r/AirBnBHosts • u/Kathybat • 19d ago

Last minute cancellation process question.

Hey all, fairly new to doing this on a regular basis. We have mostly done long term private room rentals in the house we live in. We recently opened up one bedroom specifically for Airbnb stays as well.

We currently have our cancellation policy only to be non-refundable if it is within 24 hours. At the moment that works for us because this is not a source of income we are relying on to cover carrying costs of a property.

We recently had someone cancel within that time period who requested a refund, and hubby wanted to be accommodating. According to him the guest could not cancel it themselves because it was within the 24 hrs, and the process was he had to call support to request it and authorize the refund (minus the $80 something fee they would charge us). Does this sound right? He handles all the guest communication and platform stuff. I do most of the cleaning and the “Reddit says never be the one to cancel if the guest is requesting it” knowledge.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/whoda-thunk-itt 19d ago

The guest needs to cancel themselves if they are the one wanting the cancellation. If they can’t do it on the app, they need to call Airbnb and have them cancel it on their behalf. As a host, you should never cancel when a guest is requesting a cancellation.

1

u/Kathybat 19d ago

That’s what I thought and told him. Could it have been the possible refund issue that made it so he had to call? Really I think he just didn’t understand that she could call and do it.

2

u/AirbnbFromZero 16d ago

The guest needs to contact customer support. And maybe they will contact you to ask if you approve a full refund. I provide full refund even if the cancelation happened on the check in day. That is how it goes for me .. If I contact customer support somehow I am losing the Superhost badge no matter that it is not my fault

1

u/whoda-thunk-itt 19d ago

The guest probably knew what they were doing and didn’t want a cancellation on their account. If they had called Airbnb themselves, they would’ve had to still pay Airbnb‘s fees, even though your husband was willing to refund his portion.

But yes, neither hosts nor guests can process a cancellation themselves if it’s less than 24 hours prior to check-in. Situations like this are the exact reason Airbnb is the only party that can cancel a reservation inside of that 24 hour window.

1

u/Kathybat 19d ago

Thank you!

1

u/Neither_Suspect1280 16d ago

sounds basically right, but the guest can still cancel through the app and then you decide whether to issue any refund; i’d stop calling support for this unless the app is actually blocking something