Canceling on arrival... a problem your guest faced was out of your hands?

[Jamie-and-Gustavo0]

Hi all,

What would you have done as far as a refund if a problem your guest faced was out of your hands and they had to cancel the day they arrived?  

Last month a guest planning to stay 2 weeks arrived and then left the same day because the neighbor's dog's were barking repeatedly over the two hours she was there. I know my neigbors and their dogs bark on occasion but not like they were in that call - I heard it while she was on the phone, and understand a new guest coming into that situation wouldn't want to stay like that for two weeks... but didn't realize until later that for them to keep barking she would have had to be near them (provoking them). I was more concerned about the neighbors because the dogs don't bark like that! I told my guest that this was highly unusual and that if she stayed the night I could come over in the morning to talk with the neighbors and the dogs wouldn't act that way. She refused, and asked for a refund.

I have a moderate policy on my listing, but as I had never used it, I didn't remember exactly what it said. I was at the time of my guest's call to me,  acting as maid of honor at a wedding and very busy, so I agreed with her request for a refund, thinking my moderate policy had some portion of refund built in to the description. Airbnb called me and confrmed I permitted a refund. The next day when I talked with the neighbors who were then home: dogs had been alone and without food accidentally, but for them to be heard, the guest, or people walking by, would have had to be near them - so, standing on the porch?  

I had time to read the policy - 50% refund up to 5 days before the booking. So... apparently I authorized a full refund when I would have received a full payment, and lost two weeks of income since she canceled the day of, possibly due to purposefully exciting the dogs. I still feel somewhat sympathetic - If they were in fact barking at something else for two hours that would drive me nuts, and she did just drive 12 hours to get there. I would be open to a 50% refund, or even go as low as 50% for the first week.  

I put in a help request. What would you have done as far as a refund if a problem your guest faced was out of your hands and they had to cancel the day they arrived?  

Jamie 

[Sean---Enrique0]

As a host you should know your cancellation policy like the back of your hand. You would have received 1 full day + 50% of the rest of it. Unfortunately it sounds like everything was already taken care of, you authorized a full refund so I wouldn't expect anything out of it. I would consider this a lesson learned ...

Bright side you aren't really losing two weeks of revenue, it is possible to still get bookings .. Two weeks is a pretty long time. I recently had a $800 reservation cancel exactly 5 days prior to check in, so I received nothing (due to moderate cancellation policy). I was really upset but, it kind of worked out in the end.

[Jamie-and-Gustavo0]

Do you think Airbnb should add a sentence to each policy to stae explicitly what the policy is after the 5 days prior to the booking start date? The policy as it is written doesn't actually say a full day of pay plus 50%.

😞

[Regina38]

Change to Strict this is your business and you can always do better than that for the guest if you choose. In the future tell the guest you follow airbnb polic and you will look into is as soon as possible and get back to them regarding a refund. I would never agree to any kind of refund unless I saw how they left the the accomadations first. It sounds like she found somewhere cheaper.

[Debi4]

People make up stories when they find out they can stay somewhere else for less . They look on the Airbnb website and see  "extenuating circumstances" and make up a story  to get out of a legal contract. Its pretty amazing actually. If you rented a car for a week and after a day or so you found out that you could have borrowed your brother's car for nothing would the rental company refund your money? I have always had a strict refund policy and it hasn't affected my bookings, but there are always a few rotten apples out there.

[Thomas156]

Hmm, this has just happen to me for the first time and I refer them to the refund policy. It's apparent that my guest just didn't like my room and booked a hotel in the neighborhood. For the six nights they were staying, they lost the service fee one full night and 50% of the remainder of their week. I did not hear from them until a few days later and demanded a full refund minus the service fee of $8 dollars. They then proceed to write that the room was untidy, not as described, not clean  etc. which was false. Air bnb ask if I was willingly to refund the rest of the funds.  This is where I am conflicted as I spent a day to clean everything in the room as well as replacing the bed with new pillows.  They were just unhappy and expected more and I felt that I did everything as normal and above expectation.  I never had a bad review and was even praise for being a host by a guest that stayed a week before. Not wanting to take their money anyway I refunded everything except one full night stay which I  consider the aggervation fee.

[Helen3]

Personally I would not refund.

I would write back to BnB and explain what you have said here. That you spent a day cleaning, there was new pillows on the bed, you have had great previous reviews including recent guests.

Say that the guests didn't indicate any concerns at the time, so there was no opportunity for you to address them. They only contacted you a few days later.