Do I have to refund guests when they cancel or does Airbnb pay them?!

Clara124
Level 2
Tampa, FL

Do I have to refund guests when they cancel or does Airbnb pay them?!

I have never dealt with cancellations until now and I'm a bit confused about what is my responsibility.  I have a "flexible" cancellation policy that allows refunds.  I have a guest who confirmed and cancelled on the same day before staying at my place.  She initiated the cancellation and I accepted.  Now she sent a seperate request asking me to send her the full amount Airbnb charged her for the room.  I am hoping that Airbnb processes the refund to the guest as part of the cancellation process and I do not send the guest any money seperately.  Please let me know.

 

Also, I have a guest who stayed for a week but had to leave and cancelled the last week of his stay.  I received full payment from him and I accepted his cancellation.  He has not asked me for any money yet. Do I need to send this guest any money or will Airbnb provide him his refund as part of the cancellation process.

 

Thanks in advance for any help/advice anyone can offer about these two cancellation scenarios. 

11 Replies 11
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Clara124 you don't have to do anything , Airbnb will refund your guest.

Here you can find out more about cancelation policies: https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies

 

@Clara124, as @Branka-and-Silvia0 have mentioned, you don't have to do anything about the money; AirBnB will take care of it.

 

What worries me is each time you mention the guest cancelling, you also say you "accepted" it.

For the first you say "She initiated the cancellation and I accepted." and for the second you say "I accepted his cancellation".

 

The few times I had a guest cancel their reservation, I didn't have to Accept anything or even do anything.

The message just says "We regret to inform you that your guest (guest name) canceled reservation (reservation #) starting on (date)."

 

There are no buttons for me to push or links to click to accept anything.

 

What do your cancellation message say?

 

@Matthew285 @Clara124

guest can cancel without host's approval .

But he can also ask his host to cancel on his (host's) behalf. In this case host will get a message something like: "Your guest x wants to cancel , do you agree? " . if host click on the "agree" button then host will be penalized the same as he canceled.

So it is important that host click DISAGREE button and let his guest to cancel.

Clara124
Level 2
Tampa, FL

Thanks all for the swift replies.  I understand now that if a guest cancels before they start their stay there is nothing that I should have to do.  They should process the cancelation on their own and Airbnb will handle the refund. 

 

I think the reason I mentioned an accept is that one of the "cancelations" was actually a change where the guest stayed for a week and was cancelling the last week.  I was confused with the word cancelation.

 

I still have one of the guests asking me for $50.00.  She has sent to requests and I've declined them both.  She is trying to explain some problem about her refund receipt being broken.  What ever she is trying to explain is mind boggling to me.  I just know that I never received any money and it's her responsibility to get whatever refund from Airbnb.  The fact that she has requested money from me twice now leaves me suspicious.

 

Thanks again for your help

Refer that guest back to Airbnb.

Wasfy0
Level 2
Cairo Governorate, Egypt

I have been in a similar situation as, I would appreciate any feedback, I have made a half payment to a host then cancelled, after 14 days, will the second payment be withdrawn for the refund to happen? & Can I be issued a full refend if I requested it? Thank you

@Wasfy0  Any refund is dependent on the cancellation policy of the listing you booked. You agreed to the cancellation policy when you booked, I assume you read it?

Wasfy0
Level 2
Cairo Governorate, Egypt

I did, but it doesn't mention this specific situation that I'm in

Claudia2289
Level 2
Sacramento, CA

My guest cancelled 21 days before her stay but my cancellation policy is long term.  Airbnb only gave her back a third of her cost.  I received an email giving me the option to offer a full refund by choosing the link in the email.  I did choose the link to give her a full refund and it stated on the Airbnb site that I could no longer provide her with a refund because she initiated a claim.  Now what do I do?

Sandra856
Level 10
Copenhagen, Denmark

Hi @Claudia2289 🙂

Airbnb will contact you as your guest initiated a claim. You can't really do much than wait for it to happen.

You could write to your guest telling that you will both have to wait for Airbnb to help you out and that you despite the cancellation policy you got would like to refund but can't without Airbnb's help 🙂 

Claudia2289
Level 2
Sacramento, CA

Thank you