Basic Rule of Thumb – NEVER REFUND ANY GUEST FOR ANY AMOUNT. Managing that sort of thing is why they get paid a percentage. As you discovered, a Host refunding Guests can lead to all sorts of “issues”. I serious hope they are not going to take money from your future earnings, but it is possible.
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Sadly, unlike BDC and VRBO Airbnb is often less than transparent when issues like this arise, and I do hope you get to keep the payout.
If it was me, I wouldn’t be so confident but maybe that’s just the old cynic in me coming through 
JF
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Let’s just assume that if Airbnb tried to withhold funds from future payouts, I wouldn’t be on this forum asking hosts how to handle. I would be very vigilant with Airbnb in getting my money back. So I want to just ignore that situation for the purpose of my question especially since I have no indication that will happen and many items in writing stating otherwise…
Good luck with this, and as others have said keep a close eye on your payouts going forward.
Food for thought, they were not due a refund and yet you offered one. Now it seems they cried and got a refund from air, and you may have to fight to keep the money.
No good deed goes unpunished it seems.
This just reaffirms for me that my policy is spot on. Stick to the cancellation policy that was agreed upon when the guest booked. There is no point (for me) in having a contract then not abiding by it.
Hopefully they do not try and claw back the money, but I am not sure that this is settled yet.
Please keep us updated!
RR
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The problem is you won’t know until you get the payout notification. There’s no indication on your account that your next payout will be reduced. The day after your next guest checks in, you’ll get a payout notification and see a reduced payout (or no payout) and you’ll wonder what is going on. You’ll contact Airbnb. They might tell you it’s because of a past refund, or they might just be “stumped” again.
Going back to your original question:
The answer is that it’s really unlikely that they refunded the guest with their own funds, although it’s not completely unheard of, so I do hope it works out in your favor.
I’m optimistic that the guest didn’t lie about cleanliness/safety/missing amenities/etc. to get a refund because you haven’t heard anything from Airbnb. There are a too many guest refund scenarios that end badly for the host.
love to run a book on this… 
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Well, as the OP said, if future payouts get docked, she won’t be posting about it here, so we’ll never know.
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Pity, I always like to know the end of the story!
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