Refund same-day cancellation? What would you do?

NO REFUND!!! ARE YOU A CHARITY SHOP? No. ARE YOU A BUSINESS? Yes. Act like one. It ws their decision not to stay – reason is irrelevant! Their penalty is NO REFUND!

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I have to agree!

It sounds from what the OP says that the guests had found somewhere else to stay (cheaper probably) or had been offered accommodation by a friend or somehow found somewhere else to stay. (It could even be someone who said 'hey, we’ve got an Airbnb booked that sleeps four but there are only two of us - share it". Grr)

If someone books months in advance and then cancels for a good reason, also well in advance, then fair enough and that’s another story, but these people seem to be banking on the host’s good nature. Don’t give in to it.

Just remember that there are billions of people in the world and we can’t be friends with them all.

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It’s your rental. It is your business. If to be true to your personal standards of conduct means refunding if you rebook, then do it.

I’m deeply saddened by anyone telling you to not honor your value system because they can’t be as generous.

One of my close by competition provides breakfast, daily cleaning service and snacks for a daily rate lower than mine. I was hammered for value by a guest who had stayed at the other condo last year. Other hosts being able to offer something I can’t is part of the risk of Airbnb. For me to tell the other host to not offer their perks because I can’t, would be ludicrous.

If you feel the need to refund something for good karma, refund the cleaning fee. Airbnb says that a guest is always refunded this if they don’t check in but this is not my experience, and if you had one, they obviously didn’t refund it on this case.

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I would like to like it as well but can’t. I use to run an appointment based business and would watch as a full day of bookings fell over as people hadn’t prioritised their appointment with me.

I then started charging full price for cancellations under 24 hours, this made a huge difference. It was then my choice whether I charged it or not. For a long term client that always respected their appointments but once a year had something extraordinary happen then I wouldn’t charge. For newcomers I had the choice of saying: “I won’t charge you this time but next time you will have to pay” or: “you owe me for your last appointment”. If they didn’t like it they didn’t come back and I was left with a solid base of clients who respected the arrangements they made with me.

This business is a little different but kind of similar.

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Amen to that brother.

RR

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Nothing easier than that, I take the partial rolls home and my guests get a full roll every time.

RR

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Based on the posts in another thread not all hosts feel this way. I’ve been mocked for using a lint roller, black light, even for posting all the time and being a know it all but mocking my clean TP was a bit much. :wink:

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I’m with you :slight_smile:

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Lol, let the mockers get a 2* review when the guests find hair on the sheets then. I use a lint roller and find hair every time.

RR

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If you still have hairs on the sheets after laundering and drying, then you need to get a washer and dryer with better lint traps. I do get occasional lint on my sheets when I have new towels in the laundry, or when I don’t catch the occasional facial tissue in the laundry, but I don’t get hairs! You really need to take a better look at your laundry routines.

Nope. I shed. I am far worse than any dog, cat … or guest. It’s nothing to do with the laundry. I only have to set foot into one of the rentals and there’s hair.

By the way, lint rollers are excellent for other things, not just the laundry. Lampshades for example.

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I don’t think so. For one, I often dry sheets on the line outside. When I throw them in the dryer I take them out while still damp. Like Jaquo some hair falls off me or my clothes. Since I board dogs in my home and have dogs of my own those hairs sometimes appear on clean linens. The most insidious is the long blonde hair. But regardless of why they are there, the important thing is finding them before the guest does.

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My machines are two years old, high efficiency and are not the problem. I line dry most of the time, the problem may be the sheets themselves. They are the much hated microfiber, at least hated by hosts I have never had a complaint. I am re evaluating sheets before summer and once I make a change I will see if that makes a difference.

RR

This happened to me very recently. The guest had car trouble on a very cold night and Contacted me but email, cancelling and asking for a refund. The address given on their booking was an address from a south western state in the US. I live in Canada. I believed they were tourists and would be in a strange city on a weekend with a broken down car. I felt bad for them so I gave them a refund. Later I found out they were not tourists. they returned 50 Klms to their home in a city close to where I live. I was annoyed as I felt I was misled. Through our communications, she could easily see that I was misled, but she made no attempt to correct me. I will be more careful next time.

As a guest, as long as they are not short and curly I’m OK with stray hairs lol

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