How to respond to a guest who wants a refund but booked a non-refundable rate?

[Yamini6]

Hello,

A guest booked a non-refundable rate but wants to cancel last minute and asked me to refund. I don't want to offer a refund since the guest booked a non-refundable rate.

What message should I send to the guest?

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Yamini6  "Hi XX, you chose the non-refundable rate in order to get a discount on the nightly rate. Non-refundable means non-refundable. And cancelling last minute means I won't even have a chance to possibly rebook the dates."

[Sarah977]

@Yamini6  You might want to consider turning off that non-refundable option. I can't see that it's of any benefit to hosts and I've read many other posts where the guests pretending they don't understand what non-refunfable means and hassling the host for a refund.

[Colleen253]

@Yamini6  My standard response when a guest wants to cancel and receive a refund outside of the cancellation policy is “I am happy to refund any portion of your abandoned dates that I am able to rebook. To increase the likelihood of rebooking, please cancel immediately to open the dates.” 

This appeases the guest and spurs them to cancel right away. Whereas a straight up ‘sorry, no refunds’ can result in the guest hemming and hawing and hanging on, arguing with you, or reconsidering cancelling. Meanwhile the dates are still locked up. If they decide in the end to keep their booking, then you’ve got guests who may be miffed, and you risk a rocky stay and perhaps a review colored by their unhappiness.

[Jessica2562]

I get the no refund rule but there has to be exceptions. Im new to this and I booked my 1st stay with someone. It was last minute. When i booked, we literally wouldve been leaving right after to go stay. Well I have 3 dogs and in the description it said pet friendly. No where did it say there was a deposit. Having 3 dogs, this is something i always search for. I even messaged the host to let them know that I have 3. I didn't hear anything back right away but i get a notification from air bnb stating i dont need to talk to the host before proceeding with the booking. Being this is my 1st time using this service, I didn't think nothing of it. So I booked, sent the money. Within 5 minutes of doing so, I received a message from the host telling me there is a pet fee. I get that and wouldn't of dispute it, if it was listed in the description. At that moment, i couldn't afford to pay any more money. So i immediately told him well if that's yge case i want to cancel. I haven't even departed to go there to yet. Never went. Well 7 days later im still trying to get my money. They refunded me $40 and kept $199. I understand if i held up the reservation where he couldn't book it any longer but i literally asked to cancel 5 min after i pd. And air bnbis sticking by their policy of what the host has for their no cancellation no refund thing. Idk what else to do. To me, this is morally wrong

And also, when i signed up, i guess my new phone number was also used by whoever had it before me, on here. So they kept referring to me as this guy. I finally figured out how to change my profile but his address n id is still on there 

.

[Sarah977]

@Jessica2562  Are you positive that the listing didn't mention a pet fee? It would be stated in the House Rules section, not necessarily the description.

I don't understand the part about the message from Airbnb saying you didn't have to message the host before booking. A person who travels with 3  dogs, or has any other circumstance a host should know about should always message a host before proceeding to book, in order to ensure it will work for you and the host. 

If a host doesn't answer your message, that's a bit of a red flag, and normally you shouldn't book there, but if you expect to book somethlng last minute and show up right away, not giving a host time to answer (expecting an answer within minutes is unreasonable- not everyone is free to answer a message immediately, people have jobs, families to attend to, may be driving, etc. Airbnbs aren't hotels with 24 hr. reeception.), this sort of thing is likely to happen to you again.