Guest changes request for change of reservation dates

[Jorica0]

Hi everyone,

I have a guest checking in tomorrow but she messages me now requesting a last minute change to another date. We follow a strict cancellation policy and is it okay to decline since it is technically a lost sale for us if we book her on another date when a potential guest could have book those dates also? Is this considered a "no-show" or will the guest be able to cancel and even get a refund uner a strict cancellation policy? Will we be penalized as hosts if we decline her request to change a reservation?

What to do? Help! 

Thanks!

[Pete28]

I've often wondered if this is a clever strategy by guests :

- move it further out means they can cancel for 50%

- the change may even give them another 48hrs even on strict to cancel - not sure

- they may decide to still come, and if you don't refund they may give you a 1* review

- you don't get the $$ for the existing booking and likely can't resell

So kind of a game of jeapordry I'm afraid

[John1080]

@Jorica0, I've only had this happen once. A group had booked for a Friday-Sunday, but a few days before the date arrived, they requested to change to a Saturday-Monday. This cost me the Friday night not only because it wasn't booked, but also the entire booking was less money because I charge more on Friday and less on Sunday. 

I went ahead and accepted it and just swallowed it, as I didn't want the entire booking to be lost and also did not want to give them a reason to give me a negative review if I had said no and they had continued with the original dates.

How many days are you going to be losing? If it is just a few, I would just go ahead and accept it, otherwise, I would fear a negative review. 

[Salem2]

Did they give a reason? I’ve had a similar situation before but the last minute change in plans was justifiable as one of their kids had fallen ill, they ended up coming two weeks later.

It was a short-stay reservation so I wasn’t too bothered about empty calendar days. Is it worth the risk of a bad review?

[Orion2]

The date change is an annoying loophole to a strict cancelation policy, I'm considering adding a paragraph with something like "any removal of a night from total stay using the change reservation feature will be treated as a cancelation and I'll apply the same criteria as the airbnb cancelation policy" airbnb should include a feature to apply cancelation policy to date change automatically 

[Allison2]

I've allowed the change to new dates, but only after tacking on the cost of the days they aren't staying.

For example:

Guests booked at $100/night for Friday/Saturday and they send a modification on Thursday to move the reservation to a weekend a month from now (also $100/night).

I accept the modification for dates but with total cost $400 (2 late cancellation days + new dates) and tell them I'll refund if I'm able to get a last minute reservation for the dates they're effectively cancelling.

I agree it's often a sneaky way to get around cancellation policy, but that just means you have to play it a little smarter.

[Helen427]

It appears as if there a number of guests who are trying to SCAM Airbnb and it's hosts at the moment using all manner of excuses by Guests "trying it on" because of there own personal issues.

It's wrong Guests are trying this on and placing the onus on us Hosts to cancel regardless of policy.

I've had several guests in the last month write to me claiming host cancelled, hosts home was not clean, my car has broken down and we need both will share a single bed as we hard love animals - my listing profile has animals from a local nearby park in it which is a drawcard and marketing bonus but when guests don't read my listing through and then try push me to cancel for there errors it's unacceptable.

Another common trick is booking then pressuring hosts to permit early check ins when one has an existing guest and trying to make hosts cancel rather than Guest.

I've had the MacDonald's Works burger of then in the space of 2 weeks!!

All the best and place the onus back on your Guests to cancel.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jorica0

that is why we have flexible cancellation policy - we don't want unhappy guests and bad reviews and all this refund hassle.

But our average stay is just 2 nights so we can afford it. It would be different if we would have  longer stays , shorter season and if cancelations would be more common (like on Booking.com)