Honestly best way to go about it
Hi all,
One other issue on this long term cancellation that I think I finally understand, after much back and forth with the Customer Support folks is as follows. Hoping you can confirm my understanding is correct or where itâs off:
If a guest wants to leave early as this one did it makes a difference whether they are requesting a change or cancelling. If I understand customer support correctly - if the guest requests a change and I approve it then the long term cancellation policy is overridden and Iâm letting them out of the commitment with no additional charges. If I decline their request for a change then the long term cancellation policy still applies.
If the guest cancels the rest of their reservation then the long term cancellation policy appliesâŚas I understand it.
Since this guest did nothing of what they were directed (first customer support person advised to have them change the reservation - which if I had accepted would have meant I was releasing them from the cancellation policy as I now understand it) I am expecting to hear from them when the charge for the rest of the reservation is due on the 15th of this month.
My planned response is going to be that they didnât do any of what they were advised to do after they notified me they were leaving early, and the long term cancellation policy applies. (If you have any suggestions about how to best respond to them when they realize theyâre being charged for the rest of the reservation Iâm all ears.)
Had they followed the first advice I was given and provided to them, about changing their reservation, I would have accepted it and unwittingly letting them out of the cancellation policy. Now that Iâve got further info what I should have done is told them to cancel the rest of their reservation and the cancellation policy would automatically have applied.
I keep thinking instead of waiting till the 15th I should be proactive and tell them they are going to owe me because they never requested a change or a cancellation. Iâm struggling with feeling bad about taking 3 weeks of $ that they werenât there, and being POâd that they welched on the first 2 weeks of the original reservation, then last 3 weeks of their final reservation. A possible compromise might be telling them if they want to change the reservation to a date half way through the time they were supposed to stay - they wouldnât lose the entire 3 weeks due by policy.
Hope this makes sense in the readingâŚ
Uou are still spending a lot of time worrying about something that may or may not happen (refund that they already indicated they know they wonât get) because you feel bad but are also angry at them? Am I understanding correctly?
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Not at all. I have neighbors from KY who come to FL to their second home for much of their medical needs.
No, Iâm talking about the next charge that will be due on the 15th of this month for the last 3 weeks of the reservation - which they didnât change (as directed) or cancel. As I think through this it continually adds up to I lost money this season because they reserved it for 2+ months, then cancelled the 1st two weeks, then cancelled the last 3 weeks.
While they havenât officially changed/canceled it sits their showing rented, so no opportunity to try to re-rent this late in the season.
I really owe them nothing, but if it could be re-rented I could always refund their $ thenâŚwhich leads me to believe maybe I should reach out to them and tell them what the situation is - theyâre going to be charged for the rest of the reservation and if they donât cancel I have no chance to re-rent - and then refund them. Then again, I gave them clear instructions as shared by customer support and they ignored thatâŚwhich circles me back to âI owe them nothingââŚ
Stop worrying! They owe you, youâll get paid. Youâve listed all the reasons, so STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP. Especially in public.
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Copy that! Thanks and have a great weekend!!
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myself, i had people book for two+ months, and nearer the dates told me they could only stay for three weeks, so i advised them to submit a change, and accepted it. but i forgot to look at the totals, and they were still on the hefty monthly discount, even tho they were now staying for three weeks. itâs apparently not automatically adjusted, and i didnât notice, so my bad.
keep the money, thatâs my advice. donât be kind in the review
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To wrap up this posting Iâve drafted a review Iâm hoping to get feedback on. Just to catch everyone up - the payment for the 2nd month of their stay went through as it should have and Iâve heard nothing from that guest - either because they havenât noticed the charge to their card or because they know they wouldnât be receiving a refundâŚtime will tell.
Anyway, my draft review:
Vicki left the house wonderfully clean and according to requested close down steps. Communications for this reservation went well. The only issue was the cancellation of the first two weeks of the 2+ month reservation, then an early departure where no cancellation or change request were ever made, even with the guidance provided by Airbnb on how to make such changes/requests.
When asked about would I host them again I will answer yes, since I got fully paid for all but 2 weeks of the reservation. Your thoughts/input on this review would be most appreciated. Thanks!
Typo in first sentence of review âclose down stepsâ???
I wouldnât bother with the cancellation comment at all. 1. Itâs not helpful to me as a future host. 2. It wasnât an âissueâ as you got paid for the term of the rental. Who cares what the guests were thinking.
Be careful if you host them again. They may try the âask to change reservation and then cancel the new reservation within 48 hours to get a full refundâ workaround if they once again find a better deal at another place.
My only concern in not mentioning the cancellation, and subsequent departure without cancelling or changing their reservation, is their review. Without the cancellation info their review would have no context. Then again, Iâm unsure who sees the reviewsâŚhosts see mine and prospective guests see theirs is my guess, so it maybe a moot point.
Thereâs no need to mention the cancellation based on some anticipation of what they might write in their review. You have no idea what they will write, or if they will even bother to leave a review.
If they do, and you feel it requires clarifying, you have the option to leave a response.
The reviews you leave for guests of course appear on their profile and are read both by the guest and other hosts when checking out a prospective guest:s reviews.
The reviews guests leave for you appear on your profile page and your listing page. They are read by prospective guests and of course can also be read by hosts looking at your profile or listings.
What is good to be aware of is that a response to a review a guest has left you appears on your account, not the guestâs, and is read by future guests. So you should only use a response to correct misinformation or false impressions for the benefit of future guests, not to speak directly to the guest who left the review, unless you are just thanking them for staying, but the guest may never see that response as itâs not on their review pages.
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Guests like that, send them to me.
Your place wasnât trashed, you got paid, what more can you ask from a guest.
Sounds like youâre pissed about them changing the dates, which is a guests prerogative unfortunately, but other than that they were fine.
If folks want to leave early, so what; they havenât bitched and asked for a refund, so whatâs the issue other than you feeling put out.
Plus youâre over thinking the whole review aspect.
JF
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Thanks for this great info. I wasnât aware I could put a response to a review on my page so itâs good to know. Many thanks.
Iâm not pissed about anything - just trying to figure out what is valuable for other hosts to know. The cancellation of the first 2 weeks of the long term reservation seems like something that other hosts might be interested in, but since they were great guests it might not matter to other hostsâŚ??
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