Guest terminating lease 4 months early. Should I charge fee?

[Gabriela381]

Hello,  We host our home and usually have no issues booking it. Our current guest booked for 6 months but because he works in Film Industry and there are two major strikes right now that are really affecting people's livelihood, our guest reached out, said he couldn't afford to stay and had to terminate his lease 4 months early. If we were super wealthy we'd have no problem with this, except both my husband and I also work in the film industry and are out of work as well, so we depend on this Airbnb renter to cover our costs. We will of course agree to terminate his lease, but curious, is there a fair fee we should charge our guest as we'll be losing 4 months worth of income. Also will Airbnb charge us if we agree to terminate early (per guest's request)? As a host if I were to terminate the guest, Airbnb would charge me a fee, so is it fair to charge guest a fee and if so, how much?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gabriela381 Under the long stay cancellation policy I believe the guest has to pay 'only' up to the end of the month they have paid for plus 30 days. So this is the most you could get BUT if the guest just doesnt pay for the next 30 days you will get nothing.

Better to let the guest cancel ASAP so that you can market your place again.

[Gabriela381]

Thank you so much. This is super helpful to know. So do they pay 30 days and stay those extra 30 days? Or do they pay the 30 days as a fee for the cancellation? And once they give notice to us, how are we able to market our place again immediately? If it still shows as booked in his end? Thanks!

[Joelle43 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Gabriela381 

Under the long term policy, it is my understanding that whilst the first month is non refundable, a guest just needs to give their host 30 days notice and then they are free to leave. Here is the Airbnb link on cancelling a long term stay:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1361/

Your calendar will free up automatically and no charge to you obviously for this guest cancellation but a hard pill to swallow I grand you😞 Hopefully someone else will come along shortly...

All the best

Joëlle

[Helen744]

@Gabriela381 as you will be aware your guest pays ahead and then at the beginning of the month. Ask your guest to cancel immediately or send an adjustment to the booking and ask them to accept it . They can then  leave when they wish, or whatever they arrange with you but will forfeit the upcoming months payment if it is due before they leave. Your booking then will open from the date of the adjustment... H