Airbnb asking me to issue refund

[Kyler J Sloan]

I am curious if Airbnb has tried to compel other hosts to issue a refund in spite of your policy. Has this happened to anyone else? 

I had a guest who did not bring a 4WD in spite of my 4WD requirement (with chians in the winter), and seemed to agree that the fault was her own for not doing so, and that everything was fully disclosed in the listing. 

A couple of weeks later, I got a message from Airbnb attempting to get my consent to issue her the full refund "before they start a process". 

Any ideas or similar experiences? 

What can I expect if I say "no"? 

Thanks in advance for any feedback. 

[Carolyn Fuller]

Airbnb will automatically ask you to refund a guest when a guest requests a full refund through Airbnb but they will usually respect your decision.

No matter what you decide with this particular case, I recommend that going forward you have an automatic reply to all bookings that reiterate the 4WD w/chains in winter requirement and let guests know they have 48 hours to cancel if they don't have a 4WD and, if necessary, chains.

I have had great success with auto emails such as this. My guests either fully embrace the restrictions / limitations or they cancel. I don't get any complaints after the fact. That was not true before I implemented the auto emails.