Guest cancellation

[Helen558]

Hi all,
I had a guest book last minute 3 nights for the weekend on Wednesday night, several hours later they requested to cancel without penalty which I received early Thursday morning and asked them to cancel the booking which they have not. It means the calendar is locked out for their booked days. I have a moderate policy cancellation which requires full payment, I'm not really looking to charge them the full 3 day amount, but should I keep some of the payment for having the weekend 'booked' even though I've told them to cancel? It's something I've not encountered before and want to be fair to all parties, but their booking will probably end up vacant.
Thanks for any help.
H

[Moira21]

@Helen558 Hi, if this happened to me and not bothered that I don't receive another booking for the weekend but want something for the inconvenience then I'd offer 50%. I'd also tell them if they cancel to re-open the dates , and you get another booking for the weekend you will refund the rest.

[Helen558]

Thanks, the offer to refund if I get another booking is a good plan!

[Linda108]

@Helen558   Guests cancel and that is the nature of the business.  Best to have a saved message you send quickly advising the guest to work with Air BNB to cancel   Urge the guest to act quickly to increase the opportunity for refund of both Air BNB fees and your fees.  Then sit back and let the system work.  I see a great deal of angst in the posting from hosts about cancelling.  

[Helen558]

Yep, noted, thanks

[Anonymous]

@Helen558  For the sake of all the other hosts that might encounter these guests, I would urge you to uphold the terms of your cancellation policy.  They agreed to it when they booked, so why on earth would it suddenly become unfair after the fact?

Let me paraphrase the guest's request:  "I couldn't be bothered to get travel insurance, so please give me money out of your own pocket to compensate me for my poor planning."

Still sound reasonable?

[Helen558]

Hi Andrew,
I tend to agree with you, I guess the sticking point for me in this instance was that they wanted to cancel within 5 hours of booking.
My guess is that they are very young and the boyfriend booked it as a surprise and the girlfriend has arrived home and said 'no' and he's then realised he is financially committed.
So they decided they are now coming as the'issue' that was preventing them using the booking miraculously disappeared.
He has now contacted me to ask how to get here on public transport although the listing clearly states a car is required *sigh.* 
At this point my sympathy levels have plummeted to zilch and I will let the system take its course.
Thanks for your feedback.