Guests Cancelling during Stay

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I've been hosting for 7 months and the experience has been mostly positive and fun - Superhost with great reviews. I had a situation this past weekend, however, that has left me thinking I should rewrite my guest cancellation policy. A couple reserved 4 nights (Thur-Mon) several months ago to come into town for a relative's wedding. This is the young woman's home town so she said was so excited to find a nice place close to the venue but without having her and her fiancee having to "sleep on Mom's couch." We exchanged several messages about logistics, weather, etc. Since they had a long drive to get to Florida, I let her know she could check in early to rest (which they did) after the drive before getting together with her family. She then asked if one of her friends could stay over on the daybed for the first night. I agreed to that at no charge - what's one night? I'm telling you all this so you will know I did everything I could to accomodate this couple. At 5:00 on the second day, having stayed one night, they sent me a text and said they "had a family emergency and had to leave town right away" and asked if I would refund the remaining nights. They said they were on their way back from the beach to collect their belongings. I said I would but I can't help thinking they probably never left town and just decided to stay with family or friends. They left a glowing review in my guest book, but have not yet left an AirBnb review so I will refund their money, but I am curious what other hosts would do/have done in this situation. This is a prime weekend in Florida since I'm close to the beach and I lost the income. Is it OK to say that once a reservation has begun, it is not ok to cancel without a penalty? 

[Jeff158]

@Anonymous

The guest must cancel and any refund is per your cancellation policy, the guest will get one night refunded according to your policy.

[Barry-and-Lera0]

@Anonymous: I would refer them to the cancellation policy that you have setup. Situations do arise but that is what travel insurance is for. Its unfortunate for them but you should not have to be the one that loses in this situation.

[Kelly149]

@Anonymous if a guest is at all paying attention, they likely can get ABB to override any cancellation policy with either a complaint or Extenuating Circumstances. They should certainly cancel with ABB first & then from there see how much more, if any, you will refund. I'd rather have someone gone rather than resenting the stay: taking too much amenities, leaving on lights, blasting AC, bad review, etc. If a guest realizes that they'd rather be elsewhere, I'll likely agree with them.

Because the only thing worse than not getting paid for an empty space is not getting paid for a space that a guest occupied (but that's my business proposition - I don't have to be 100% occupied).