@Mallary3 You absolutely need to warn them. This happened to a friend of mine who hosts. She found out that the city was going to be digging up the street for about 5 blocks, that runs right in front of her house to put in new sewer and water lines. The time frame wasn't known, and she had no idea from one day to the next whether the machinery would be working in front of her house, or 2 blocks down.
She contacted all of her booked guests to apprise them of the situation, didn't offer any discount, but said she totally understood if they wanted to cancel and she would refund them in full. I think all but one of her bookings opted to keep the booking.
Because the work wasn't going on after 5 pm, it didn't keep anyone awake, and the bedroom is at the back of the house, so it wasn't too noisy in the bedroom.
@Ann72 While I've always been in the "don't throw money at guests for minor inconveniences" camp, I wouldn't call a demolition project directly over one's head all day long a minor inconvenience.
The demolition part might only take a day or two, though, and after that might not be horrendously loud or disturbing.
I think guests in this sitution should at least be offered the chance to cancel without losing money. Otherwise it could lead to upset guests and a bad review, or them even staying a few days and cancelling, demanding a refund after the fact. For the ones who opt to keep the booking, as you say, if they have plans to be out most of the day, and the host maybe foots their lunch bill, they likely won't be that disturbed.
I was once staying at a hotel in Mexico City, and the first morning we were rudely awakened at 6:30 AM by guys jackhammering on the roof next door, directly outside our window. My boyfriend, with his Italian temper, flew out of bed, threw on some clothes and stormed down to the front desk, yelling at the front desk person as to why they gave us that room without a warning.
