@Dawn102
If I were you I would write a public review that xx is a quiet and nice, left the apartment clean etc... and would not mention his early check out
Guest has every right to check out whenever he is pleased, you can not force him to stay. The good thing is - he did inform you , he could leave without telling you or leave the door and windows wide open on rainy day but he did not.. this things also happens as you can read here on forum 😞
I am awake until 1 am and I have my phone next to my bed and check all messages every morning as soon as I wake up, so I would receive his message at time. It was your choice not to check messages earlier (I don't want to blame you but it's the fact)
And he has a right to cancel and ask for a refund and you gave it to him . You can not blame him for that either.
But, dear Dawn... after reading few hundreds posts here we are not upset over such things any more. We are happy if our guests close all windows and lock the door and leave our keys after they check out. We are happy if they don't steal or break anything. We are happy if they don't throw a party and trash our place 🙂 So, keep kalm, life is great, happy hosting etc.. etc... 😉