I want to issue a guest a refund however do I have to wait until I recieve the payment from Airbnb.

[Kieran20]

Will the money be deducted form my account and then repaid by Airbnb or will the payment just be cancelled by Airbnb.

[Linda108]

@Kieran20  My experience is that if the refund is issued before payout, it is deducted from the payout of the guest receiving the refund.  If it is after payout, then your next payout will be reduced by the refund.  It is all a matter of timing.   Hope this helps!

[Kieran20 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Linda thats exactly what I needed to know. The payouts have not happened yet so I can still go ahead with full refunds. Thanks Kieran 

[Rani170]

Hi ladies, I'm trying to understand this process too. My guest cancelled prior to their booking dates, so I have not yet received any payout for their booking. I have issued a full refund and received an email saying ' Before we send your next payout, we’ll deduct $470.00 from it and send that to Steven.' My next payout is not their booking. I don't understand why my payout is being deducted for a booking that is not his, and for monies I have not received. - thanks, Rani

[Helen3]

Why would you choose to issue a refund to a guest, when you haven't been paid for the booking @Rani170 ?

If a guest wants to cancel then they do this through airbnb and any refund is processed by them.

[Sandra856]

Hi @Rani170 🙂

Just looked at your profile and it looks like you cancelled out on a guest in January? When doing so you are penalized by airbnb and that is what the mail is about. You have to pay 50$ or 100$ depending on when you cancelled (how far away from the check-in date you cancelled).

If your guest who wanted to cancel sent YOU a message requesting YOU to cancel and you pressed yes it now looks like you cancelled the stay and YOU are penalized with a bill to pay. 

What should have happen is that the guest should have done the cancellation all by themselve and they would have been refunded according to the cancellation policy you got. You don't have to refund or do a thing - it all happens automatically when the guest cancels. 

If it is a mistake and you didn't cancel (but mistankenly accepted the guest's message about cancelling) call or write airbnb CS ASAP as they can read the communication between the guest and you reading that it was actually the guest who wanted to cancel and that you didn't know that you by accepting the guest's message YOU cancelled and are now penalized for it. CS can also remove the "host cancelled out on a guest" message on your profile - it doesn't look good for future guests to read that the host cancelled - also it hurts your ability to become a superhost if you would like to be that. Welcome to the community - I have learned a lot from experienced hosts here and I recommend to read about how the platform is put together :-). 

[Sandra856]

What I wrote here disappeared - that is why I wrote what I wrote further down the page. More or less the same 🙂 

[Susan17]

**** New hosts - be very, very careful of this. Scammers are specifically targeting new hosts who may not yet be up to speed with all Airbnb's policies and practices (though, who is. ?), booking their places, coming up with some heart-wrenching sob story as to why they must cancel, and convincing the obliging, kind-hearted host to refund them through the resolution centre straight away. Host doesn't realise that the money will actually be deducted by Airbnb from their next payout, immediately issues the amount through the RC, guest gets refunded on the double, and host gets stung on the double. 

Watch your backs, people. 

[Sandra856]

@Rani170 I just looked at your profile and it looks like you cancelled out on a guest in January - or the guest wanted to cancel and instead of doing so by themselves sent you a request to cancel. You probably thought that by accepting the request the guest cancelled but what happend was that it looked like you cancelled out on a guest. So stupid that airbnb got this setup!!!

That is why you are penalized. You will have to pay either 50$/100$ depending on how far out you cancelled before check-in and they will deduct it from upcoming bookings + the refund for the actual stay that "you" cancelled. 

Call airbnb straight ahead - they can read the communication between the guest and you and read that it was actually the guest who wanted to cancel not you. They can remove the message that you cancelled out on a guest on your profile as well. It doesn't look good for future guests to read.

If a guest wants to cancel they have to do it alone by pressing the cancellation button and they will get refunded according to the cancellation policy you got. You don't have to do a thing. 

Australia

+61 2 8520 3333

[Sandra856]

@Susan17 I believe what happend here was the guest sending the classic (and super stupid) request to cancel message to the host. The host accepts believing it is the guest who cancels 😕

Why do they have this option? 

[Susan17]

Yeah, that little scam has being going on for years too, @Sandra856 - this one being an actual Airbnb scam (as opposed to a rogue guest scam), tricking unsuspecting hosts into being the canceller, rather than the cancellee.

Why do they do it? They do it because everything  that benefits the guests (and swings them a refund that they really shouldn't be getting), also has hidden - but quantifiable and lucrative - benefits for Airbnb... boosts their brand image, generates goodwill, guarantees them future business from the happy, placated guests etc etc. (Exactly the same as the despicable Extenuating Circumstances policy)

So despite hosts complaining bitterly about this shady practice ever since they first started getting stung, Airbnb just carries on doing it, regardless. 

[Sandra856]

I know @Susan17. It is so incredible shady and the option shouldn't be there.

My question wasn't a "I don't understand why it is there" because sadly I do understand :-/. It was more like an angry question to Airbnb. 

[Susan17]

We all need to keep asking those questions - and all the other awkward, inconvenient questions - of Airbnb, @Sandra856! And keep asking them, loud and clear. There's only so long they can get away with refusing to answer...  🙂

[Arlene1087]

I had a guest who requested for a refund through resolution center due to wifi not being fast enough. I issued the guest a refund which was deducted from my credit card on file with Airbnb. Few days later, Airbnb made an adjustment and debited back the payout that was issued to me. So looks like I refunded the guest twice. According to the guest, he only was refunded once. Per Airbnb, no adjustment needs to be fixed since I approved the refund. I don't understand at all.

[Sarah977]

@Arlene1087  This has happened to other hosts. An expensive lesson for you, but you should never refund a guest unless you have actually been paid for the booking.