Guest refunds get deducted from my next payout?

[Sebastian-Y-Karen0]

Hi everyone,

I had a guest cancel a reservation an hour after paying so I told him I will give him a full refund. He said airbnb only gave him 50%. I clicked issue refund and sent him the other 50%, but then I received an email saying that amount I refunded will get deducted from my next payout??

How come it gets taken from my next payout, and it just doesn't send his own money back?

[Linda108]

@Sebastian-Y-Karen0  It is probably a timing issue.  You must have received a partial payout since your cancellation policy allows 50% refund.  Then you agreed to a 100% refund, but were already paid.  In that case the only money available for Air BNB to pay what you wanted to pay the guest is to take it from the next payout.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Because that's not how the accounting at Airbnb works.  Airbnb holds the guest's money until the time of their reservation - then they pay you.  

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/425/how-do-i-check-my-payout-status

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/165/how-do-i-refund-my-guest

If the guest is only getting 50% back, you must have chosen a cancellation policy that would pay you 50%.  That means, when the guest's now-cancelled check in date arrives, you will be paid your 50%.  Since you offered the guest a full refund outside of the policy, they will pay him today, adjust your next payout and then pay you later for the amount you are owed due to the cancellation policy. This is why cancellations and refunds are a big deal for Airbnb - they have that money working in their pockets right now, have a payout schedule with projected earnings on those monies and a refund disrupts that so they make you pay for the refund out of your pocket now so they don't lose anything - as a matter of fact - they get to make more money because you refunded the guest.  Capitalism at its best and, thus, why they have a $30B valuation

[Eshani0]

Hi everyone

I have made a booking on airbnb, had gone through the payment options and it kept loading and didn not show anything on screen so I exited. I was afraid whether or not the payment was successful, so I then cancelled the booking about half an hour later. I received an email of receipt with a confirmation reference code stating that the payment went through and this was after i had cancelled. 

The host's policy is flexible. Will i get refunded and how long does it take? If i paid with a credit card is that okay?

[Marit-Anne0]

@Eshani0

Yes, you will be refunded, but it will take some days.  But as you now have a booking with a booking number, perhaps you only cancelled your request ?

A booking confirmation with a booking number indicates that your payment had gone through. Otherwise there would not be any booking you could cancel.  Makes sense ?

[Upi0]

We got the same message when refunding a guest due to a bushfire in the area. Thing is, when will they actually receive the money as our next guest is in a few weeks time.  The payout (to us) for that is some weeks away.  Is there a way to inject funds back into AirBnb so the refund can be sent to our guest well before our next payout?

[Sarah977]

@Upi0 You don't want to do that. Hosts have lost money before by sending a refund to the guest and then Airbnb takes the money from your future payouts anyway. So you would be refunding double the amount.

Guests usually get refunded within 15 days. If your cancelled guest is bugging you about a refund, just tell them that refunds are handled by Airbnb and that they need to deal with Airbnb to find out about their refund, that hosts aren't involved in that process.