Hi all,
I'm starting this thread to alert hosts to an issue, and hope someone has a clever work around or solution.
-Situation: Guest books vacation 1, gets confused, sees the calendar blocked and books vacation 2 (less desireable dates).
-Guest cancels vacation #2, asks for help, we sort out what happened (although you can only see vacation #1 by looking at the calendar--message threads only show the new, cancelled dates.
-I always like to give guests a refund when an immediate "whoops" causes no real harm--both vacations are months out.
HOWEVER, it used to be that cancellation payments posted immediately. This gave the host the option to turn around a process a refund of dollars actually received.
NOW when I go to process a refund, it says that will be deducted from my next payout. The reservation in question shows that money won't post to my account until 1 day after cancelled vacation #2, months away. So if I do a refund now, I have to ADVANCE funds to AirBNB to make the refund.
This doesn't seem fair, as months down the line memories might fade and the guest might independently call AirBNB and get a cancellation so the fees from the cancelled dates are never paid. (We have had "penalty free" cancellations, in violation of our policy, without any ABB explanation so I know this can happen).
I know ABB is making millions on the "float" but c'mon.
Helpful suggestions welcome--in the meantime, protect yourselves and don't refund anything that hasn't actually hit your bank account!
