Guest wants to alter her stay by -4 days after check in

[Terence4]

Hi guys, need your advice. I currently have a guest (night 3) who wants to alter her say.  She's requesting to leave 4 days earlier than booked.  She's already shortened by a week before she had arrived.  Payout went through and my cancellation policy is strict. She's blocked the calendar now twice for dates she does not want anymore. What should I do?  I don't want negative vibes, as she will still be here for 7 days but this is not cool.  Thanks 

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Terence4:
When we have guests who desire to leave early or cancel after the grace period we tell them that the cancellation is OK and if we are able to re-book any of their nights then we will reimburse them after we receive payment from the new guest (minus any price difference, of course).  Doing this means we do not lose any money and most of the time our guest gets their money back. We've had one guest who booked the day prior then cancelled the day of who wrote us a bad review but Airbnb removed the review.

[Terence4]

Thank you. I accepted the alteration request and Airbnb already suggests what the price difference will be.  No idea if this will automatically be reimbursed to the guest and deducted from my next guest's payment? I had no chance to add any amount myself.  The loss is on my side 😕 I hope we get a new booking. 

[Rachel177]

@Terence4 if it happens again you should make the guest cancel, they will incur a loss. Explain to them that if you can fill the vacancy at short notice then you will reimburse them, but you should not be taking a financial hit because a guest isn't organised. And they should have travel insurance to cover them if they have to cancel because of an emergency.

[Terence4]

Valid idea, thanks.