So, recent situation:
guest booked a while ago.
The building community, that is to say the people who run the building, decided to refurbish the building.
They only told me about it 3 weeks ago.
Gues booked several months ago.
I informed the guests, they decided to cancel.
I have a flexible cancellation policy, so guests can cancel no questions asked upto 24 hrs before they arrive.
i have this policy because life throws people curve balls all the time.
Now, the guests apparently refuse to cancel because if they do so, they forfeit the airbnb service fee.
So Airbnb have asked me to cancel it.
I asked if I'd assume any penalties, and they said I would, such as
- being unable to rehost on the cancelled dates,
- guests seeing my listing woul see that i cancelled, with no context or explanation, and trherefore the assumption that I messed up.
Now, I aked the airbnb lady who phoned me why I would agree to this, considering I am already losing the money for the week's stay.
It seems to me this is most decidely Airbnb's issue, because they are the ones who withold the service fee.
The guests position is that as the listing is not as they booked it, they should have to pay the service charge. My posiiton is that I changed the lisitng when new information was received, AND I messaged the guetss ot make sure theyw ere aware of the situation.
Thoughts?