Should I give guest that cancelled their full refund?

[Ashley196]

I have had two parties cancel their reservations about a week before their stay, both due to ilnesses in the family. In the most recent case, the woman said she needs to instead go visit her deathly ill father and cancelled one week before her stay. I have a moderate policy so the refund was applied accordingly. She has asked me to consider a full refund given the circumstances. I will likely not be able to re-book this week so last minute. I also want to add that we have a very unsual cold front here in St Pete Beach right now so its not an ideal time to stay. I hope people are honest but you never know. What does everyone else typically do in these cases? Waive your refund policy and give them a full refund or let the policy apply?

[Nanxing0]

I receive those type of refund requests ALL THE TIME and I believe other hosts do as well. This is what I do to those requests.

Basically, I tell the guest that we would not provide refund beyond what the cancellation policy allows. However we do offer that if those cancelled days get rebooked by other guests, we refund the recovered amount (since if it's too close we might need to reduce the price to get them rebooked). However there's no guarantee on that. If the guest thinks it qualifies the EC, feel free to contact the Airbnb CS to apply for it. 

The rational is that try to avoid a straight rejection to the request, although most of us believe this should be the proper way to handle it, but a straight rejection will make some guests crazy and we don't have time/energy to really deal with those a-holes. The way I respond shows that I'm willing to make a step forward to make the guest happy, but definitely not straight full refund. 

[Valerie580]

I am offering a one night refund due to amenities that did  it work. However, will AirBnb reduce their fees based on the lower amount?

[Cathy741]

I have a guest that booked 15 nights. I have a strict cancellation policy. She had 48 hours to cancel. She texted me the day before check in and said she had an family emergency and could come. This was a week after she booked the time. I told her I would refund her only if I was able to rebook the dates she canceled. She is now pleading with me to refund her. It’s the first time this has happened. I’m feeling bad but I’ve not had anyone rebook and I don’t feel I should refund her. 

[Ute42]

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@Cathy741 

Late last year Catherine Powell, head of hosting at airbnb, put out a video in wich she stated, that from jan 15, 2021 on

• the decision to refund guests will rest with You, the hosts

Your guest booked under Your strict cancellation policy and that policy now applies. So it's totally up to You to refund Your guest or not.

[Ross648]

These experiences are becoming increasingly common,  I think.    I recently had a guest who contacted me hours after check-in, telling me that her friend didn't feel well so she wasn't coming up (she had booked the place for one person) and we had been in contact the week before her arrival.   I think she didn't come up because the weather was cold and rainy.   

I told her that she had to cancel herself, which she did, but then requested a full refund.   My cancellation policy is moderate, and she wasn't refunded anything.   She then went crazy and phoned me multiple times, had AirBnB call,  etc.  Happily she threatened to leave me a bad review in AirBnB messaging, so I was able -- miraculously -- to have her ferocious review and 1 point removed.   

I tell this story because SHE HERSELF WAS AN AIRBNB HOST!   I can only conclude, therefore, that she fully understood how vulnerable we are to extortionate revenge reviews.  Happily in her fury she gave a clear example of extortion.  

My thought for this thread is that, faced with this bad behavior resulting from AirBnB policies favoring guests, hosts just have to band together and say NO.    We will ALL initially get revenge reviews, all our ratings will go down, and that will be just fine.   In the end, guests will understand that we are operating a business and not a charity for well-off people who have been spoiled for most, if not all, of their lives. 

[Sarah977]

@Ross648  I agree with you. Hosts should not cave to guest refund demands. Same goes for rushing to offer discounts or partial refunds over some minor inconvenience. Most hosts who do this think they'll avoid a bad review by doing so, but that seems to seldom be the case.

Guests who think they deserve refunds for reasons that have nothing to do with the host, but their own personal circumstances or inability to be even slightly adaptable, are the types who leave bad reviews anyway.

I have offered to refund guests before, because I felt the circumstances warranted it, but offering is different than caving to demands, threats, or begging and whining.

[Toya6]

Top of the day, [Guest].

We know not every guest fell into the parameters of the created AIRBNB Extenuating Circumstances / COVID-19 Cancellation policy. Therefore, find below Alternative Solutions:

OPTION 1 "CANCEL"
If you Cancel & another Guest Group books all OR some of the Cancelled dates a Refund for those booked dates will be rendered.

If you choose OPTION 1 "CANCEL", simply message on the day after original Check-Out date to see if these dates were booked in order to receive a refund accordingly.

OPTION 2 "ALTER"
If you Alter your booking now for dates up to [3 months] from now, you will have:
▪︎saved your spot for future date
▪︎transferred funds (applied to your new dates) vs. lost funds

OPTION 3 "SUBMIT DOCS. TO AIRBNB"

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoid...

Thank you for your consideration.
Stay safe.

[HOST]

[Mikki0]

@Ashley196 

I have a strict cancellation policy. When people cancel, I always tell them, IF I rebook, I will refund whatever portion I rebook.

[Dani10]

Remember to always ask the guest if they bought trip insurance. 

I would say that 100% of my guests who cancel (and only qualify for a 50% refund) ask me to refund the other 50%.

Then I have to deal with the onslaught of phone calls and messages from Airbnb asking me to do so - when I should really just be able to operate in peace with our published cancellation policy.

So the first thing that I ask the guests when they send that message asking for a full refund is "Did you purchase trip insurance through Airbnb when you booked". On more than one occasion it turns out that they had.