Guest wants to cancel due to weather, but reservation is Non-Refundable

[Ben-and-Sam0]

Hi Friends!
Here in Chicago, we are experiencing temperatures about 20 degrees below average this fall. Our listing is seasonal - we do not take reservations in the coldest months - because we cannot heat the space sufficiently to guarantee guests will have a great experience.

In an effort to be fully transparent and honest, I messaged our last guest of the season (coming in about a week) to inform her of the extra low temperatures and give her a chance to cancel the reservation if she felt our space was no longer a good fit. She replied stating she wishes to cancel, but the reservation is non-refundable.

It would be in the best interest of both the guest and myself to cancel this reservation. Guest would like a refund and I am happy to receive no compensation for this canceled reservation. Of course, I want to avoid the penalties associated with canceling the reservation myself, given the extenuating circumstances.

What's the best way to approach this? I already messaged AirBnB support for advice but would love help from y'all as well.
My current thought is to wait until the res starts, and then send the full amount of my payout to the guest through the platform as a refund...she won't get the AirBnB service fees back but at least she will get most of her money.
Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

[Emilia42]

@Ben-and-Sam0 

Have the guest cancel the reservation. DO NOT cancel it for her. Once the guest cancels, you will get a notification and a prompt that asks you if you want to refund your guest. Follow the prompts to refund her.

[Emilia42]

P.S. Your guest will still have to pay the Airbnb service fees. If you want to avoid this, call Airbnb for a mutual cancelation (claiming extenuating circumstances.) Make sure that the guest has clearly stated in Airbnb messages that she wishes to cancel. Neither you nor the guest will be penalized. 

[Emilia42]

P.S.S. No reservation is ever "non-refundable." You can refund the guest whatever you want to. Airbnb can refund the guest whenever they want to, for that matter.

[Yadira22]

@Ben-and-Sam0 

Is there no way you could provide additional space heaters etc as to keep the place extra cosy and compensate for the overall lack of central heating? Just curious...

Mutual cancellation- get guest to cancel and you communicate this is a mutual cancellation with Airbnb and confirm a full refund- good luck to you! 🙂

[Donald28]

sadly all the guest has to do to get a full refund is call airbnb and say there's an extenuating circumstance and it's the weather. They will get a full refund and you'll get nothing. It's happened to me a few times. 

[Ben-and-Sam0]

Thanks all! AirBnB called me in response to my support chat, and they canceled the res with no penalties to me or guest - guest got full refund. I asked if this was a "mutual cancellation" and the rep gave a vague answer that seemed to indicate this was not that particular situation, but the outcome seems the same.

[Sarah977]

@Ben-and-Sam0  If an Airbnb rep gives you a vague answer, you should try to politely make them give you a clear one. "Sorry to take up more of your time, but I need to know specifically if I will receive any penalties for this cancellation in the form of a note on my review page saying I cancelled this reservation, a fine, or a cancellation registered on my account. At this point, I am unclear on this. Thanks for your attention."

[Linda1821]

This is my situation exactly but I cannot get past terminal hold on the phone. 

[Nina75]

Call using the 415 Local number... dont use the 800 number.