New strict cancellation policy update

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

The Airbnb team heard feedback from you and the host community about the upcoming change to our Strict cancellation policy. In order to address your concerns, we’re delaying the change until May 1, 2018.

Before the change goes into effect, we’ll share more about what we’re doing to address your concerns, particularly around protecting your listing details from being shared with guests who cancel. But for now, we’d like to clear up some confusion and help you better understand the new policy and how it will benefit the whole community:

Here’s how the new grace period policy will work—and some of the protections we have in place for hosts:

Limited-time refund within 48 hours after booking when the check-in date is at least 14 days away

Guests must cancel within 48 hours after booking and can only cancel if their check-in date is 14+ days away. This means that no matter how far out your guests book, they only have 48 hours from the time they book to cancel for free. We want to make sure that if guests change their mind, you have enough time to get another booking.

Three refunds per year per guest

To prevent abuse, guests are limited to three fully refunded cancellations a year.

No full refunds for overlapping bookings

To make sure guests are not making multiple bookings and then cancelling, any booking made by a guest when they already have an active booking for those dates will not be covered under our grace period policy.

Your hosting success is top of mind for us, and tests of this policy—including among hosts with strict cancellation policies in place—strongly suggest the change will result in increased bookings and successful stays. With this grace period, not only do guests book with more confidence, but they also have the ability to resolve booking mistakes without requiring your valuable time and intervention.

We value your feedback, and will follow up shortly with more insight into how your ideas are shaping this policy.

Thanks,

Lizzie

----------Update April 24th, 2018----------

Hello everyone,

Just to let you know there is now an update regarding protecting your listing details, as mentioned above. 

Here is the link to take a look: An update on the Strict Cancellation Policy

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Tony134]

@Lizzie

I've got to be honest Lizzie, this thread is leaving me sick to my stomach with concern for my future with Airbnb.

It is OBVIOUS that this new policy has nothing to do with increasing bookings for hosts, and everything to do with making customer service's life easier giving out easy cancellations.  All of the hosts chiming in have stated they have not received extra bookings, but have received more cancellations.

It is OBVIOUS that the hosts are overwhelmingly against this new policy, there are now 50 pages of hosts 100% against it, I have not seen a single host yet that said 'this new policy is great!'

The most concerning part isn't even the policy change: it's how you and Airbnb are constantly pretty words and silly ideas to justify the move as you see 100% consolidated opposition.  When you say how much you appreciate our feedback, how our ideas matter, how we are self employed and not employees of Airbnb, this thread shamefull puts the lie to those things.

I get it, you can be really nice when you type repsonses to people, but is it nice to pretend we're having a 'conversation' when you are willfully ignoring 99% of what you hear?  I'm sorry to keep @ing you over and over, but this kind of obvious fakery seems to be an issue with Airbnb, it's painfully hard to deal with day after day.

This is not communication.  Your replies are not polite, they are just thinly veiled apologism.  I'm going to give you an example of how your replies could have been more honest:

"I see that many of you have expressed concerns with the 48 Hour cancellation policy, for various reasons.  I also see based on these 50 pages worth of pure concerns that most hosts agree this is not a favored policy.  Airbnb may still decide this is important or necesarry despite your concerns, but I will pass your concerns along to managment."  THIS would be an honest response and more appreciated.  I get that you are not the decision maker, but pretending we are not screaming blood murder when it's all over the pages is just silly.

[InspireQ0]

@KandT0 I have it set as Moderate.

[Roslyn16]

I guess I can also chime in as being opposed to the proposed policy.  The reason I chose "STRICT" for our cancelation policy is that I want guests who are committed to staying in my flat and not just "gaming" the system for the best offer.  When I book as a guest, I book once I know my plans are firm and I expect my guests to do so as well.  I have had an occassional cancelation over the 4+ years I've been hosting and generally have issued a refund even though I was not obligated to, but out of goodwill due to the particular circumstances.  That said, I have no intention of changing my strict policy and would appreciate AIRBNB not imposing that change on me.  What is the benefit of the proposed change??  I concur with some of the other posters that there are almost 50 pages of hosts who are opposed to this change.  What exactly is it that we are missing if this is such a "smart" move? 

[Sam44]

@Lizzie When exactly does Airbnb plan to reply to this 50 pages worth of posts?  The proposed changes are 8 days away and the radio silence is not doing anything to convince me that the company has much respect for hosts.  Lack of respect is a game changer. 

[Erik91]

Good idea on this policy.  I like the 48-hour policy but we rely heavily on the strict cancelation policy as we have a life outside our Airbnb.  It allows us to really take care of our guests but not have them run our life. Keep up the great work Airbnb!

[Carolyne4]

I would say atleast if not more than half of my reservations are made more last minute. To remove my listing for 48 hours will result in less booking for me. I am not happy about this. I am gald there is cap to prevent abuse, however the majority of my booking are last minute and taking my place off the market for others looking for the last minute accomadtions will hurt my buiness. 2 weeks is not enough time to get a new booking.

[Bertrand58]

Lizzie, you wrote a month ago: "Before the change goes into effect, we’ll share more about what we’re doing to address your concerns, particularly around protecting your listing details from being shared with guests who cancel." We are now one week from the announced  implementation date and we have not heard how Airbnb will address the overwelming concerns expressed by about 95% of the people on this thread. Mostly, the disclosure of host data before the end of the grace period and reducing the grace period to 24 hours or less. This are the two main issues and I consider to deactivate my listings if Airbnb does not improve the current proposal. Indeed it also seems fair that, if guests have 24 hours to cancel penalty free, so should hosts too.

