Guest Alteration Request

[Angie211]

I've just had a guest send an alteration request for a booking (2 nights) now only staying one night. This was 24 hours before checkin time - we have a "moderate" cancelation policy. I'm trying to figure out why we are not receiving 50% of the night that they just cancelled...maybe I'm not understanding the policy rules correctly. Anyone have experience with this? Does it matter who sends in the alteration request - guest or host? 

Thanks!

[Inna22]

@Angie211 if you agreed to the alteration request, you agreed to the terms the guest proposed, which sounds like was a free alteration. You should have declined that. I am pretty sure you can counter alter with the terms you are seeing. If not, there is a "change reservation" option you can utilize. 

[Huma0]

@Angie211 @Inna22  is right. An alteration is not the same as a cancellation. If you agreed to it, I'm not sure there is much you can do about it now. You could try to change the reservation but the guest doesn't have to accept it.

In future, don't agree to such last minute requests. Instead, I would explain to the guests that it is too late to make such changes and for you to get another booking for that night. I would offer to accept the alteration, but the 50% for the other night added to the cost, or let them keep the booking for two nights if they prefer.

[Angie211]

@Inna22  @Huma0  - I guess my confusion comes in with this information on the Airbnb website: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/50/i-m-a-host--how-do-i-make-a-change-to-a-confirmed-reservation

It states that "your chosen cancellation policy will apply based on the new dates," when a change to the confirmed reservation is made by the host. I do not, however, see this information on the website talking about guests making alterations...ugh.

[Huma0]

@Angie211  I am not sure, but I imagine that it would be the same if a host made an alteration or accepted an alteration request from a guest. I assume when it says the cancellation policy will apply to the new dates, it means it will only apply to the new dates and there are no cancellation penalties for any dates no longer included in the altered booking. Therefore the host would not receive any compensation for a guest reducing the length of their stay or number of people booked.

So, i am happy to accept alterations if enough notice is given, but not anything last minute that reduces the payout.

[Huma0]

I've just had another one of these.

A guest made a booking back in August last year for one of my rooms for four nights in April. She is a first time Airbnb user and wanted to spend a few days in London before joining a European tour that she had already booked.

About three weeks ago, she sent me an alteration request asking to reduce the stay to three nights because the start date of her tour had changed. I accepted. Tonight, she sent me another alteration request to reduce the stay to two nights, again saying the tour date had changed. Firstly, I don't buy this. What kind of monkey operation keeps changing tour dates when they have customers flying in from as far afield as Australia who have booked months before?

Even though the booking is for next month, I am saying no to this. It is Easter time and no doubt the room would have been booked between August and now, but at this stage, there's no guarantee and I still dont have a booking for the first night she chopped off her booking. Although I do get some last minute reservations, most of my guests book at least two months in advance.

I think I am right in doing this, but I called Airbnb just to make sure. They confirmed that I had the right to decline the request and that if the guest cancelled, she woulld have to pay 50% as per the Strict cancellation policy. 

I asked them if there was any way for the guest to cancel only the night they were trying to reduce the booking by and they said no. I asked if I accepted the alteration, could I add the 50% for the other night onto the total, and they said yes and that they would help me with this if needed.

Anyway, I have told her she can either keep the reservation at three nights, or can cancel and if I get another booking, I will refund her an additional amount, but can't guarantee that's going to happen and can't refund the Airbnb fees. Let's see how she reacts.

[Huma0]

So, the guest seemed to 'get it' once I told her that this was my livelihood and that it was not fair to me to reduce her stay again, so last minute, and that I had probably lost other bookings as a result. She agreed to keep it to the three days.

I think she probably did not want to cancel, lose the fees, pay half the accommodation costs (with no guarantee of me getting a new booking and being able to refund her the rest) and have to find somewhere else to stay last minute.

I hope she doesn't hold it against me that I was firm about this, but she seems to understand.

[Shawna33]

I had a similar situation recently in which a guest booked my place for a month, then asked me to extend for another month and was quite insistant that I allow him to extend even though I had another guest coming for a month the day after he was originally scheduled to leave. I managed to find a friend with a property close to mine who took the incoming guest so that I could extend the current guest. Then, 4 days later he wanted to leave early and requested a change to his reservation. I denied it because I gave up the booking to accomodate him. He just cancelled the reservation and all I got was 50% of the remaining booking for my efforts. 

Guests have learned that they can get around our minimum stay requirements by booking for the minimum and then cancelling after they check in. The cancellation policy should apply for BEFORE check-in. After check-in, we now have to clean and prepare the property again and have a loss of income. This is a bigger issue and should have larger consequences for the ungrateful guest who is just gaming the system.

[IWayan8]

hi good evening everyone may i ask and discussing about my issue due our guest didn"t meet their expectation so i said them to send an alteration request and the did it but why i can't accept