Strict Cancellation - Sometimes I can't in good conscience REFUSE a cancellation request

No, I didn’t see the Q&A. What did he say?

Hahahaha, mine too!!!

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Does this work?

https://blog.atairbnb.com/host-qa/

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Hi,
Did you actually mean that guest received 100% refund? So she got free staying for the days she was in the house?
I just had a guest calcelled her booking after staying for 3 weeks into her 8 weeks booking. She initially booked for 3 weeks and then extended to 8 weeks. At the end of the 3rd week, she said that she broke her shoulder and cancelled her booking. She is now requesting a full refund.
Will Airbnb force me to give her full refund under this circumstance? I mean if she really broke her shoulder?

I really don’t understand this cancellation policy. If there IS a valid reason to cancel, such as illness, bereavement etc, this would be covered by the guest’s travel insurance, not the host. This is how it works in almost every other travel product and package. Why on earth are Airbnb rewriting well established and accepted rules? It’s a cheats charter if you ask me…

Actually Airbnb are missing a trick here. They make no money from a cancellation I presume whereas if they followed the lead of airlines and offered travel insurance as part of the booking process, they could make a fortune in commission. Sounds fair to me?

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Because they mean for the hosts to BE their guests’ travel insurance. Simple as that. We are the last ones holding the bag. That is calculated and they can do it because they can. They now have a surplus of hosts. If you get mad over their policies and quit, a thousand new ones will jump in and take your place. So they can abuse us without bottom line consequence.

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If the Airbnb fees are refunded too (which I presume they are?), Airbnb misses out too. What’s the sense in that?

They don’t. Have a look at their policies to familiarize yourself with what’s given in a refund. Fees are not usually refundable after a certain time period. Of course they are changing things all the time so that might have changed.

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Yes, the guests got a free five day stay in our house. It could have been even longer as our cleaners came the day after. It may have been six nights. We did not have cameras then. But there was also nothing “wrong” with our house. We hosted guests before and after this with zero problems. This guest was a scam-artist.

Some people make mistakes on their travel plans and then lie to get a refund, but a medical issue requires documentation and if your guest shows it then yes, they will be given a refund for the unused days and you will need to re-book those five weeks. That is a very unusual situation. A serious injury, accident or death will fall under the Extenuating Circumstances policy which will override a hosts’ policy.

It would be unlikely that Air would refund the guest the three weeks already stayed, if that was your concern. Your guest is not saying that they are leaving because they don’t like your place, but because of an injury. But they will give the guest a refund for the remaining five weeks, if they have legitimate medical emergency paperwork. You say “if” they really broke their shoulder. Are you concerned that it is not legit? Have the calendar days been re-opened so you can rebook them?

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OK I didn’t read all the input to this thread. But I mean, sorry , she wanted to cancel 5 minute after? give her a break! It’s not like she blocked your property for a 3 week reservation high season for 3 months then cancelled at the last minute;

Imho , I hope to earn money from honest bookings not from cancellation benefits.

Now if someone books 3 weeks in August high season for 6 months then cancels shortly before arriving, that’ sanother story.

This was posted before the 48 hour free cancellation policy which is now in place across the board, so an obsolete issue. If a guest needs to cancel for any reason, they have two full days to do so regardless of the host’s cancellation policy.

Not quite true. The 48-hour window on strict is for bookings made at least 14 days prior to check-in date.

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Not true. Two weeks ago a person IBd my property without reading house rules. She chose the “non refundable” option because it was cheaper.

She then tells me her flight is arriving at midnight she’ll be checking in at 3 am which is strictly not allowed written all over my listing and house rules.

I message her back to say we can’t let her in during the night, this is 5 minutes after the booking, and she cant cancel without losing the full amount.

I of course would have refunded her immediately but she was going to lose the service fees.

What followed was very unpleasant and i wound up having to call cs and cancel myself, using the excuse that she was violating house rules.

But hey ARE making money because they are NOT refunding the Airbnb Service fees from the guest. They are only losing the 3% Service fees for the host because they are giving that back to the guest.

They ARE NOT refunded though. That’s the reason they don’t mind.

Try booking a non refundable airline ticket and then cancel 5 minutes later and see what happens. A contract is a contract.

RR

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Bad example. I’ve been rebooked (not refunded) at no charge by calling American Airlines.

But also sometimes it’s about an individual’s conscience (as title of thread states). We know corporations don’t have a conscience. :wink:

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I get really tired of people who enter into contracts thinking they can just get out of them. It seems so entitled. With the strict policy as it is this would only come up if it was booked within 14 days of booking. I would tell the guest to cancel through Air, and of course they would ask me to refund and under the described circumstances I would refund and get my calendar opened back up. I don’t want a guest being forced to stay because they made a mistake.

RR

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Like marriage! LOL.

I understand your thinking on certain Airbnb rentals but in some situations it’s just one imperfect human dealing with another.

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