Changing an existing In house Guest Reservation - There's an alternative option

[Helen427]

Hello fellow ABB Hosts and Guests

I recently had cause as a Host to be able to use the Option of "Changing" an existing Guest reservation who was wanting to leave earlier than their booked term as a Guest and want others to be aware of this Option to use to cover for any financial disadvantage as a Host.

It's a great Option to know about for Hosts to also open one's calendar to other potential Guests rather than have a Blocked calendar if one CANCELS outright.

Where it says select Cancel or Change as a Host take the initiative use the "CHANGE" option and go from there.

One can go back and change the amounts or dates to see if it's the amount you want to offer and receive yourself before confirming the amount.

As a Host you can change dates booked and the sum of monies in this option as appropriate rather than use the straight out CANCEL option.

Use this option to yours and your guests advantage.

They can either agree or decline one's offer but it's a great option to have in conjunction with your chosen Cancellation Policy when a Guest has already commenced their stay.

I understand that this option doesn't impact on ones outright Cancellation as it's a Change not an actual Cancellation as such.

All the best

How Do I cancel a Reservation as a Host

https://www.airbnb.co.nz/help/article/166/how-do-i-cancel-a-reservation-as-a-host

[Fiona243 · Accepted solution]

One thing to be aware of is how Airbnb will calculate any refunds. It will calculate a daily rate based on the orginal booking. It will then calculate a refund using that average daily rate for the refunded number of days you select on the calendar. Watch out if you offer any discounts for length of stay, because the refund algorithm does NOT take those discounts into account when calculating the daily rate.

For example, if your daily price is $20, and you offer a 20% discount for bookings of 28 days or more, then a reservation for 28 days will have a daily rate of $16. If the guest now cancels the last week, Airbnb will refund the guest 7 x $16, and you will make 21 x $16, not 21 x $20. The guest will have benefitted from the 20% discount, even though their revised reservation was not eligible for that discount.

Make sure that the amount you refund is such that the guest pays what they would have paid if they had not originally booked a longer stay.

[Helen427]

@Fiona243I agree as I to had a Guest who 'Cancelled" and they did that to me.

It's to Hosts advantage to "modify" the booking before the Guest so Hosts can work out the recalculated number of days and if there's to be any refund.

All the best

[Cathie19]

Yep @Helen427 , I have used this pathway before to my advantage, as well as the guests. 

[Lucille-and-Michael0]

I wish I’d known this recently when a guest had to cut her 2-week stay short and go home after 10 days, and we both thought that her ‘cancelling’ her stay was the only option as she was keen for the remaining nights to be refunded.
Thanks for all the tips above, another point to bear in mind is that a cancelled stay does NOT count toward your total ‘completed’ stays (required for Superhost status), even if it is complete from everyone else’s perspective as it didn’t result from a complaint or problem with the listing/guest/host.

As others have mentioned, the way ABnB processes the cancellation is very messy, not just in terms of payout, but for instance our calendar no longer shows any of the (10) nights as having happened. I will certainly try and avoid cancellations at all costs in future.