@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.