Guest writes in today to say she’s cancelling. She made the reservation more than two weeks ago and her check-in date is 3 days from now.
She said she had gone through Airbnb to cancel but they would only refund her the $29 cleaning fee, but she was still on the hook for the $525 reservation. She asked if we could please refund that to her - because it was an EMERGENCY! Although she never stated what the emergency was!
When people claim they have an emergency but they don’t tell you what it is - that means they don’t have an emergency.
Look what happened!! The guest wrote in this morning and said this:
“Sorry to let yo know that I have to cancel this trip to New York. Because there is an emergency happened that I have to cancel this reservation. When I click the button “Change or Cancel”, I see the total refund is only $29. I understand that there is a rule for cancellation. But I am still wandering that is there a way that I can get most of the refund. I would truly appreciate that if you could understand us. Thank you for your understanding. It is too late right now, I would like to give you a call in the afternoon. Sorry for that.”
So, my strategy is…
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Humanize yourself first and foremost. Show them that you’re not some big faceless corporate entity that can easily absorb a cancellation. You have to put a human face on yourself and let them know they’re going to cause you a BIG GIANT emergency. They supposedly have an emergency, so you have to let them know that you now have an emergency too! An emergency caused by them!
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Make them feel STUPID. Point out something so obviouis that they’ll blame themselves for not doing it - and it will rob them of some of their motivation to continue pursuing a refund from you. If you can lessen their intensity in pursuing the refund there’s a greater chance they’ll just go away and drop it. If they continue to insist upon a refund, they may contact Airbnb and make up some story that Airbnb will fall for. We all know Air has a very soft spot in their hearts for these kinds of stories. So, you want to try to take away some of their motivation so they won’t contact Air. Making them feel like it was their stupid mistake that caused all this - I think takes away some of their motivation to continue pursuing it.
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Sit back and wait for their next message which will tell you - the emergency has passed and they’re going to be able to make it after all!! Once they realize they’re not going to get a refund - it’s AMAZING how suddenly their emergency evaporates. Because guess what? Losing the $500 or whatever numbers of dollars they were going to spend with you - turns out to be a bigger emergency than the one they originally had!
And keep this in mind too. A lot of times the “emergency” somebody has is that a friend or family member has requested that their presence to help them out with something during the time they were going to be with you. Or maybe their boss suddenly told them they’re needed at work during that time - even though they already approved those dates for a vacation. Maybe their friend is sick and needs their help. Maybe their friend is moving and needs their help. Whatever it is, there’s a good chance your guest doesn’t really want to do it - and they’d rather be vacationing at your place! So when you give them a firm no - they’re actually glad you did! Because they can then call their friend or boss and tell them they can’t get out of the reservation.
Problem solved for you and your guest!
Anyway, in response to my guests’ message this morning, I wrote back and said this:
"Hi, I’m so sorry - but we can’t do anything for you on that. That’s because you’re cancelling just 3 days before your arrival and that doesn’t give us any time to rent the room out to someone else and we won’t be able to pay all our bills this month. We rely on Airbnb for most of our income. And we have a new baby on the way so our expenses are really skyrocketing and we really can’t afford to live without the Airbnb income we would have received from you or somebody else for the week of your stay. We just can’t afford to lose a whole week of income this month.
That’s why trip cancellation insurance is always recommended because if you do have to cancel for any reason then you would be refunded everything 100%. Did you buy trip cancellation insurance for this trip? You could have bought it for this trip for around $60."
1st paragraph humanizes us and shows what an emergency she’s causing for us.
2nd paragraph makes her feel stupid for not purchasing trip cancellation insurance.
Less than an hour later, her emergency suddenly evaporated!
“Here is a good news that we are going to keep the room and we are able to go to New York this time!! Things has been sorted out. So we do not have to go back to China. I am sorry for the confusion. But we would like to keep the room. Thank you for taking your time to help me.”
