I had a guest yesterday that had to cancel the morning of her intended stay. She was unable to travel to our airbnb due to road wash out. I am flexible with my cancellation. I was informed by airbnb that the stay was cancelled and i could rent the room but she was charged. I don’t think this is fair at all. I had to phone airbnb support in the past during a snow storm to refund a guest and they made me send pictures of the storm outside and a screen shot of weather canada weather report. How do I go about giving her a free night. I thought of reducing the fee to $1 but then i would still be charged a service fee and i don’t want to incur a fee. I don’t want to let her stay without booking with airbnb because of the insurance factor. Any suggestion are welcome
Be kind.
You could have just change the date on their booking.
As you didn’t do that Airbnb will need to do a penalty free cancellation under it EC policy
She does not have a date when she can return
The EC policy only covers acts of God and not that type of weather problem, we have had the worst winter for storms and road closures.
Regardless of the cancellation policy, you always have the option to refund money to a guest. So if she was charged and you want to refund her, just use the “Send money” option in the Resolution Center.
But wait until you get your payout in case Airbnb decides to refund her as well.
I don’t think Airbnb lets you do that within 24hrs of check-in. Edit: it wasn’t possible ~3 years ago when I tried to do it for a guest.
This. Don’t refund more than you receive, and don’t refund before you receive it. You can’t do anything about Airbnb refunding their fees and you shouldn’t refund them out of your pocket.
Food for thought: currently she doesn’t have a future stay date.
Document in Airbnb if/when she books a future stay, you will reduce the price by $xx.
The message thread will stay as documentation and it may be a little easier.
Refund or promise future discount—do whichever is easiest for you
On second thought road washout may qualify under extenuating circumstances. Although weather related , it cannot be reasonably anticipated.
If this was bad enough for the governor to declare a state of emergency, it may qualify.
She wants to book again. You want to give her a free night.
Simple - she books, you block your calendar either the first or last night and let her stay. If you’re worried about travel insurance, it’s just a blocked day that you’d lose anyway due to weather. IF it’s about STR insurance, not sure how you’d handle it except a private 1 night STR lease.