Hi all. With hurricane Irma coming I have had a guest request a refund for a one night stay because they have family who had to evacuate another area come to their house to stay. This is a young couple with limited chances to use Airbnb due to work schedules.
We have a moderate cancellation policy. I have considered refunding 1/2 of the night’s charges and extending a credit for up to one year in the future. I wonder if even that is too hard hearted. My husband says to refund them due to their extenuating circumstances.
What would you do? TIA
Refund. Its good karma.
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Id even refund for that with my strict policy.
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You can also just offer them a free stay at another time, I’ve done this and it works out well!
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Done! Thank you for weighing in.
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That was one of my thoughts. If it had not been under such extreme circumstances I perhaps would have done that.
In the end I had to ask myself how I would feel if it were me, and through no fault of my own I had to cancel. I thought mercy was called for in this instance.
Thank you for your response, though, Maggie.
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I refund 99% of cancellations anyway. A one night loss due to hurricane, certainly. I try to treat others as I want to be treated.
Edit: I see you made your decision. Maybe you’ll get a replacement booking.
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I did get a replacement booking! It wasn’t the primary reason for refunding, but I did ask that they cancel (which they had not yet done) so I could possibly recoup the loss.
Also with the storm our region has an overbooked situation. We wanted to offer it to someone who really needed it. Turned out someone cancelled on a couple and we were requested by Air to take the people who were left high and dry.
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So, a question: if you refund anyway, what policy do you have and why do you have a cancellation policy? (Other than it is required by Air) What is your thinking?
Air will refund anything related to the hurricane.
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I have the flexible policy. Most times when someone cancels same day I refund their money. I don’t really believe in getting paid when no service was delivered. I assume most people are honest and that they have a good reason to cancel. I treat others the way I want to be treated, as I said. I do the same with my dog boarding business.
That said, I don’t have a vacation rental. I have a room that is very much like a road trip pit stop. I get lots of last minute bookings. If someone were holding my in demand property (or if I was saving a spot for a dog that couldn’t get rebooked) for months and then cancelled last minute and asked for a refund I would probably have a different policy. If I knew as fact that someone was lying to me I’d have no problem keeping their money. (That happened once in the dog boarding biz).
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