I want to help a guest cancel.

[Ricardo457]

A guest has a broken ankle but her reservation is under strict cancel policy in my settings.

I have changed the setting to flexible to help her, but she cannot get full refund.

is she locked in strict?

how can I get her the full refund?

thx everyone.

[Pat271]

The best I’ve been able to do in this situation is to type in the Airbnb chat that you are willing to refund your portion, and then ask the guest to call Airbnb and point them to the chat. Airbnb’s might not refund the guest fee, however - sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

Airbnb might contact you to make sure refunding your part is ok, even with the chat.

[Colleen253]

@Ricardo457 Anytime a guest cancels, the host always has the option to refund, in part or in full. Within the cancellation notice from Airbnb, there is an option to do so. Follow the prompts. You can also use the resolution center to send money. 

What Airbnb does with their service fee is another matter, and not within your control. It’s rarely refunded.

[Sarah977]

@Ricardo457  Anything you change in  your settings or policies or even your amenities only pertains to future bookings. Confirmed reservations are subject to whatever was in place when the guest booked. 

So as others have said, a host always has the option to authorize a refund, regardless of the cancellatiion policy. Then Airbnb just refunds the guest and you don't get a payout.

But what you never want to do is use the resolution center to "Send money" to a guest for a refund unless you have actually gotten paid for that booking. Some hosts have gotten screwed doing that when the scammer guests then begged Airbnb for a refund and got it. So the guest got refunded twice and the host was out of pocket the cost of the booking.

[Karol22]

If all else fails, us the resolution center to provide a refund: https://www.airbnb.com/resolutions

However, you should indeed have the option to provide a refund once the guest cancels. The guest may still be charged a penalty fee by Airbnb but it should be minimal in comparison to zero refund.