Guest wants a refund - but never checked-in

[Monaco1]

Hi,

Thank you for reading my message. I've been an Airbnb host for about 15 months now. YAY! Today, I encountered a dilemma.

I had a guest book my place for one night. The guest told me that he accidentally booked my place for the wrong date. I told him that you'll need to cancel via Airbnb. The next day, I asked him if he was interested in checking in and gave him check-in instructions. No response and he never checked - in.

Now, after the reservation has ended, he's asking for a refund. 

What would you do in my situation? Refund the money since he never checked in or would you refuse the request since his reservation took up time in my calendar.

For what's it worth, my place has a strict cancellation policy. 

[Kath9]

@Monaco1, I would definitely not give a refund in this case! The guest should have sent you an alteration request for the new date or at the very least cancelled their booking. It is his problem, not yours, that he didn't use the booking he paid for. You gave him the opportunity to change the date (note that he may not have wanted to 'cancel' as he still would have been charged the Airbnb service fee - instead guests can send an 'alteration request' or you can actually send it yourself from your end). However, in this case, given that he didn't respond to your message or let you know what was happening, you are well within your right to refuse to refund as you could not possibly have opened up that booking for someone else.