Confused on a last minute attempt by guest to alter reservation length

[Marisa60]

Situation:  This is our very first hosting, and the guests were slotted to arrive yesterday (for a Friday/Saturday night - depart Sunday) stay. We received word late last night that they missed their flight. They would no longer be arriving yesterday, & still plan to stay with us just for the one night (tonight). Last night after receiving the message, we read through the Help information, and from what we read on the help center, I directed the guest to the section where they could Alter / Change the reservation to different dates. I was expecting that we would be receiving a request to accept the new dates.  

But instead we got a message back saying that the guests were unable to request the change. I was assuming maybe it was because it was on SAME day as the arrival date? Maybe it would have needed to be 24 hours prior for the Change request option to work? That part I am not clear on.

Questions: We are sympathetic to what happened with them missing their flight. But we just are not clear on what to instruct the guests to do at this time. The reservation is still showing out there because the guests said their submissions did not work. What are our options to offer them? We don't mind providing a refund. But we just wanted to go through the proper channels of AirBnB. And the way we were understanding everything made it sound like it is better (or perhaps necessary) for the administrative stuff like this to be done/ requested by the GUESTS vs the HOSTS.  So should we be suggesting that they go in and cancel , then request the new date? Then does AirBnB handle the refund based on our policy? (we have a flexible policy right now).

Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you to the community for your patience with our newbie status. We are super excited to be hosting, having only been Guests thus far. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

You will be paid for both nights - probably this evening if they were due to stay with you last night. You can then issue a refund to your guests. There is no need to play around with trying to alter dates, etc....

Once they receive the refund notification they need to click to accept it. 

Then this amound will be debited from your next payment from AirBnB.

[James1]

G & R are right as usual. Don't mess with cancellations or changes at this point, it's too late. If you had lots of reviews you could be a hard a** and keep all their money, but you are new and this is your first host review. Give them a refund for the one night and you will hopefully get a nice review for your generosity and kindness.

[Nieves9]

Buenas noches Marisa,

Hope everything went perfect at the end with your first guest.

As far as I know been a Host for 3 years now (in Lecce, Italy) and also having a soft cancellation politic, your guest provably could not change or modify his stay on the site because of the short time previous to arriving time. No money refund at this point. Up to you to give them accommodation for the night after that.

If you like to act "on the rules" you can write / call Airbnb help center and communicate your decision, they will 

contact the guest if you have any problem or concern.

Buona serata 

Nieves

[Guillermo27]

Guest vs Host... you will always lose is Airbnb.

[Kelly58]

I have experienced this but I just don't understand why!