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Just received an alteration request to add an extra person. She’d contacted me a month ago and informed me (politely, and there’s no extra charge for the extra person so no big deal). But she just submitted a formal alteration request.
No change of dates, stay is still a month away. Strict cancellation policy, but it has the 48-hour “grace period”. I have no reason to believe she’ll cancel, but if I accept her request, does it start the 48 hour clock as if it’s a new reservation?
I’m aware of the date issue, but this is just number of guests. No money involved, either.
I had the same thing recently. I had the same thought as you— probably it’s nothing, but I didn’t want to open myself up for a cancellation.
I sent a cheery note, “Thank you for letting me know about the updated number of guests. As there is no per person charge, an alteration isn’t necessary.” Then I declined the alteration request.
Suggestion
Thank you for updating your number of guests. Since there is not a charge per guest, I will update this number at check-in in the event you have other changes, that way we are not making multiple updates.
The only change that matters is if they want to change the check-in date forward and only then depending on your cancelation policy.
For example, I use the moderate policy and guests can cancel penalty-free until 5 days before check-in. So if it was already 5 days before their check-in date and they moved it forward by enough days for it to be more than 5 days away then they could cancel penalty-free.
However, your policy, which allows a penalty-free cancelation within 48 hours of booking is based on the booking date and the booking date never changes, it stays the same regardless of how many times the reservation dates change. You would only be affected if the check-in date changed far enough into the future to only pay you out the 50% (between 7 and 14 days) instead of the 100% (within 7 days). But the 48-hour period does not start over unless they cancel completely and then re-book with a new booking date.
Regardless, changes to the number of guests, pets or the checkout date do not affect cancelation policies at all. But, obviously, all of those changes can affect the price of the stay.
