Offering full refunds

[Emily3]

Dearest other hosts

I have had a last minute reservation cancel prior to check-in and now I would like to offer them a full refund from my side (I insist guests cancel from their side when they want to cancel.) I usually give full refunds but every time I do a full refund I am so confused on what amount to put in as the full refund? Does Airbnb take my service fee and the guest's service fee if the guest cancels?

For example I can now offer refund and it states there that my payout for the reservation is R1022. Okay. I click on Offer Refund.

Then it tells me I can send up to R1047-the amount I received for the reservation.

Where does the difference or R25 go to?

This has been bothering me for so long and I hope you guys can help me!

[Helga0]

Why would you offer a full refund for a last minute cancellation?
If you always do it, set your cancellation to flexible and they can cancel up to a day ahead and get a refund anyway.
You can offer to refund what you get, not the service fee. That is airbnb's discretion. 

If however you talk your guests into cancelling to avoid the penalties fall on you, just ask them, what they paid or look it up by visiting your listing like a guest and entering the same number of days on the website. After refund is made, you can check the payout online, on a computer, nit the app. Then refund the rest via tge resolution center. 

[Emily3]

Thank you so much for your response! 

I am offering full refund because they were coming to stay for her teenage son's father (her x) funeral. If the wind was blowing in the wrong direction I would have kept the fees 🙂

Okay so I will refund her the amount I would have been paid out- R1022 and not the R1047 including fees? Why would Airbnb give me the option to refund her the R1047, will I then be charged for the service fees?

Sorry as you can see I am super confused.

Does Airbnb have a block so you can only refund what you got for the booking (a maximum) or can it go above and beyond that amount where you actually lose money?

[Ira4]

@Emily3 hello!

When you totally refund your guest and there is no payout for you, Airbnb doesn't get any service from you. 

That's what I suppose about your case:

Your initial payout from the guest would be R1047. Host service fee would be R25. If the trip took place normally, you would receive  R1022. Now that you want to make a full refund, Airbnb will not charge you a host service fee, so you can give the whole amount back to the guest. 

The guest will only have to pay Airbnb guest service fee for his side because that's not refunded. 

Here is the relevant link:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/165/how-do-i-refund-my-guest

By the way, would you like to share with us why you usually give full refunds?

Also, why don't you change your cancellation strategy to flexible?

[Emily3]

Thank you, Ira- very helpful!

I like to give full refunds just to give the guests a good experience on Airbnb- if they had to book through a travel agency or direct with a hotel a strict cancellation policy would have been in place and they would have definitely lost their money.

I am also more flexible to giving a full refund for my budget type and very popular listings on Airbnb- when one guest cancels the other Airbnb bookings just pour in. Might be some function on Airbnb's programming?

For my more upmarket and more expensive properties I don't give a full refund especially when it is last minute and in peak season.

All my refunds I put in context- if there is illness, deportation from the airport, funerals- I get a feel for the tone of the guest and basically base the refunds on that. I had to deal with a terrible lady and now that she has cancelled, I was so relieved I gave her full refund because I could just imagine how she would have been once she has actually checked in. Also, she had medical reasons for not coming (her daughter is still coming to stay in one of my other studios though.) She wanted a formal letter from me for her travel insurance with regards to the cancellation fees and she put in an Airbnb request for refund. I thought maybe she wants to claim back the money twice from insurance so I just gave her refund and said I am not writing any letters for travel insurance.

[Emily3]

Sorry, I meant she wanted the letter for the insurance and wanted me to give her refund. Peak season and last minute reservations in my more upmarket properties I don't give full refund. Sorry, it is so hot in Cape Town I might be losing brain function!

[Helga0]

Hi @Emily3, 

if you get a cancellation, you are on too of the list and may get the next booking quickly, but that's independent of refund. 

If the guest has extenuating circumstances, they should contact airbnb first and would get the fees back too. But the list of occasions allowing that is short. 

On my cheaper shared room listing, I don't refund immediately, but if it's a regular or a guest woth n understandable reason, I refund when rebooked, via the resolution center. 

Not all of them even say Thank You ;-(

I never tried to send more than I got, but there is a message You can refund xxx. The x being rent and host fee. I never tried to ssnd more than that, but sometimes send a bit less, if I lowered the price to be sure to rerent quickly. Maybe you can override the warning. 

[Helga0]

As an afterthought: I did refund the whole amount including host fees already. Nothing was charged to me, it was like the booking never happened, on my side. 

[Emily3]

Thank you for all your help! I am actually now looking forward to my next cancellation/refund request so I can apply my new knowlegde 🙂

[Emily3]

That is the worst, not even receiving a thank you (I have had that too.) 

[Ira4]

Ok, @Emily3 I understand what you say. 

I have been asked to fully refund my guests twice and I did it. The one said that her father was ill and the second one was affected by a national strike of airports. Of course, I did it with no question in both cases. 

But some time later, something happened that I really didn't like. 

A guest had booked for 3 days and one day before his arrival I sent him a message asking him about the check-in time. After my message, he realized that he had booked incorrect dates and he wanted to change the booking for 3 later days.

I didn't accept the modification for 2 reasons: last minute change would most probably let my days unbooked (low season) and if they got booked, the price would be much lower than the one he has booked. 

So, I kindly replied that I could not do it and I suggested him to cancel. Then, he raised an issue with Airbnb and they called me in order to find a solution. I was very upset and I asked them what the point of a strict policy was if Airbnb finally asks me to withdraw it. They seemed to understand and they finally convinced me to make a step back for him. I refunded one of the three days. And do you know what happened next? The guest sent me an insulting message, accusing me of keeping the rest of the money!

I am Superhost, with more than 160 trips and I really give my best in hosting. I think that this is the best I can do for Airbnb's reputation. However, this is also my business and I live out of this. So, strict policy is strict policy. Besides, there are hundreds of listings in my area. But there are only one of each date in my calendar. 

All the above has nothing to do with you, @Emily3! I just wanted to share this story with other hosts. You keep what it makes feel more comfortable and better. By the way, your listings loom amazing! 

[Emily3]

Thank you for sharing your story, Ira. It is nice to have an oppurtunity to discuss these things. 

I have also stepped in that hole where I thought, wow check how nice I am and it comes back to stab me in the back. My guests that got deported from the airport - I refunded them but there was a glitch on Airbnb's system so I actually refunded them the maximum amount which was more that I got for the reservation (including Airbnb fees on my side.) I spent hours and days trying to figure it out with Airbnb and when I got my mobile bill, totally shocked to see how much money I spent on phoning Airbnb! Hundreds of Rands wasted on people that didn't have their passports in order. Somehow I get burnt like this and I just still hand refunds out like Father Christmas.

It sometimes feels to me that some of my guests will just wangle anything so they don't end up paying for something. I have this one apartment in Camps Bay that just brings out the crazy in guests it seems (I need to go burn sage there.) Weird-weird-weird people in this world.

[David126]

@Emily3

AirBnB has an Extenuating Cancellation policy that is much more generous than the cover provided by an Insurance Policy. Rather than you decide just suggest if you want to that they contact AirBnB and let AirBnB decide.

If AirBnB decide in their favour then they get a full refund including fees so a win win for the Guest.

[Emily3]

Wow, I didn't even know about this. I am definitely doing this next time as will help immensely with the admin relating to refunds. 

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

Hi i have read your inquiry and i am very sorry to tell you that in any refund situation you will lose some cash as there are bank charges fees something that Airbnb never mention. Always think twice before refunding someone. I would advise you not to allow people to book your property for less than a week. Good luck in the future.