Our guest is requesting modifications and Airbnb's payout is unfair - should I decline the request?

[Aaron1011]

We have a guest checking-in to stay in 8 days. We have a strict cancellation policy in place which entitles her, today, to a 50% refund if she cancels (starting tomorrow she would get no refund for cancelling). She submitted a request to "Modify" her days reducing her stay from 4 nights to just 2 nights on a very busy Spring Break week. This guest will only stay two nights which breaks up our week/weekend and leaving less appealing and unlikely dates for someone else to grab. 

Since we have a strict policy the guest should only be entitled to 50% refund if she were to cancel and the same policy is enforced with modifications.... or so I thought! I just spent an hour on the phone with Airbnb and they explained that this is how it works:

She was paying $140/night for four nights with her original booking. Since she is cancelling two days, she will be responsible for a 50% of her trip, changing her nightly fee to $70 per night. Meaning she's changed from 4 nights to 2 nights and only paying for two nights.... So she is not being dinged in any way - only I am! I should be getting paid out at two nights at the full $140, plus $70 for each of the other two nights she is cancelling, right? 

This seems like such BS for hosts and I really don't want to accept the change. Does anyone have advice on how to proceed if I am at an impasse here with not wanting to allow the modification because it's not a win-win, only I lose here. Reviews mean a ton to us, but I am also tired of getting the short end of the stick out of fear of bad reviews. 

[Pat271]

@Aaron1011 

I agree with you, that doesn’t seem right.

If the guest is cancelling 2 days, they should pay a cancellation fee of 50% of the 2 days. This has nothing to do with the room rate, and CS shouldn’t be manipulating it. It is a cancellation fee. Everything else should remain the same. So you should receive $140 + $140 + (50% of $280).

Where it went wrong was this tidbit you shared:

”Since she is cancelling two days, she will be responsible for a 50% of her trip”.

No, she will be responsible for 100% of the days she is staying, plus 50% of the days she cancelled.

I would call CS multiple times until you get someone who understands this obvious flaw in logic.