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I’ve searched the forums but not found anything that answers my question in 2022.
I’ve got a guest who needs to cancel tomorrow due to some “emergency” that she hasn’t explained.
We have moderate XLN policy, so she’s not entitled to any refund.
I’ve offered her a refund if we rebook.
She doesn’t want this, she wants a “postponement”. I told her Airbnb don’t do “postponements”.
She clearly doesn’t know about the trick of moving the reservation and then cancelling, so I think she’s a genuine person.
If I allow her to move the reservation does the same cancellation policy apply? I’ve just changed my policy to Strict for the Xmas season.
I know most of you are like “so sad too bad, keep her money”. I really don’t want to get into that side of the conversation, I had a cancellation last week and i kept the money, I’m not a total softie. and for the record this year I let 5 people change their dates. 3 were genuine, and 2 were not.
She’s suggested giving the reservation to friends, which i’m not keen on either, and I suspect she’ll give me a bad review if she chooses to keep the reservation.
Yes, I’ll be out of pocket, yes that’s unfair to me, I just want to know if the original cancellation policy applies and i can’t find any confirmation of that. My suspicion is that it will.
I don’t the trick works when the guest is this close to check-in. For moderate cancellation policy, if a booking is made within 5 days of check-in, there’s no penalty-free cancellation available. Therefore, you can let the guest do an alteration request without opening up the opportunity to cancel without penalty. [Edit: I’m wrong, it depends on how far out the dates move, not the current cutoff dates].
yes, they can move the dates to next week, and then cancel immediately and get a full refund. And she can’t move it closer, we are fully booked. Her options are limited as it is as we are coming into summer and the calendar is tight.
You can let her simply cancel. Warn her that the platform will tell her she only gets a pittance of a refund (cleaning). Tell her to then request through CS for a full refund, and that when ABB contacts you to ask you to countermand your XLN policy, that you’ll tell them to grant it.
Alternatively instead of waiting for ABB to contact you, you can proactively call CS and tell them. Guest X just cancelled and you’d like ABB to give her a full refund. The CS agent will “warn” you saying, “but you won’t get any money…” Let them know you understand and to proceed. This is how we refunded someone a few months ago. It requires the guest trust that you’ll follow through. But otherwise…
I know I can give her a full refund, I don’t really want to, she booked a month ago, she’s taken my calendar away and it’s not likely i’ll get a replacement booking.
What i was wanted to know is that if i let her adjust the reservation does the original cancellation policy apply, or will my new policy of Strict apply?
I DO NOT want to ring CS and ask them, haha. they’ll just stuff something up.
Thinking out loud……
If the cancellation period resets when the guests move the dates, I can’t see why the new strict policy would not apply - future dates equals new policy
I don’t know the answer but could you simply tell her that you’ll credit the amount you receive to her next reservation, which will be made with the cancellation policy in place when she makes the reservation?
At that time you can make her a special offer that gives her the credit.
yes, I suppose you are correct, I keep her money and then offer her a credit off a future trip? she’d have to trust me though… there’s no official way to do it.
Right, but she has the documentation in the correspondence on the platform. I think her risk is just that you stop the business or don’t have dates available when she wants to use them.
You probably should put a time limit, like any trip she makes (not a third party booking) within 12 months.
ok, i’ve just sent her that as Option C. She’s told me she’s still going to come but will be “so depressed”. I really don’t want her here tbh, and i’m sure she’ll leave a bad review. But i’ve also spelled out she’s going to lose $80 in fees, and that she doesn’t just get 2 free nights, she has a credit.
thanks.
technically i’m still out of pocket, and have to do extra work to please this guest… i’ve given her 1 hour to accept this offer.
I don’t need to cancel her, she can turn up and i’m sure she’ll have a perfectly good time. She said she’s bringing her daughter, i did a quick google, she’s a teacher, so she’s on school hols and might be annoyed now to not be getting time away as she planned. Depending on the age of her kid, i’m pretty sure her daughter will love the pool and feeding out newborn calf, so i’m sure it’ll be a lovely stay for them, regardless of her initial attitude.
ok, she has taken this option. I know it’s putting me at risk of being out of pocket by not getting a booking, but I think i’d rather have that than a stroppy guest. and - in theory - she should be damn grateful if/when she does re-book because I didn’t have to do the refund at all, but I won’t hold my breath. I spelled it out clearly that she’s going to lose $80 and i’m holding her money. let’s see if that sunk in.
she claims she wasn’t able to cancel, surely that’s not true, i’ve had people cancel on the morning of their booking. So she’s made an alteration request and changed the dates. Now I will find out if the new cancellation policy will apply to her “new” reservation.
yep, I do. So now we find out if she was genuine, and if I block her from booking with me ever again.
I don’t care if she cancels her new December booking, that will be easily filled. if I get a booking for tomorrowx2nights, then it’s all well that ends well. If not, i’ve done a good thing for her and am out of pocket, but at least I don’t have someone hating on me in my own city. That’s the difference I think in my situation and others who say “keep the money”. 85% of my guests are locals, and if we want to transition to word of mouth direct bookings, I need to be kind to get the positive word of mouth.
I’m aware of that, and I told her politely that it wasn’t allowed, and it often problematic, but I would allow it for her. She couldn’t find anyone, so it’s a moot point. I’ve had some perfectly fine guests who’ve booked for older parents and that’s been mostly fine, but i’ve had a few other groups where it’s been bad, and the worst was via BDC (who do allow 3rd party stays, and reviews).
UPDATE: she worked out she could move the reservation and so my bluff of not allowing a postponement was exposed. So I allowed it. We got another booking for 1 of the nights at least.
What I still don’t know, and no one else has answered, is if my new cancellation policy applies. I can’t see anywhere in her new reservation (on my side) that even mentions it. Anyone know where to find this info on her booking?
