Long term guest wants to leave early and recieve a prorated refund

[Sean45]

I have a guest who booked for 33 nights and wants to leave after 20. The guest would like a refund for the 13 days not used. 

I am getting $133 after I remove the Airbnb service fee. Basically they are requesting a refund of $1,730 for the 13 nights not used. The 20 day rental at the weekly rate (15 percent discount) would come out to more than the 33 day rental at the monthly rate (53 percent discount). So, if they had just rented the house out for 20 days, they would have paid more than the 33 day rate that they got. 

Technically I don't owe the guest any refund, but I am still not sure of the best way to handle this. 

Should I refund them the $1,730 or a portion thereof? 

If I refund them money, will Airbnb refund the service fee they took out?

Should I consider giving them a refund based on whether or not I rent it out for the days they are not there?

As a long term rental, there are no city taxes owed, but less than a 30 day rental is 8.5%, plus a dollar per night.  

So, if they ammend the reservation those taxes are now owed. 

[David126]

First they need to cancel, theAirBnB willprocess any refund they are due.

The next questons is whether you wish to refund anything extra, many Host will consider doing so if they are able to rebook.

Generally AirBnB will keep their fee.

[Gillian19]

@Sean45 Tricky. If the guest changes their dates on the platform, then Airbnb should recalculate based on the 20 days and charge them more based on the new booking period which will lead to unhappy guests and a potential retalitory review. However, if they don't change their dates you won't be able to get new guests and therefore be in a position to offer a refund if someone else books!

If it were me, I would let the Airbnb system take over - if they had booked for the original 20 days then that's what they would have paid and as far as I would be concerned, that is what they now pay. I don't see why you should be giving them a huge discount for intially booking a long period (and consequently blocking out your calendar), and then expect a pro-rata refund for reducing the days. It would be a great way of getting cheap rates for guests if they played the system in that way.

[Inna22]

@Sean45 I would go as far as saying that this may have been the guest's plan all along- to book longer discounted stay and then get money back. If I may make a suggestion, your discount should be set in such a way that this does not happen. Why would you let someone stay whole to weeks for free?

[Jared204]

I know this conversation is old, but . . . I think you are totally right. People are going to play the system to get the best rate possible. I can understand their motivation. However, per your suggestion, the best way to safeguard against this type of thing is to set your discount so as to avoid this sort of thing. Still, kinda tricky

[Robin4]

@Jared204 

This is precisely why I have removed any length of stay discounts from my listing description.

I do not offer up-front discounts! I will consider a refund at the end of the stay when I can assess if the refund is justified, and I strongly advise other hosts to do the same thing.

Guests who chase discounts are going to invent ways to achieve their aims......better not to offer them in the first place!

Cheers........Rob

[Robin4]

@Sean45

Hi Sean, you no doubt know the cancellation rules but I will include the relevant clause here.

The guest is required to pay you for 30 days from the date of cancellation, or until the end of the scheduled stay and this is to stop guests from using the scanario you have described where there is a discount involved. 

So your payout from this stay will be honoured by Airbnb and, it is up to you whether you point that out to the guest. 

You can explain to the guest that the cancellation was something that they requested, not you and on that basis if Airbnb handles the cancellation, the rules state that the guest is not eligible for a refund and would not be paid one. 

So, what I am reading here Sean, is the guest expects a return of $1,730 for a stay that they have paid $1,072....that is $1730 less the 38% additional discount that they got.....is that right? 

You can say you are prepared to meet the guest and refund a portion of the unused nights baring in mind the discount rate for the 20 days stay was more than 50% less than the discount rate paid for the 33 nights.

The other thing you need to consider Sean, the guest has already paid for 27 nights and is highly unlikely to honour a payment for the remaining 6 nights of a reservation the guest has cancelled! It is highly probably that when Airbnb go to claim the remaining balance in 7 days time, they will find the funds unavailable!

So any offer you make will need to wait and see if the guest honours the next payment!

If they do not make the next payment I would offer the guest half of the remaining 7 nights up to the 27 they have paid for at the discount rate they paid.....ie $107.20 x 3.5 =  .....$375.20!......Take it or leave it.

Sean, I am not sure of the figures here but from what you have described this would be my offer to the guest and I feel it is a reasonable one...but, it's your call mate.

Cheers......Rob 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Sean45

I would first do a rough estimation of what it would have cost the guest if they had made a 20 day booking with a weekly disciut applied (instead of 33 days, which would have given them a monthly discount). I think its necessary to make it very clear to the guest that per the cancellation policy they agreed to there is no reason for them to expect a refund. With that said, IF the guest proceeds with the reservation change ON THE ABB PLATFORM so that the calendar opens up for the last 13 days then you would be willing to CONSIDER a "goodwill" refund after factoring in the inconvenience guest has caused. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Also to prevent guests from making longer bookings to get discounts which make longer stays cheaper than shorter stays , imo weekly discounts should not exceed 14% and monthly should not exceed 25%

Of course even with a 25% monthly discount a 30 day reservation will probably end up being less than a 27 day reservation with a 10% weekly discount - in such case I would tell the guest to do what they want but make it clear if they book for 30 days to get the discount then ask for a refund because they are planning to check out 3 days earlier, then THEY are the ones giving up the monthly discount and it won't be applied.

[Fred13]

Hmm...they occupied your dates for 33, at a discount mind you, and If they cancel and you Don't rebook the days, you are out 13 days of booking. A common host approach is: IF they cancel and IF you re-book then you will work out a refund. I would let Airbnb to figure it out, and be interesting to see what they and the guest do next. 

@Gillian19's thinking also immediately came to my mind: book 'long term', leave early, stay for less.

[Sean45 · Accepted solution]

I ended up giving him $700 back. I used the time that he was gone to have a new patio and new driveway installed before the next guests arrived. It worked out well.