I am unhappy with Airbnb lack of responses to hosts concerns as evidenced by this thread and therefore I have decided I cannot rely on Airbnb only for my listing anymore. I have removed all information from my listings that could present a security risk, and will send that information by direct SMS on the morning of the guest arrival. I am also on another listing site. I would like to have the choice for cancellation and grace period so I can see for myself the impact of the cancellation stringency on booking for my properties, since Airbnb has not provided any information to support its claim of improved net booking (factoring increased cancellation).  I plan to price differently on the two sites with a cheaper price on the other listing site because of the higher cancellation stringency. Also, I may decide to recommend to Airbnb guests to cancel their booking on Airbnb within the grace period and re-book on the other listing site for a cheaper price. This is one of the abuses, among several others, that Airbnb exposes its platform to, with this change. The strict cancellation changes are empowering bad actors to game the system at the expense of hosts. IMHO, this destroys Airbnb community spirit. Is this really what Airbnb wants? Please reconsider or amend based on the feedback of this thread: make the grace period optional.

I would also like to have a stricter policy than with a 7 days trigger as this does not fit my market. 14 days would be a bare minimum. Here is what I would be happy with for strict cancellation policy:

-50% refund up to 30 days prior to arrival

-24 hours grace period up to 30 days prior to arrival. 

-1 cancellation  by guest refunded per year

-1 cancellation  by host without penalty per year

-no overlapping bookings (have to cancel before booking something else).

This would be the cancellation policy base. I would decide for greater refund myself, on case per case basis.

I am sorry that I have to reconsider my participation at Airbnb, but this last change is the straw that break the back of the camel. I was already unhappy with several issues, namely:

-not disclosing tax amount in the quote in our county (other platforms do)

-not collecting the tax amount in our county (other platforms do)

-pushing Instant Booking while offering no support for tax collection (even request we disclose exact amount of tax to guests prior to booking, while only Airbnb can do this upon website quote request)

-no real strict guest cancellation policy, 

-no graces for host cancellation,

-late payments

-many bugs and inconsistant interface of the website (recent example: can't change guests number when switching listing; not supporting custom resolution when uploading photos in the checkin guide resulting in badly cropped photo; other bugs I have already send feedback...)

[Ann10]

Bryn-Better to spend your time listing on another platform.

@Bryn6

[Ziyin0]

I'm going to snooze my listing if @Lizzie still remains silence by 4/30. And I suggest all of the hosts do the same if you can.

BTW, I have two upcoming reservation in mid-late May, does anyone know will those be affected if I snooze my listing before their arrival?

[Nora36]

Glad to hear the review and the delay is happening with potential abuse in mind but am concerned that we're very close to May 1 and have had no follow-up info. I am in a heavily-Airbnb populated area and the strict cancellation policy worked best for us after trying Moderate and getting left hanging several times. It seems like 48 hours is far too long for them to have to reconsider. Plus I'm not happy that potentially random people have information about our Airbnb unit when they're not serious about staying.  You have plenty of time to browse and select when trying to find an Airbnb for your stay.   

[Bertrand58]

Somehow can't reply to Ziyin. Here is my response to @Ziyin0

My understanding is that you will not show up anymore in searches once deactivated but all your current commitments should be honored.

I am considering doing the same.

[KandT0]

@InspireQ0 I think the details of your policy you can see here should answer your Qs. Is there something specific that's confusing you re the case you mentioned? It looks like you get nothing as long as the guest cancels five days or more before check-in. If the guest does not cancel by then, you get what it says you'll get.

[Lady-Susanna0]

Has @Lizzie still gone silent?  It is my understanding that despite all the great suggestions in these 50 pages...and all the voices against this new policy...that AirBnB is still going ahead with it full throttle May 1st.

On April 30th, I am removing WiFi passwords and keycodes from my listing.

I DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES give AirBnB the right to release my phone number or address UNTIL the waiting period has expired.  If they do, it will be a violation of MY TERMS OF SERVICE.

They are putting our homes at risk for burglers and I don't like it.   

They are giving our competitors an opportunity to hold our listings hostage so that they can get booked first.

They are holding our listing hostage so that serious travels can't book the listing.

Finally, if you dig through these 50 pages, you will find perfectly reasonable ways to handle this that I proposed WEEKS ago with no response.

This "delay" has been nothing but a fake way of making owners think they have some say in policy.  AirBnB had no intention of actually doing anything different no matter what we wrote.

Am I wrong?  Prove it.  

[Nick383]

Syncing Calendars:  Forgive me if this has all ready been addressed?  But how does this new policy work with syncing calendars with other onine platforms?  At booking, will you be blocking those dates with all the other listing platforms synced with my calendar - effectively ending your competitors booking and income potential - only to realease the dates 47 hours later?  How long will it be before your system releases those competetors calendars?  Is it instant - or will you wait a few days to give yourself the upper hand?

It seems for me the best course of action is the most inconvient - turn off syncing so you can't block those dates until after your manditory 48 hour grace period.  I feel this new policy forces me to either accept the reduced visibility this will cause on other platforms, or force me to accept the risk/consiquences of multible bookings while I wait for your guest to make up their mind on wheather or not to cancel.  What's to stop other hosts in my marked from creating multiple fake accounts to book out the neighborhood and give their listing the upper hand?  Especially competitive weekends.  Very shady, BnB.  Very shady.

[Ann10]

@Nora36-It's mind boggling that now we have to have moderate to maintain Business Ready. What business dosn't have insurance? I think it's not the real reason for having us make the switch and I'm not doing it. How can anyone get someone else 5 days or 12 days out at the same rate or at all. Absurd!