Guest canceling request

I had a guest make a reservation request at 11pm last night for a reservation starting today. I didn’t check email till 7.30am today, at which point, I approved it. I get a message back from her saying that she would like to cancel my request as she made another booking. She asked if I can give a refund. I said sure, I can give a 100% refund of what I’m supposed to get, which was $124, even though the cancelation policy doesn’t allow for any refund. She says that it looks like she might only get a fraction of it back ($44) based on airbnb cancellation policy. I told her I don’t know how Airbnb came to that $44 number but I can give her 100% of what I get, even though it’s her fault for not canceling my booking inquiry when her other booking request got approved. Now she doesn’t want to cancel if she will only be getting $44 back. I told her the only way to find out how much she will get is once she makes a cancellation request.

And now she’s suggesting that I have another friend of hers (someone not thru airbnb) stay at my place while she stays at the other place. This doesn’t look right to me. Now I’m concerned that if she does stay at my place, she’s not exactly going to be a nice person to be around. Ideally I would like to call Airbnb and tell them to cancel this request. Thoughts?

You can refund her through the resolution center. I just did this with my airbubbles guest (her words not mine) and I asked to refund less the air fee which you will pay. So offer an additional refund less about 10-20 bucks for your trouble. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT book her friend outside of Air. You are asking for even more trouble than this guest already is.

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I can’t help with your decision since you don’t want her in your house now. But just keep in mind she had your calendar blocked the whole time her reservation request was pending. It’s possible you lost out another booking for today. And if she hasn’t canceled yet, your calendar is still blocked right now.

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I don’t believe she can book two different rooms through airbnb for the same dates. Once she booked the other place, you would get a message telling you she’d booked already.

If she booked with you, then the other place, that’s her loss. She’s jerking you around and stealing your time.

She just canceled. Yes, I requested her to cancel soon to avoid blocking my calendar. Oh well.

I have a moderate cancellation policy. How do you all typically handle cancellation requests? I’ve gotten 5 so far and in 4 cases, I’ve issued them a refund. Two of them didn’t ask for any refund but I felt they were genuinely sorry about it so I offered it. The other one asked for it, I offered, and then had to bug her 3 times to get her to accept the offer. I’m wondering how you decide whether to offer a refund or not. I tell guests that if I can fill a booking, I will give them a refund but I’m beginning to rethink that now…

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What are the reasons your guests are giving to cancel? And why are they not canceling outside of the 5 day window?

And is Air waiving their service fee and refunding these guests? Air’s regular policy is the guest forfeits the service fee if they cancel. Only under the extenuating circumstances policy does Air give back the service fee.

Since you are waiving your cancellation policy, any idea if Air is doing the same with the service fee? I have heard sometimes they will, but wasn’t sure under what circumstances.

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I’ve only had this happen once just this week after 6 years of hosting. I made her cancel as she was asking me for things not allowed in my listing, such as a free extra guest and to bring a dog. Once she cancelled I waited for her to figure out how to request a refund through the resolution center. She did and I countered her offer for a full refund by 20 bucks less so I would net some money and not lose it since you still owe air the fee. She agreed.

I don’t think I would have offered first, I let her figure it out.

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Maggie -

Are you referring to the 3% that you used the $20 to cover? So, even if a host offers to waive their cancellation policy…Air will still bill you the 3% and take the amount out of future reservations??

I have had two guests who booked two Airbnb’s at the same time. One was a woman who Instant Booked with me for her daughter. As she booked in the afternoon for that night, she couldn’t cancel. When I asked her to make sure that her daughter was comfortable with large dogs, she booked a different Airbnb. I was surprised that Airbnb’s system allowed this. The second guest is our current guest. She is staying with us in Los Angeles for 25 days working on her Ph.D. thesis. She decided to take a side trip to San Diego for one day. Airbnb did permit her to make the second reservation in the middle of the first one.

@cabinhost
Yes so it appeared I’d be down 6 bucks or so if I gave the full refund. Maybe I didn’t understand it correctly but I know they keep the guest fees, in any case I got a bit for my trouble?

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Interesting! Thanks!