Your a great host. You've delivered a high quality home with great service. Still, you have a guest who, for whatever reasons beyond your control, wants to cancel early during their stay. This will leave an unexpected hole in your calendar that you may have trouble filling as a result. Here's what I recommend you do based on my experience.
1. Stay calm. Remind them you have a no-cancellation policy and your policy is to enforce all terms and rules consistently.
2. If you decide to offer a refund, inform them any refund will be calculated and issued about 3 weeks after checkout.
3. Make the guest CANCEL. DO NOT accept a "Reservation Change". See below...
4. Use the "Send or Request Money" feature to send the refund amount that you deem appropriate and after the review period has ended.
5. Leave an honest review to politely give future hosts a "heads up". See below...
My Experience:
We where thrilled when we received a corporate booking for 12 days in January. The booker has over 30 reviews, so clearly they are familiar with the various Air BNB cancellation policies and chose our home with our Strict Cancellation policy (no refunds).
On the second day of their stay I was told they "may" finish 7 days early, and if so, asked if we would give them a refund. 2 days later I was told they would in fact check out on day 5 and they requested a refund again. I told them I would "consider" a refund only if we are able to re-book this last minute hole in the calendar.
So, they submitted a "Reservation CHANGE". I started to accept their change. While doing so I noticed that there was no option for me accept the change without issuing a 100% refund for the cancelled dates! So, I DECLINED the change request. Instead, I required that they actually CANCEL their stay. By doing so, I was able to keep the money and free up my calendar for more bookings. I can then send a refund for any amount I deem appropriate.
They continued to pressure me to issue a refund. They said they've done cancelled early on more than on occasion and NEVER had anyone say they would only refund if they could re-book the dates. Clearly they have a habit of intentionally over-booking a property, cancelling early, leaving the host with a hole in the calendar, and getting refunded anyway. So, now here I am, a super host who works hard to provide high quality accommodations now being put in a position to "disappoint" my guest by not refunding them.
They subsequently sent a follow-up message listing the reasons why they felt I should issue a refund including: You would not have booked those days anyway, and, we cancelled with sufficient notice for you to re-book. Clearly these statements are ridiculous. If you don't think we would have booked those dates a week in advance, what makes you think we'll book them now that you cancelled and we have even less time to re-book? And in what universe is cancelling mid-stay "sufficient notice"? Sufficient for what? My argument - an experienced booker like you knew what you were doing when you booked my home with a no-refunds policy. You knew your schedule was subject to change and you booked a home with a strict cancellation policy anyway. We both agreed to the same thing. I held up my part of the deal. You need to hold up yours.
I informed them that I would issue some kind of refund about 21 days after they check-out. This gives me time to reflect on how well they treated the property, whether I was able to book any of the days they cancelled and for how much, and factor in how fairly they treated us throughout the entire process.
I left a fair review that alerts future hosts about this issue in a way that is a nice and fair as possible, given the circumstance. Reviews are for the hosts benefit. We can't let habitual overbookers like this go without any notice to other hosts that they can expect a problem. Hopefully this review will prompt the booker to think twice before trying to get around the no-refund policy.
My Review
The crew left our home in very good condition and we would host them again. 5-Stars for the guests! XXXX, the booker, was communicative and professional. Hosts Be Advised: the nature of their work schedule is subject to change and they may have to cancel early as much as half of their stay or more. Even if you are a host with a Strict cancellation policy (like we do), be prepared to discuss refunds anyway.