please help ~ client arrived and found that the apparement is not what they wanted.

[Vee-An-Colin0]

The Clients arrived and then immediately said they did not want to stay as they thought the cottage what not what they wanted.  Let me say first that they did not communicate with me at all, and gave me the wrong mobile number. As well as not answer my questions fully about their requirements.  I have had many couples coming through our little town and staying with us, no one really hangs around the house, they usually go off and see the area.  So I have not had this comment before. 😞  The cottage is in the back garden and there is plenty of private room and a barbeque area at the back.  My family was here for the one night so there was a little baby playing in the splash pool in the front.  But usually, people don't mind little ones.

However, I have offered to give them back half their money as I have now lost other clients who wanted to come during this holiday time.

Please, can someone advise me how I go about this, what do I do and whom do I write to.  

Vee x 

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Vee-An-Colin0 I'm so sorry this has happened to you - it's really disappointing. You don't have to do anything. The guest needs to cancel the reservation (don't you do it!!) & then your cancellation policy will kick in. Airbnb will take care of the payment according to your policy. 

Some guests will try to get a full refund from you but you are under no obligation to do this - you have a cancellation policy for a reason (you lose income, can't rent to other guests) and the guests should have travel insurance to cover this kind of situation. Having said that though, there have been cases where guests have complained & Airbnb has not adhered to the cancellation policy in place (moderate or strict) and given them a full refund. There have been several posts here about that & I'm not sure what recourse you have in that situation. Hoping you don't have that happen, sounds to me as though the guests need to take full responsibility for this & I hope Airbnb sees it that way too. Best of luck! Karen