A New one: leaving early without notice and sending a change request 12h later

1

When you think you seen most of it after over 800 AirBnB guest, you get something new.

A guest arrived late yesterday around 21:00 for 5 nights.
This morning he decided to leave. He called me around 12 that he went to Prague because the weather here is bad. (4 days of rain predicted)

Now half a day later he send a change request to reduce his stay to 2 nights.

Probably because it is more expensive to cancel.

For now I will just ignore the request.

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2

that is quite a late cancellation

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3

Absolutely. This idea that Airbnb uses us for travel insurance and guests use us as punching bags…

4

This is sad. So you travel all the way to another country and instead of exploring it in the rain and trying to learn about it…you just leave forever? Guess he must have lots of money to expend…

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5

Except that it looks like he’s trying to get out of paying for an extra day or two by submitting a change request instead of just cancelling himself.

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6

I got that part. Just a shame to only want to learn about other places if it’s not raining? I guess you don’t really want to be there anyway…

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7

Can’t you just tell the poor sod NO, it is too late?

8

The weather sucks at this moment. Even some wet snow the next few days.

There are a few things you can do I the rain, but not a lot.

But to me it is the behavior itself. Leaving without notice, calling a few hours later just to say you already left, and then sending a sneaky change request.
If he had spoken to us face to face, we would have found a solution.

I am not go his request. Just ignore it.
I did send a message to AirBnB, to inform them about the situation.

9

I have been suckered by late change requests in the past. They have gone the same way as early and late check in/outs for me. Farewell and good riddance.

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10

By not replying you’ve put yourself in a weaker position should the guest escalate their request to Airbnb.

I’d hit the decline button on that change request, then follow up with a message. “Dear guest, We’re sorry you had to cut your visit short! You’ll need to hit the “cancel” button to officially end your stay. This will free up your unused nights in our calendar for re-booking. We’ll be happy to refund if we’re able to re-book. We hope to see you again at ____ when the weather is more cooperative!”

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11

Yes, I thought that too.

However, I don’t want people staying with me who don’t want to be here. (Although I understand that the OP’s guy had already gone). So on the couple of occasions when a guest has had to cancel early, I’ve okayed it and just re-rented the space.

And I’ve had (I think) two or maybe even three couples who have moved on due to the weather. I don’t blame them - on a vacation to a sunny place I’d move on too if rain was being forecast for days. Sometimes it can’t hurt to put ourselves into the guests’ shoes and imagine the scenario from their point of view.

12

Don’t worry I have already escalated it proactively.

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13

Are you saying you’d refund the unused nights in this case?

I’m all for guests making the most of their vacation time, but they should understand their choices might come at a cost. A last minute shortening of their stay may mean they’re out some money. Since they’re the one making that choice, I want to be really clear that money isn’t coming from my pocket!

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14

Yes. I understand exactly what you mean and I wouldn’t refund the remainder of the stay if it was just one night and I think that one night, even if the stay is longer, is enough of a ‘penalty’ for the guest to pay.

I’d see the time remaining in the official stay as either an opportunity to re-rent the space or if it was just a day or so, to use the time for a super-deep clean or to deal with overdue maintenance issues.