What to do if a guest wants a refund to leave a day early?

1

I started to rent out my guest bedroom in my condo last month in Boston area . My third guest is here and just emailed me saying she had an emergency and needs to check out a day early so will stay here again tonight but leave tomorrow (so 2 nights instead of the 3 nights) but will be back next week (will book then if it’s still available)

Do you refund the guest to get a future booking or say your sorry but you can’t ? It’s about $118 dollars . Or offer to refund half that night in hope of future bookings ?
This money is travel money for me , so I’m not sure what most guest would do in this situation.

2

I think that it’s unlikely that she will rebook. It’s up to you if you want to give her the refund just to be nice. If it were me and I decided to give her the refund I would ask her to cancel the last day. This is because if a guest cancels your listing is moved higher in the search. Almost every time a guest has cancelled we’ve gotten a replacement because of this.

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3

I don’t give refunds. Plenty have left early or arrived a day late. Never been asked for a refund. It’s not your problem.

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4

Sorry no refunds. It’s not a hotel. You blocked off the room for her and lost income. Why should you eat it. She won’t rebook either. That’s just a ploy to get you to refund. Don’t fall for it.

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5

Yup – no refund. You book it, you stay or you lose.

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6

Express your sympathy and let her know she’ll have to do the cancellation and that you cannot. Then leave it in the hands of the AirBnB system to take care of this.

(She will not get a refund from the system. You know this, I know this, but play dumb and let HER deal with it and wear the cost. Do not let on that she could possibly get a refund from customer service. Just politely state that there is an option in the website to cancel the stay early.)

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