I have it in my rules that I will not accept a modification to a reservation if it falls within the penalty window for cancelling where part or all of the fee is due. If you have strict cancellation, then 3 days before falls in it.
If they are genuine they can claim on their travel insurance if a member of their party is ill.
Just confirm that you can’t accept a change of dates this close to their arrival as you are unlikely to get a replacement booking.
But if they cancel and you get a replacement booking you’re happy to consider a proportional refund of the host fee.
With the Firm Cancelation Policy you could kind of split the difference. Let her reschedule within the next 29 days and if she cancels you would still get 50% plus you also have a chance of rebooking last minute (with a higher last-minute price) and keeping a good rapport with the likely to return for 1-4 years guest (I’m in a college town too and it shouldn’t be underestimated).
She can only get a full refund if you let her rebook far enough into the future to be able to cancel 30 days prior to check-in.
The 48-hours to cancel is based on the original booking date (not the stay date). Once it has been 48 hours after booking, it never starts over, so you don’t need to worry about the 48, only the 30 or more days before check-in.
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I would double check that. I had a guest request to add 1 day to his existing reservation. He said they wanted to come 1 day earlier and stay 3 nights instead of 2. I allowed it and accepted the change. Less than 2 hours later he cancelled penalty free.
I suspected that was his purpose. But, I was confident I would be able to re-book (and I did). So, I allowed it and it ended up fine. But, lesson learned, any change at all = 48 hours is reset.
You might want to watch the show ‘24.’ Watching Jack Bauer do what needs to be done might move your needle on following your cancellation policy.
@balivilla got it right. The “I’m sorry” and “but” are passive language and open the door for a guest to keep on pushing.
@PitonView is sympathetic without an apology. Stronger, more professional language.
You are taking a business decision personally and she is snippy because she’s going to prey on that.
A bad review will get buried. Give her an appropriate one. BE PROFESSIONAL.
So this lady never cancelled, she’s scheduled to come today. We’ll see if she shows up. I hate drama
One thing I learned is to not say “I can’t” because they will reply “why can’t you?” to try and remove the reason you can’t. Instead, use “don’t” or “won’t”. Then if they reply “why don’t/won’t you?”, you can simply reply “That is our policy”. You don’t need to justify anything.
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Good luck with the stay and do come back and tell us how it went.
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You can let them know that you’ve had people cancel in the past after you allowed them to cancel with the promise of re-booking. If they are willing to Zelle or Venmo you the money for a future stay, then you can allow them to cancel their current booking. It will also allow them to to avoid a lot of fees. If they decline, it may be a tip off to you that they really aren’t cancelling for the reason they stated.
… and activity like you are proposing will get the host kicked off airbnb.
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If a guest reports a host doing what you are suggesting, the host will be delisted. Very poor advice.
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A resolution to this would be for Airbnb to allow the guest to rebook with NO refund period…. But they won’t do that.
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Are you sure you can’t get a last minute booking. Check whether you have a local FB group
regarding local rentals. I had two sets of people cancel a weeks booking in August this year, I live in Spain and July and August our main two months. People on FB had bookings cancelled but had flights and hire cars arranged. I replied saying I had cancellations ~ Cancellations replaced although one sent 17 emails with questions before actually booking !. Glad I recently joined the group on FB, worked like a charm.
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exactly!! I always just say , “No, that’s not possible, we can’t do that due to policy.” And if they haven’t booked and argue… “Sorry, no room at the Little Pink Beach House.”