I understood that it was implied when it was said that they had never had a medical appointment cancelled.
I wasn’t implying that other guests were lying when I said I’d never had a medical appointment cancelled. I meant what I said that it’s never happened to me, but that if it’s a common occurrence the guest should choose a listing with a flexible cancellation policy. I don’t do subtext. What I say is what I mean and all that I mean.
Why don’t you think that guests who have plans that are likely to change should book listings that have flexible cancellation policies?
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Kindness department: I have a moderate cancellation policy. One guest cancelled last minute due to death in family. I was able to verify via her home area public obituaries. I gave a full refund.
This is a business department: Another guest altered her reservation to an off season month (lower rate) two days before check in. She gave me along story that felt strange (too long, too many odd details) Days before the second reservation, she tried to reschedule her reservation AGAIN. I involved AIRBNB customer service. The guest paid the full reservation and I was able to leave a review about her 2X attempts to reschedule her stay instead of compliance with the cancellation policy.
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It’s not common to have medical appointment or procedures cancelled. My doctor since my teens had never cancelled on me or my family members. Then his wife had a cardiac arrest. My father was in the hospital bed, surgery booked for 1pm, the doctor cancelled it because he’d had catastrophic situation in the OR that am.
I have a strict policy, but have bent on occasion, and in one situation decided I didn’t want the guest.
I’m sure the lady was more distressed about not seeing the doctor, I know I would be.
I wasn’t saying Ellen was unkind, just not aware that this happens. And as it’s not common, I’m sure the lady didn’t think she’d have to cancel.
(Not replying specifically to you, Louise - you’re just the last post)…
We have a placed rented for this Friday night. Strict cancellation policy. We live in Houston, and all the airports are closed due to Hurricane Harvey. We’re fortunate, no flooding at our home, but I’m not yet sure we’ll even be able to leave town on schedule.
I’m not even considering asking our host for a refund if we can’t get out of town. I’m positive the “extenuating circumstances” would cover us, but it’s not the host’s fault we can’t make it. I’m old-fashioned - I believe it’s my responsibility to honor the agreement I entered into. I either buy my own insurance, use the one the credit card carries, or just absorb the loss.
Why, oh why, does everyone think they can push the risk on us, the small business owners? Where’s the ownership of taking responsibility for our own issues?
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This is EXACTLY what I was trying to say!!!
I’m a softie, a nice person, but I get pretty resentful pretty fast when people are scamming on me after making a commitment to block my calendar.
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In this case she wasn’t asking for money back, but a credit to use for a future booking. As I gather this was one night, and most probably a mid week booking, I would play the odds that this may be a repeat booking client and worth the short term “loss”.
Word of mouth if she had been happy, she’d have shared it with other patients or the clinic, that’s how we found accommodation when family in hospital out of town. There is a lot of chatting in the waiting room, also Facebook support groups share this info regularly. There are two specialists for my situation in Los Angeles, I see people posting links to Airbnb and hotels weekly.
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I found this site that explains
Loyalty Equals Better Performance
"Customer satisfaction
The reason why loyal guests are so important is: 1) because it costs three to five times as much to attract new guests than to retain existing ones; 2) because previous guests strongly influence others by word of mouth recommendation (Conlon et al., 2004, p. 434). "
Oh yes - that’s definitely what marketing people say (I say this as a comms and marketing person). Normally they are talking about what’s called FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), where repeat custom is the norm.
So if you shop online at say Ocado (UK supermarket), for clothes or for fast food, marketing to retain customers is really important as this is much cheaper than seeking out new ones. For Airbnb as a global brand this is really important to have customers use them rather than for a competitor. For individual hosts not so much as the huge majority of guests (at least for tourism users) is one off and no matter how great your guest experience they are unlikely to become repeat customers, although arguably word of mouth might bring in new business.
I’ve had over 100 booking - none come from word of mouth recommendations and the only ones that do repeat booking are those here for business.
@Louise -
I understand she was not asking for money back, but credit for a future booking when you can’t (I presume) rebook the night(s) she cancelled is essentially the same thing. You are out now or out later.
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So the lady is actually bothering to book again, but this time instead of the cancelled 1 night, she’s asking for 50% off two nights. Would it be bad if I gave her just the 50% off the one night? Or would it be best for me to take 50% off the two nights?
Why are you giving her a discount?
Because she had asked for future credit for her next stay because of her cancelled appt.
Was the previous booking 1 or 2 nights ?
If 1 night and she is looking for 50% of 2 nights I would say just the one night.
I had surgery cancelled when I was in them lovely paper knickers and gowns, cancellations happen a lot in Ireland.
We had a week’s holiday booked 3 years ago in a lovely hotel, one of the children got unwell, the hotel called a doctor, they wanted to admit him to the local hospital but we brought him back to his regular team in the children, longest 4 hour drive of my life. The hotel gave us a full refund of the days we lost, and sent my son a little toy and get well soon card. We have returned to the hotel and recommended it to friends and families.
She cancelled one night and now she wants half off two nights? You only offered half off one night, correct. I was a bit sympathetic the first time, imagining myself in her position. But now she is just taking advantage. Tell her you will honor your original offer. Don’t be held hostage by a bad review that you don’t deserve.
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The previous booking was only 1 night. Good thing she was asking me what the total rate would be since I msged her that it would be 50% off her next stay. So I msged her, “Your 50% discount applies to just one night’s worth since you had cancelled for one night last time. This time you are asking to book two nights. The amount for just the room itself would be $25+50 = 75 plus the cleaning fee, occupancy tax and other fees that airbnb may charge you.” I can’t afford to have my place booked for $25 per night like she’s hoping.
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She is starting to sound like the kind of guest I turn down and then block off the room. I’d rather have no guest than a PITA guest. But you said she has regular appointments in your area didn’t you? Hopefully it pays off having been patient and she turns out to be a good repeat guest. I’ve had repeats schedule their visits around being able to book my place.
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If you were able to rebook the days she cancelled, you should give her a courtesy refund. Otherwise, it’s your call.
She may have misunderstood what your message meant
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If you choose to, you can enter into a gentlemans agreement (purely on trust) that when she wants to book you will give her credit.
But whether you should offer her such credit depends on many factors. How many nights was it? What’s the likelihood of filling the dates at short notice, etc?
In my area, filling dates at short notice is close to impossible and also involves heavy discounts (losses)!