Airbnb guest alteration request to checkout earlier during stay

[Christine Cho]

I’ve been hosting for three years and recently encountered an issue I hadn’t faced before: an alteration request to check out earlier during a stay. In hindsight, I could have communicated better, so I’m sharing my experience for other hosts.

Guest booked an 11-night stay. On the 6th night, guest sent an alteration request to check out earlier, after 7 nights. This would be a 100% refund for the unspent 4 nights, according to the payout adjustment. I declined the request with a message that I cannot accept the alteration request as it is too close to those unspent nights. However, I offered to accept an alteration for 9 nights (2 nights fewer than original booking), which would have been roughly 50% refund.

Message between me (M) and guest (G):

 - G: shares Airbnb's cancellation policy after check-in: a 50% refund of every night that remains 24 hours after you cancel. No refund of nights you spent or the service fee.

- M : please proceed with the cancellation instead of alteration.

- G: cancellation results in immediate cancellation, not starting after the 7th night.

- M: suggests to cancel on the morning after 7th night.

- G: there is no refund at all with a cancellation and resubmitted the same alteration request.

 - M: the alteration request is 100% refund for unspent nights, which is not in line with the cancellation refund policy and would leave me at a loss. I reiterated they can cancel now and check out tomorrow, or send a different alteration request that was a middle ground for us (roughly 50% refund)

 - G: alteration is a larger refund and it is possible through Airbnb app. They couldn't understand why it would be loss for me or why they wouldn't get get the full refund since those night would be available for booking.

 - M: explain that I'm not obligated to accept alteration requests and in this case, guest is asking me to absorb the full loss for the cancelled nights. I also mention that alterations like this is effectively a cancellation, and so close to the dates effected hurts my operation and should not be possible per cancellation policy.

 - Guest insists booking was made because of moderate cancellation policy. At this point I suggest we resolve this through Airbnb support.

Ultimately, the resolution was to refund the guest 50% for those unspent nights. I don't understand why the guest was seeing $0 refund through cancellation (assuming what the guest said was true), given that the cancellation policy was as follows: 

"After check in: Partial refund. Get back 50% of every night that remains 24 hours after you cancel. No refund of nights you spent or the service fee."

In the end, I felt I offered a fair resolution but left with a sour guest who might leave a bad review. I read that I could dispute bad review in cases like this, but I also spent a lot of time and mental energy to find a middle ground. It should be airbnb's obligation to not allow alterations like this in the first place.  Lesson learned: in the future, I'll decline any alteration requests that effectively act as a cancellation of nights so close to check-in or during stay. I would decline reiterating cancellation policy and advise guest to cancel or contact Airbnb support if they believe they are entitled to a larger refund.

If anybody else has similar experience, I'd love to hear the outcome and any advise!