@Danielle476
Way before covid-19, I received a message from Airbnb CS that was more or less identical to your communication. Several years ago I had a potential guest book a 1 month-long stay making it fall under the long-term cancellation policy (normally it's strict). Then about 10 days after booking and 3 weeks before check in the guest contacted me saying she wants to stay with friends (instead of at my single occupancy guest room) and wants to cancel so she can book a larger entire home listing and kept insisting she should get (=deserves) a full refund EXCEPT fees and was angry+upset at me because her refund amount was "0". I was so frustrated at her attitude that I told her rules are rules, read them, and to take it up with Airbnb support if she had issues, and that guests don't need host approval or agreement to cancel or get a refund. Airbnb support later contacted me to pressure and *trick* me into a refund which I flatly refused - told them if Airbnb feels the guest deserves a refund, you can refund her with your own money or apply the Extenuating Circumstance but as a host I absolutely do not agree or have any intention to agreeing to a refund beyond what the cancellation policy dictates and that I deserve to receive my payout per the cancellation policy agreed on at the time of booking. If Airbnb wants to override the cancellation policy and go against host opinion to issue a refund that the guest honestly does NOT deserve, Airbnb can, but absolutely NOT at my expense.
On a different note, If the guest was nice about it and I got another booking for her dates I probably would have refunded her 50%, per the normal strict policy (maybe a little more, but definitely not 100% because technically it was simply a selfish change of heart cancellation that should not be rewarded) but both the guest and Airbnb were so irritating I felt like I absolutely deserved to keep every cent of the payout I received.