Just wondering what other hosts would do this in this circumstance. A guest contacted me on the day of their arrival saying because they could no longer come and would I entertain waiving the cancellation fee (50%), It was a one day stay. I contacted them via SMS and said, rather than a 50% cancellation fee (I also would lose 50% and the cleaning fee) I would be prepared to provide another day in lieu. My reasoning was, I get the full amount for the day they did not come and since I had a bunch of free days in the coming month, giving them one of those would I still get full rental for one day. They agreed and we settled on a day. My SO got quite angry with me saying I was losing money. I lost the 50% revenue for the cancelled day and how do I know, that by providing a day in lieu to the guest I could have lost the opportunity to host a full paying guest who might have tried to book that day. Luckily, perhaps in error, the guest then cancelled, I will receive my 50% and I withdrew the offer of a day in lieu. I am interested in what other hosts would do inmyu circumstance.
For a guest cancelling on the day of arrival (or the day before) I would honor the cancellation policy the guest and I had agreed to hold each other to.
If the cancellation were farther in advance Iâd agree to a refund to the extent of what the new booking guest(s) pay me should the cancelled dates get rebooked, and payable 15 days after the rebooked reservation ends.
You ask whether you lost money by your offer?
Well, you could have had the cancellation balance (but not the cleaning fee) in your hand. You gave that up in exchange for no more than what you could have had in your hand: the guest agreeing to another date, which might or might not have become reserved by another.
So you gave away the opportunity for that additional booking, plus â however unlikely â you donât truly know whether youâd get from this guest that agreed-to booking (even if the guest didnât cancel).
For example, the guest could have a legitimate extenuating circumstance (EC) and be free of any cancellation penalty for that agreed-upon stay. Or your property might suffer something that youâd need to cancel.
â So, there was potential downside to you but no upside for you, except maybe goodwill from the canceling guest.
And if the guest cancelled again (as it did), it sounds like youâd need to (based on a presumed agreement with your cleaner) to pay that cleaning fee again. Yikes! [Although I guess you got out of that by âwithdrawingâ your agreement, which was gratuitous anyway and likely not legally enforceable though who knows how Airbnb would treat it, if at all.]
I think economists call this an âasymmetricâ bargain. I might get in trouble with this comment, but based on âThe Parable of the Talentsâ I donât think even Jesus would make this deal. 
I donât want to be harsh, but as someone said:
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:30
Said differently, youâre in a heap oâ trouble.
So, sorry, but this is coming from God.
I think itâs fair to guests and to your SO to have a policy that you apply to everyone (at least all new guests), whatever you choose to come up with. You might choose a more generous policy for repeat guests. My two cents, YMMV.
It isnât actually a âcancellation feeâ, but the opposite. The 50% they get back is a cancellation refund.
If we call it a cancellation fee, it sounds to guests like they are being charged a lot and that the host is being greedy, when they arenât going to stay.
Instead, it is just the price of the rental, which, depending on the cancellation policy, they may be eligible for a partial refund on.
I think that is what my SO aka wife was telling me (off) forđ From now on there will be no concessions.
Yeah, and with Airbnb guests too.
Itâs one night. Hopefully your business makes enough money that one nightâs revenue isnât critical.
I canât tell you what Iâd do - we donât accept one-night stays. Our minimum is usually 4-5 nights and weâre a fly-to location and have only had one same-day booking in eight years. But for a same-day cancellation, Iâd follow my cancellation policy.
Iâm in the inner city so get plenty of one day bookings. Anyway itâs academic now since they cancelled and I withdrew my offer
I just had a cancellation request on a Firm policy five days before arrival for a 5-night âentire placeâ booking stating Covid-19 as the reason, but the policy has a 50% refund up to seven days in advance and no refund less than seven days, and as of March 2022, covid is not considered an extenuating circumstance.
I donât expect our dates to get rebooked especially with our minimum window policy between booking and arrival, so I just politely explained the Firm policy to the guest who clearly wasnât happy and said if this is the covid policy, she wonât book on Airbnb and that a hotel wouldâve refunded her.
I stopped replying, but mentally replied to myself that we are a business, and not a hotel.
I donât know if thatâs generally true.
I occasionally compare our listing rates with local hotel rates. Iâve been surprised to see cancellation policies there, which I did not see years ago when I booked hotels. And, of course,
even if what she said is true it is irrelevant because, as you say,
Just had a cancellation for a same day 2 night booking.
Strict cancellation policy.
Full refund and he has now booked direct and paid for a weekend a month awayâŚâŚI think he had excellent reasons for his cancellation and I would want a host to respond in the same way if the crap hit the fan for me.
I was not rebooked, but I was also empty on these dates for monthsâŚâŚ
If someone has a really good reason and itâs only a night I sometimes offer a future date. Last night I had a guest ask in advance if he could come âabout 11 PMâ, one hour after my check-in cut off. I agreed and we communicated back and forth about the fact that he might have to do self-check in to our homeshare if I didnât stay up. (Usually asleep by 9:30). I went out so I was up a little later and waited for him. At 11:30 I texted asking for his ETA. He told me that they hadnât even left the venue 90 minutes away! I went to bed leaving AC and many lights on and the door unlocked. In the morning I found a 1:30 text that they were not going to make it. Not a penny back from us.
My most very favorite kind of guest.
I used to say you can checkin from 3pm which is normal checkin time. Now I say from 3pm to midnight since I have self-checkin with a lockbox outside the apartment building which holds the RF tag to gain entrance to the apartment building itself and I provide a code to the deadbolt to the apartment itself. But really they could come anytime up till their checkout time and I would not care.
Then why say:
Just curious.
It seems to me that youâd want your rules to be bona fide rules you really care about. Otherwise, youâre creating semi-roadblocks that could deter bookings and you really donât care about those rules, but you do care about the bookings,
My rules used to say 3pm checkin only. Then I realized they really could checkin from 3pm onwards and there was no end time constraint. So I changed that to midnight just to be clear (perhaps not?). But what I am saying it doesnât really matter what time they checkin so long as they check out on time.
But you check-in must be by midnight, but then you say you really donât care.
So why not just say âself check-in on or after 3 pmâ?
And elsewhere say âCheckout is by 10 am (or whatever your checkout time is)â?
So what if a guestâs flight doesnât arrive until midnight and they donât get to the rental until 1am? If you donât care when they check in, why have a cut-off on check-in time at all?
Good point. I might change my greeting to, Since I have a self-checkin process, you can checkin anytime from 3pm onwards. And leave it like that.
My listing cut off time that Airbnb asks for in the settings is set at 2 am. But itâs self check in and Iâve had someone arrive as late as 3 am. I just state that guests can check in whenever they want but that check out is 10 am. Then if they arrive really late, especially if itâs clear they were not expecting to be late, I message them that they can check out at 11 am, sometimes even later depending if I have another booking.
In a similar situation, I had a guest request a same-day check-in. His request came in at 6pm, and I responded by approving his request at 6:30pm. (Same day bookings are a frequent occurrence and a large percentage of my revenue, but not usually after 6:30 or 7pm). At 7:30 he said he had booked elsewhere and requested a refund from me. He eventually cancelled his reservation at 8:30pm, after check in time, and reiterated his request for a refund.
So should I relent and give him one? I wasnât able to rebook because he cancelled so late, and itâs not my fault he booked elsewhere and didnât cancel his request to book with me. But itâs also relatively unlikely that the room would have otherwise been booked by someone else in the 1.5 hours it was off the market.
Thoughts?