Guest shortens stay, am I still getting full payout?

#1

I had a guest arrive and then the next day inform me it wasn’t what they expected. Yet they stayed 3 more nights. I had already been informed that the full payout was on it’s way and my cancellation policy is strict. No refunds from 7 days out. They sent me an alteration and I accepted assuming that I would still get the full payout. Is that correct or should I not have accepted the alteration?

My personal policy and one that has worked in the past is that if a guest shortens their stay, they must do so on their end, and if the room rents then I refund their money to the extent that the bookings cover their dates. Most of the time that happens.

We cannot do business if someone books for 10 days, stays 3, and then leaves.

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#2

You should have not accepted the alteration if you didn’t want to give the guest the opportunity to bypass your strict cancellation policy.

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#3

Now you’ve accepted the alteration you’re no longer going to get the full payout. One to remember for the next time an alteration request comes through.

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#4

It sounds like you would benefit from spending some time reading up on how Airbnb works. Have a look at Airbnb Help Centre and use the search function. Particularly looking at cancellation policies, guest and host cancellations and alterations.

On Airbnb you always run the risk that a guest can cut short or cancel their holiday due to extenuating circumstance. If Airbnb accepts their claim, you will not be paid.

If you can’t do business with this risk, other platforms might be better for you.

On this occasion you won’t be paid out because you chose to accept the alteration. Had you declined you would have been paid.

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#5

Thanks. Almost all my guests are for a month or more. When this has happened in the past I have accepted the alteration and still got paid. Then as a service to the guest I refund money if and when the room books again. I was trying to do something like that. I guess it worked then because it came under the guidelines for long term stay.

There were no extenuating circumstance in this case the guest simply found a friend to stay with.

#7

Well yea…the two people before you said that. You might want to consider brushing up on forum etiquette.

#8

This forum works that way, multiple responses to a question. Sometimes we disagree and it opens a discussion. Helsi was just trying to be helpful.

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#9

There was only one response. It’s a waste of everybody’s time to have someone copy and paste the same answer. That is not good forum etiquette anywhere.

#10

How can you know if the first response is correct?

#11

Look, stop arguing about forum etiquette. You asked for opinions and you got some. I don’t see anything wrong with their responses. We will remove argumentative posts, so let’s all please be nice.

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#12

You’re joking? Did you read them? All three are exact.

#13

Would love to! Just trying to stick to the point.

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#14

I’m sorry you accepted the alteration; I would be grumpy about that too. :sob:

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#15

And that should give you confidence in the answer, People often get multiple opinions for medical and legal questions. You’ve just joined this forum, perhaps it doesn’t suit you. And, you need not answer me.

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#16

I’m not grumpy about that, I’ve been doing this a long time. My revenues are at least twice what Airbnb cites as average and my occupancy rate is over 90%. I have 7 years of happy guests from all over the world. I dare say I have much to contribute. I asked a question and I’m looking for an answer. Simple enough.

#17

Well fine. I was just trying to sympathize. Never mind then!

I suppose I must echo the chorus of why would you accept the alteration? How could you not know that money was gone gone gone?

Anyway. Next time don’t.

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#18

Maybe because people don’t ask for an alterations from me and in the interest of customer service and maintaining good customer relations I acted too fast? I was trying to be nice to the customer. So I came here and asked for help. That’s all.

#19

yah because they were basically asking for their money back. Maybe that wasn’t clear when the request came through. They probably thought you would say no and were pleasantly surprised when you didn’t.

I had that happen to me too. I trusted the girl was telling the truth and later I found out she was lying about the reason. So I lost $1000 in peak season. Live and learn.

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#21

Can’t we all just get along!!??

@duanemitchell everyone here was trying to help in their own, unique way. This forum has ALOT of repetitiveness, from responses to threads to etc and like others have said sometimes it spawns productive convos, others the topic dies.

You made a mistake, we have all been there. Since you have said on numerous occasions that you don’t typically do less than 30 night stays, might I suggest listening to some of the members that ONLY do short term stays and are faced with alteration requests/resolution center requests/etc on a pretty frequent basis.

I for one always check the bottom right-hand corner of the alteration, where the ‘current payout is XXX’ and ‘new payout is YYY’ to make sure everything is kosher, becuase even when you as a host initiate an alteration sometimes sh*t gets screwed bc its ABB and we all know the website is beyond glitchy!

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#22

I’ve had the same situation recently. It really doesn’t happen often but in the future don’t accept alterations if you aren’t comfortable with the loss. Cancelation is the only way to mitigate your losses.- sometimes people are pissed because they have to pay for a place that they aren’t staying in but c’est la vie, baby.

I am also not comfortable with telling a person that I would refund their room if someone else books- it is WAY too much book keeping for my taste. But, that’s just me. I just don’t have the bandwidth in my life for such things.

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