Guests cancelling mid stay - feels like extortion

Catherine148
Level 2
Sacramento, CA

Guests cancelling mid stay - feels like extortion

I have had too many of these lately - guests are in the house and then want to shorten their stay. Has nothing to do with me, but with their job, business, etc. I feel like I have to give them some sort of refund or they will give me a bad review and yet I had planned for that stay, expected that money, the dates are closed and too quick to get a new guest to cover the loss! I often give partial refunds, but really don't think I should have to give any! Thoughts by other hosts??

11 Replies 11
Barry-and-Lera0
Level 10
Sarasota, FL

@Catherine148: Anything we want our guests to know we make it known.  We lable items, have a studio manual and we would even print out the "Rules and Costs Associated with Cutting Booked Stays Short", frame it and put it next to the bed if we found that it was becoming a problem.  

love this idea. i do have a book of information in the room and so I will add this!

Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Catherine148 I had one guest asking for stay modification and I gave refund for that very reason- fear of bad review. He never thanked me and left a bad review for some other imaginary reasons after his stay. So I have stopped. I now decline those requests and say Airbnb handles my cancellation policy for me. So far, no one else has gotten a refund or left a negative! (Fingers crossed trend continues)

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Hi @Inna22 ,

 

You are absolutely right. If someone wants to shorten the stay and wants money back, it is always the same procedure:

 

  1. Pls contact airbnb, they are handling all paymens
  2. if airbnb contacts me if I agree to return money I reject - always

 

If there was a deal like: I give You money back and in return I get a guaranteed 5* rating, this is something we could talk about. But that is not the case, after they have the money they can still rate me badly.

 

Therefore: Reject - always.

 

Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

@Catherine148, you could try what some here do with success: "I'll be happy to give you a refund if I can get those dates rebooked. It's going to be a bit tricky since you have had them blocked all this time, but let's hope for the best!"

 

@Lawrene0 I do that with cancellations. But how can you do that with modifications? You can either agree and refund the money or disagree and days stay blocked. Is there another way to handle it?

You're right, @Inna22. Cancellations are easier, and that is what I was (wrongly) addressing here. Although I always merely accept alterations and take the loss, I admire @Ute42's rejection theory, and may try it out when the guest is pulling a fast one. 

By a fast one, I mean the new trend I have seen here this summer that hit provincial parks a few years ago. People book bigger blocks of time than they want because the calendar fills up fast and they do not know their exact dates. Then, the day before, or actually during the stay, they alter and no one is out any money except the provincial park (or me). The parks beefed up their penalties for this. I might, too, but only when I suspect this instance, and not when it is the sort of sudden change in flights or plans that @Jessica-and-Henry0 mention. I'm with them on that one.

If I reject an alteration, and am not sliced up in the review, I will let you know so you can try it too. 

@Catherine148

 

 

I agree, as a principle, expecting refunds in addition to what the policy dictates is wrong and I see nothing wrong with refusing. If a guest were to leave a bad review because of that........then so be it. I can always post a simple reply to the bad review that says it all...... "guest requested a (partial) refund which was declined" And besides, a refund doesn't guarantee a 5 star review. 

But at the same time there should be some context to consider........I host a lot of long-term guests and sometimes there are sudden changes in flights or plans.......if we are talking about 1~2 days out of a an entire month's stay, then I usually just refund and I don't mind at all. 

I've also had a case where a guest who booked an entire month suddenly decided to cancel about a week later because she decided she wanted to stay with friends instead of staying alone - in this case I did not refund. I explained there are rules and policies, we all agreed to them and I'm not going to hand over money just because you had a change of heart - reservations on ABB don't work like that. (and I just basically told the guest, it's not my fault you didn't read the "long term" cancellation policy properly before making the reservation. Sorry but no refund means no refund.) I was firm to the ABB CS person that "reached out" on behalf of the guest nagging me to refund. I said no, my decision is final and I have no intention of having this discussion again with anyone at ABB, plus, this is between me and the guest so it is not appropriate for ABB to get involved. ABB needs to focus on implementing and enforcing the rules as is, not go around trying to get people to break their own rules. The ABB CS person was quick to end the conversation after that. 

 

you don't afraid from bad reviews but it can affects your reservation rates

 I have been in this situation before where a guest has cancelled 2 weeks after a long term booking of 6 weeks..    they were asking me for a refund..I declined ,as this booking was in the low season..and why refund for a change of heart?

I was also contacted by a third party of the guest asking for refund and heard all excuses under the sun. even airbnb case officer contacted me to see if I could give partial refund of 4 weeks, which contradicted the conversation with other airbnb officer which confirmed to me no refund for this booking the day before..

I was also concerned about negative review but after contacting airbnb  i was guaranteed if negative review was left and that if mentioned about the  non refund given etc it would be against their policy and they  would remove it...

Here is a guest perspective.  I paid up front for a 1 month rental 9k.  The place is needs some tlc and is not what i expected for that price.  I want to cancel midstay.  AC is old and and I have to pay for electric which will run me another $1,500.  So how is the guest's interests protected?