I have a guest with me right now with a long reservation extended another 12 days.
He now has an offer from a friend to stay here in our city for 'free' or for much less and wants to alter his reservation and leave today.
I know better than to try to bring out my cancellation policy, disappointment or how it's inconvenient for me. I told him I understood why he wanted to make the change, to contact AIRBNB with his request and that they would handle it for him.
I have documented through the AIRBNB msg service what he said at the breakfast table: about wanting to stay with his friend for free, "enjoying our breakfasts and being very happy with his room and stay while here"....he confirmed all of this with a return message.
He has now sent a change request --- after today's check out time, to check out today! While I have a moderate cancellation policy, the refund of this request does NOT reflect the fact that I should be receiving 50% of the remainder number of days as per the moderate cancellation policy.
I'm told him that I cannot approve any change until AFTER he checks out. Which makes total sense to me. Once he's gone, I can then deal with the discrepancy of pay out and how much. I feel that doing otherwise would increase the the threat of a potential revenge review.
Hope this helps others.
As far as I can tell, these so-called MODERATE or STRICT cancellation policies are only things to make the hosts feel like they have some coverage. In reality, what I have learned is that when a guest sends a changes a reservation, AIRBNB sends through the changes to the host exactly the same as it would look with a flexible policy automatically giving the guest a full refund!
It's now clear to me that this moderate or strict cancellation policy means nothing unless the host makes a fuss. Of course, making a fuss without careful documentation will, more than likely, result in a revenge review.
Hope this is helpful to other hosts.