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THANKS ALL, I got some good input and now know how to best handle this situation. I really appreciate your help and time. Nice to know where I can get help.
I can’t find this info anywhere so here goes. I had a guest cancel with a non-refundable booking, 30 night stay. They were extremely nice about it and are allowing me to try and get the month booked. I would like to give them a partial refund. Do I do this before the payout comes or wait until after that happens? It sure would seems easier for accounting purposes if I do this before hand. This is my first experience in this area.
It appears that once I am paid I can send them money, is that correct? Not familiar with this at all.
Also I greatly appreciate this form. I sip my tea and read through it frequently. I’m having great success with my space but really appreciate all the insight provided here. Thank you
How long have you got to fill that time period? If the booking is months, or even weeks ahead, I’m happy to refund the entire amount. Remember that Airbnb has the money so although they should (might) ask you first, they are responsible for refunds.
Keep at this hosting lark long enough and you’ll soon be on the wine.
According to the advice I’ve read many times from other hosts, it’s always best to wait until you have been paid before refunding, as you can’t trust Airbnb not to refund also, regardless of whether it was non-refundable. Some clueless Airbnb rep could overide your policy- it happens.
To answer your other question, hosts can send money to guests whenever they wish, it isn’t dependent on whether you’ve received a payout, or anything else.
Never provide a refund before you get paid. In the best case, you’re giving an interest-free short-term loan to the guest. In the worst case, you may never receive a payout and lose everything you refunded.
One thing to be aware of with partial refunds is that they start to look paltry to guests. For example, a 50% refund of the host payout typically looks more like a 30% refund to a guest due to the fees and taxes that Airbnb is not refunding.
I keep it simple – no refunds. Unless they provide me with a copy of the obituary or hospitalization record of an immediate family member or other adequate documentation telling me why they think the deserve any refund. “Oh we changed our minds… or found a different place… or can’t afford it this year…” Sorry.
Documentation proving that – “My city/county/state/country” has locked us down until after our projected visit" or “my country has had a revolution and our money is now worthless on the world market” or “an asteroid strike has closed air travel in this part of the world for the forseeable future” – those kinds of excuses I would accept and look at making a partial refund.
I actually did do a complete refund early in 2020 because a couple found out that the wife was diagnosed with a very fast and virulent cancer which required immediate hospitalization, surgery, and extensive chemotherapy to survive. They are booked for two weeks with us next month!
Many thanks for your input. I felt your suggestion was what I should do. Makes sense to have the payout first before offering a partial refund… Thanks,
I totally agree with you “almost”. These folks are not asking for a refund as they know they technically can’t get one. But since is was an entire month and I am able to get some of it booked I’d like to offer them a partial refund as a show of good faith. Who knows, maybe they will come at an other time. After all AZ was at the time the worst covid place in the world so they were apprehensive about coming. I was just unsure about how to go about doing this.
I will wait for the payout and them issue you them a partial refund. One that reflects the additional hassle on my end for having to get the month booked, but also enough to be fair. The folks that booked this have been nothing but understanding and nice. They know I could just say no way.
I have had about 3 weeks to work on this. They cancelled about 20 days prior to check in. I was sent a notice from airbnb that they cancelled, I would receive full payment, but did I want to refund them. To this point I have not and have been in message communication with the folks who booked. They have been nothing but understanding and nice. They know it is on them that a full refund was not automatic. They cancelled due to the high rate of Covid in AZ and just asked if there was anyway to work something out, apply it to next year, partial refund, etc. I suggested they cancel so the dates opened up and I would see what got booked. Then I could offer some kind of refund. So that is where it stands and they seem just fine with the payout happening and then I refund them. I was not completely sure how to do this and really didn’t want to do anything until I had the payout. Which seems to be the suggestions of others. I appreciate all the advice and will proceed as such. Thanks for the help and the get source of information.
I would definitely wait until you get the payout and then it is easy through the Airbnb site. Welcome to the site. Be prepared for a few answers that are not direct responses to your question. (like this one, lol) Someone will surely question why you are giving a refund even though that is not your question. Don’t get discouraged by this. There are lots of wonderful hosts with good ideas and lots of experience here.
