Asking guest to cancel for a booking 2 months in advance.

[J-Andres0]

I have set up a flexible cancellation policy, where guests can cancel to me within 24 hours without charge. I have a guest whose booking is in 2 months in the future and when they try to cancel, it still says they would be charged. But if I cancel, I would be charge. Trying to resolve it via ticket it says" Your guest’s reservation isn’t eligible for a full refund under your cancellation policy" which doesn't make sense!

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@J-Andres0 whatever you do don't cancel this yourself. The only things I can think of are

a) Did you have a stricter policy in place when the booking was made or

b) Has the guest cancelled other places many times and hence Airbnb will charge them the service fee whatever your cancellation policy is or

c) The guest is cancelling overlapping bookings which cannot be cancelled free of charge.

If you and the guest message that you would like them given a full refund then the guest calls Airbnb they should be able to refer to the message and sort this out.

[J-Andres0]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the suggestions. I wrote to Airbnb Support and asked them how was this possible to happen as when they booked it was "flexible" policy on, so they assure me that when the customers will get their refund when they will exercise the cancellation from their side.

Im just waiting for them to cancel now and wrote in the email that Im definetly wanting them to have any refund and they can use the message as evidence.

Best,

[John5097]

@J-Andres0 

This was the cancelation policy you had selected when they booked. At this point the guest needs to cancel, or host will be penalized. 

After guest cancels, you can go to the reservation details and issue a refund. The last time a guest did this a few months back I recall there is a tab that ask how much host wants to refund, and had the option of full amount, but my only experience with issuing a refund prior to this is that Airbnb still collects its fees and taxes.  

I would call customer support, although make sure there won't be any penalties to the host.  

[J-Andres0]

Airbnb confirmed they (the guests) will have their refund and even mentioned the booking number. Im just waiting for them to cancel now. I just found weird that airbnb can have this very simple technical issue ...

[Julia0]

Do not refund out of your own pocket. Remember, Airbnb have the money, you do not.