Playbook, holiday rental
They have paid, they are not coming, and they want it back
By the time the word refund is typed the money has usually left the guest weeks or months ago, and the conversation is about whether it comes back rather than about a policy. Two versions arrive. One is a guest inside the terms asking when the money will land. The other is a guest outside the terms hoping the owner will make an exception, and that one is not a documents question at all.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for refund requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The sum at stake is a whole week of somebody's holiday budget paid months in advance, so this arrives with more feeling attached than a refund on a purchase, and the first reply is doing emotional work whether it means to or not.
- Many owners will not refund but will offer the money as a credit against another week, which is a different thing with different conditions, and the assistant must not present one as the other.
- The reason the guest gives, illness, a funeral, a job, a forecast of rain for the whole week, has no effect on the published terms but has an enormous effect on whether the owner chooses to be flexible, and only the owner gets to make that choice.
- Where the booking came through a listing site the refund is issued by that site rather than by the owner, so a guest chasing an owner for money is often chasing the wrong party entirely.
How it arrives
- we cancelled and we still havent had our money back
- can we get our money back if we cancel now
- the forecast is awful can we have a refund
- can we have a credit for another week instead
- how long does a refund usually take
- we booked through a site who refunds us
What has to be indexed for this to work
| What a refund actually looks like once it is agreed | Which card or account it returns to, roughly how long it takes to appear, and whether it comes from the owner or from the platform. Guests who have been told a refund is agreed then send a second message a week later because nothing has arrived, and this paragraph prevents that one. |
|---|---|
| The credit alternative, written as its own thing | Whether the owner offers the money as a credit against a future stay instead of a refund, how long the credit lasts, whether it can be used in any season, and whether a rate difference is payable. If you offer this, write it down. If you do not, say so, because guests ask for it constantly. |
| Which sums come back and which do not | The rent, the changeover clean, the pet supplement and any non refundable booking fee behave differently on a cancellation. Set out each one separately, because a guest reading a single refund percentage assumes it applies to everything they paid. |
| Who issues the money on each booking channel | A plain statement that a booking made on a listing site is refunded by that site under its own terms, and that the owner cannot pay it out or speed it up. Without this the assistant will send a platform guest to the wrong place and cost them another week. |
The reply
I am sorry the trip is not going ahead. What comes back depends on how far ahead of your arrival date the booking was cancelled, and the terms set that out as a scale [1]. Where a refund is not due under the terms, some guests ask about carrying the money over to another week instead, and that is a decision for the owner rather than something I can agree [2]. I cannot see your booking or any payment, so I do not know where yours stands. If you leave me your name, the email you booked with and your dates, the owner will look at it properly and reply.
The first line acknowledges the trip rather than the money, which costs nothing and stops the exchange starting as a dispute. The credit option is raised because guests want it and rarely know to ask, but it is named as the owner's decision in the same sentence so it never reads as an offer. The refusal is grounded in a fact about the product, no view of bookings or payments, rather than in policy language.
Where it stops
The trigger. The guest asks for a refund on a specific booking, gives a reason they hope will justify one, or says a refund was agreed and has not arrived.
I cannot check a payment, agree a refund or chase one, and I would rather not guess where yours has got to. Send me your name, the email on the booking and the dates, and the owner will look at the booking itself and come back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a refund has been sent, is on its way, or will arrive by a particular day, because nothing here can see a payment.
- Never offer a credit or a transfer to another week, since that is the owner giving away a week of the calendar.
- Never suggest the owner is likely to make an exception for illness, bereavement or bad weather, which will be quoted back if the answer turns out to be no.
- Never tell a guest who booked through a listing site that the owner will refund them, when the money is held and paid out by the site.
Questions
- Can it tell a guest how much they are getting back?
- No. It can read the scale out of your terms, but it cannot see what was paid, when the cancellation happened or which channel the booking came through, and those three facts decide the number.
- Should it mention travel insurance?
- It can say that guests are advised to hold it and that the reason for cancelling may matter to an insurer. It must not say a particular reason would be covered, because that is a decision made by somebody who has read a policy it has never seen.
- Does this reduce refund requests?
- It reduces the ones that were never really requests, the guest checking where the money is or how long it takes. The genuine ask for an exception still reaches you, which is right, because that one was always going to be your call.
Keep reading
- Everything for a holiday rentalWhat is provided, deposits and cancellation terms answer well. The exact address and the door code stay back until a booking exists.
- Handling refund requests in generalA refund question is really about eligibility and timing. What to index, what the reply may promise, and where it has to reach a person.
- The company wants an invoice and the balance is due in a fortnightA company paying for a cottage needs a proper receipt with the right name on it, and every guest needs to know when the balance falls due.
- Can we shift our week, and who is allowed to shift itChangeover days, minimum stays and a season change all constrain a date move, and a listing site booking is not the owner's to amend.
- The cleaner found a phone charger and a small teddyA charger on the bedside table, a child's toy in the wash, a chipped basin. What the assistant may say about posting things on and about deductions.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.