Yesterday was the second time this has happened to me, and I wish I could report the users for doing it...

I have a flexible cancellation policy - as long as you cancel the day before you check in you get the full refund.

So a while ago I had a guest who (without messaging me anything) requested an alteration to a month or so out, and requested that alteration the day they were supposed to check in. I thought that was odd, because in their communication they talked about their flight coming in that night, etc. So why on earth would they want to reschedule for several weeks/a month out from their planned arrival without communicating with me their altered plans? My best guess is that they were doing this to get a full refund - alter the reservation, then cancel, and because it is more than 24 hrs out, they get the full refund.

The irony is that I don't host to make a ton of money, so I'm pretty flexible with guests. If they message me and say "Hey, my cousin's friend's brother's neighbor offered to let us stay with them!" I would say "Awesome! What a steal! Go ahead and cancel and I'll send you a refund." I have allowed guests with great communication to cancel with full refund on the day of check in no problem. I have even given full refunds to guests who communicated their cancellation and didn't even ask for a refund.

But I don't do sneaky.

Yesterday I had a guest do the same thing. I told the guest, "We don't accept alteration requests on the day of the reservation." No response, but they canceled the stay.