Can airbnb take money from my bank account without permission

A guest cancelled his trip on the 7th day out of 30days of his trip and Airbnb wants me to refund him 100% due to extraordinary circumstances (family health issues).
Now I have an adjustment to my account that will be deducted on the next payout.
Has anyone experienced this before?
If I stop using airbnb, they wont be able to do the adjustment, can they deduct the amount directly from my bank account?
That is, do we, hsots, give airbnb permission to do so when we set up our bank account?
MAny thanks,
Xan.

Note: I feel really frustrated that airbnb doesnt take any responsibility on this case. its outrageous. extraordinary circumstances can happen, but Airbnb should take at least 50% of the responsibility. What is happening to me just sucks. Be aware fellow hosts.

WHY should Air take 50% of the responsibility? All they did was advertise for you and collect money for you (and pay you), etc.

If you were privately renting your place through Craigslist, would you hold Craigslist responsible because your guest had a heart attack, or the guest’s parents were killed in a car crash??? Or would you be a jerk and tell the guest “tough – you paid for 30 days whether you stay here or not”?

I believe, but am not certain that, one way or another, Air can force you to pay back the guest. I’m not agreeing that you should pay back 100%… After all, the guest did stay 7 days, nearly 1/4 of the booked period, and you should be recompensed for that time and expense. That’s where I think Air is being unreasonable. If it was the first or second day of 30, it would be a nice gesture to refund the guest 100%, but not when the stay is 1/4 over.

Exactly. But I don’t see why the OP doesn’t refund the other days when the guest didn’t stay. I mean, free money is nice but hosts in this situation should see the guest’s point of view. I don’t think many people would like to pay for something we haven’t received.

I’m not 100% sure but I believe that if a host closes their account when money is still owning, then the debt passes to a collection agency? I don’t have experience of that but I’m sure I read it somewhere.