'

Did the guests officially cancel? If so, the above applies. And I believe it is sorted out between AirBnB and the guest. 

In my opinion, if they did not cancel, it's not necessary to refund anything. It was the guest's responsibility to cancel and initiate the accompanying refund procedure. 

[Alinta0]

Thanks so much for your response Donna.
The guests did not officially cancel although they did let us know they would be leaving early. I looked it up on the website and told the guests they could apply for refund via Airbnb (this is what I understood from the website) but the guests were told by Airbnb to work it out with me 🤔
The guests have been very polite and it was all very amicable I just am not entirely sure if I've done the correct thing or not? Should I have altered the booking after finding out they were leaving early? This I discovered after guests had attempted to sort out refund with Airbnb.
Thanks again for your time and feedback. I am very grateful.

[Donna96]

Our current guests want to leave a day early and have done so on airbnb site. Our calendar shows the day still booked. How do we clear it? Call number for airbnb in USA please n

[Janet315]

We have the same situation. The husband's military orders changed and the guests applied to Airbnb to change their booking - to leave a day early. I accepted but now I'm not sure how they get their money back as we have already been paid by Airbnb. Also, how does Airbnb get the money back from us???

[Amanda1795]

in my case they just deducted the money I owed from my next booking.

[Janet315]

We have the same problem. Our guests had to leave a day early because one of their military orders changed. They applied to make the change on Airbnb and we accepted. I'm just not sure how they get their money back and how Airbnb gets the money back from us...

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

We had a cancellation and we agreed to give a full refund. The amount was deducted from our next ABB payment. If you have other bookings, they will probably subtract from that.