To reimburse a guest on Airbnb, use the reservation’s money-transfer option or the Resolution Center, depending on where the stay is in the timeline. Airbnb says hosts can send refunds during or after a stay, and the refund is typically processed within 48 hours; once sent, the transaction is final.

How to do it

For a home or experience, open the reservation in your hosting dashboard and choose Send or request money. For a service booking, you can send a refund from the message thread by selecting Send refund and entering the amount.

If the stay has already started, Airbnb says the only way for a host to send money to a guest is through the Resolution Center. Airbnb also notes that hosts and guests can use the Resolution Center to send or request money after the reservation starts, and new requests must generally be submitted within 60 days after checkout or the end of the service or experience.

When to use it

Use a refund when you want to make up for a problem such as a missing amenity, cleaning issue, or another stay issue. If the guest canceled and you want to refund them anyway, Airbnb says a host can send a full refund in the Resolution Center after the past-start-date case is handled.

For reservation issues in homes, Airbnb says guests should report the issue within 72 hours of discovery and can seek a full or partial refund depending on the severity and evidence provided. That means it is usually better to document the issue with photos or messages before sending money.

Practical steps

  1. Open the reservation in your Airbnb hosting account.
  2. Choose Send or request money or go to the Resolution Center.
  1. Select Send money or Send refund.
  1. Enter the refund amount and add a short note explaining why.
  1. Submit it and wait for Airbnb to process it, usually within 48 hours.

Important notes

Airbnb says hosts should submit refund-related requests within 60 days after checkout or the end of the service or experience. It also says some hotel stays may not support the Resolution Center, so those may need to be handled directly with the property.

If you want, I can also give you the exact Airbnb app steps for phone versus desktop.