Within less than three months I have had 4 cancellations. The last one had booked right at the beginning and now canceled the booking 4 days before check in, where she gets the full refund from me (Policy:flexible). In all cases the reasons were financial and no emergency. Either they had got free accommodation with friends or families or as in this case had some other unspecified reasons. One of the guests canceled her booking just a day earlier and she wrote to me, if I would refund her voluntarily the one night she had to pay according to the policy. I refused for four reasons.
1. I did not want to set a precedence case, where I would have to apply the same rules to any and everybody who may decide to cancel on the last day.
2. This was not an emergency case, health or social misfortune or some other unforeseen reason not under the guests control, like weather or airline employees striking.
3. I had already invested some work, replacing the bedding for two persons (and since the next one was I single, I had to change it again, just because she did not cancel a day earlier!), a bit shopping for them etc.
4. Last but not least, I never got any booking for those days anymore. It was too late for that. Nevertheless I still did give her a voucher for one night free, if she booked again. And she mentioned in her review that both the facts but of course not the reasons for my decision, which may have thrown a better light on it.
Anyway I will be willing to refund the days, where I do then get my room booked for the same period and this I will do gladly, but that option I can have only when I have a moderate policy and not the flexible one. Therefore I am switching over to the moderate policy.