To cancel this air bnb booking?

[Slankets]

We have a small air bnb house, we obviously haven't had it rented out much this year, only to essential workers and in the summer when it was allowed.

We live in Wales.

It has been booked for the 26th december - 1st January since April. We held off doing anything about till we knew more about what was going on. Now the government have said they can't come except the 26th and 27th we have tried to get in contact with them and had no reply. They are also travelling from a tier 3 area.

AIBU to cancel their booking? I feel so so awful ruining someone's Christmas plans but equally feel like I don't really have much choice.

Is it self contained?
I wouldn't cancel. It's their risk to take by breaking the rules and you'll be penalised by Airbnb if you do.

Why can't they come? They won't be mixing households

The tiers are being reviewed on December 16th so their tier could change

Sorry I forgot to add i saw this on the BBC this morning so the Welsh government is telling people not to come for holidays and after the 27th my understanding was that no travelling between countries unless essential was allowed?

Also I can get fined by the council if I let them come and they aren't supposed to (one of the neighbours reported us in October for having people but they had a letter saying they were essential so the council was fine but I do think they they will report again)

I'm not bothered about a fine from air bnb, I'd rather try and keep people safe in my area.

If you haven't already done so give them a final warning to change it and then cancel. We have a similar booking for my parents but havent been in touch yet as until yesterday were still sorting out the Christmas bubble (we were also unexpectedly put in Tier 3, which complicated things - we were expecting them to be Tier 1 and us Tier 2 so they could have stayed longer and met us in the garden). It might seem like ages but it takes time to get everyone to a place where they're happy if they were expecting something else for Christmas (looking at my mother in particular ). In reality it's only been a couple of days.

I'd given them say 48 hours and contact them again. I understand it is frustrating when people don't reply reasonably quickly. My understanding is that they would have to return to their area on the 28th.

They can come but only for 2 days, as that’s the Governments rules for when the Christmas meeting up period ends. I would email them Op and state very clearly the booking now is only for them two days that’s allowed and would they like to cancel. Wales are likely going into a lockdown on the 28th, the government have heavily hinted this will be the cost of spending time with family at Christmas

Tinkywinkydinkydoo

Thats a good idea thank you

My understanding of the rules was also that you can only travel to see family in those 5 days, so if they are just coming for a holiday (rather than to visit nearby family) then that's not allowed anyway.

Give them a week to reply to your two days only message and if they don't reply, cancel the whole booking.