Airbnb Host and Investors Forum General Advice « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 9 Next » A Short Term Rental (STR) Forum Community

[kitsura]

Hi Hosts,

I always read about the problems where guests are trying to get money back. In my experience as a host for 2 years I have so far had 3 guests cancel a reservation where they had to lose some money. I was always surprised because I expected them to at least reach out and ask about a refund but in all 3 times they never said a thing. I have a strict cancellation on Airbnb, and we charge on the higher end in pricing as we have a ****** listing on average. The first cancellation, they had booked 2 months in advance and cancelled only a few days prior and we got all the money for the stay. In another cancellation, they had reached out two days ago to book for memorial day weekend. We accepted their reservation and surprisingly just one day after they booked they cancelled and because it is close to the stay we will get half our money. Does everyone else's guests usually try to reach out for money for a refund when they cancel?

[YYH05]

We have not had anyone reach out for a refund due to cancellation but there was one time a guest asked to refund a night because they were delayed with their flights. We stood firm and told them that they need to sort it out with their travel insurance or credit card and did not hear of any complaints after that.

[cruser1]

We used to get on average 1 refund request per month across our listings. This went down significantly once we changed our policy to a 2 night minimum. I think it helps to get rid of the guests who "just need a place to stay" on their way somewhere and are prone to changing their plans at the last minute as they have no real incentive to stay in your area.

[JerrysNugget]

It's not common across our 3 listings to get refund requests from cancellations either. We've had a few requests ask for refunds for other issues which seemed legitimate at the time and on some occasions we have even refunded people certain fees without them asking for a better guest experience.

[duck1975]

We used to get alot of refund requests when we had a very low cleaning fee which was $20 a night for our small studio. Surprisingly, after raising it to a higher amount we stopped get refund requests relating to cleanliness. We do all our cleaning and turnover and there was no change in our cleaning process. I feel like some guests felt that the smaller cleaning fee made it an easier target to try to get refunds for.