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

[Hannah252]

Yet another host alienating move from Airbnb.  Like most community based commerce,  they have followed the trend and moved towards greed and the almighty dollar and farther from the very people that trusted them with their homes.

[Laura1649]

@Ann0, unfortunately you are right.  After four years of hosting nothing but delightful guests, I had my first experience today of a guest booking with the intention of gaining access then robbing me.  How I know this is a long and irrelevant story but Airbnb really needs to take host security more seriously especially since many of us are home sharing, rather than renting out a vacant separate unit.  Airbnb policy and customer service favors guest well-being but doesn't consider host well-being nearly as much.

Airbnb emphasizes that they are just a third party booking platform yet through policies like this, Airbnb is making hosting decisions, which is inappropriate since they are not in the hosting business.   Having options for the host to choose and live with the consequences of fewer bookings is a good solution.

[Serge116]

Dear Lizzie!

Thank you for your communication.

Many ecellent, thoughtful comments have been made by fellow hosts. As I look at my own listing today from a potential guest's perspective, it seems Airbnb has already implemented the ability for guests to cancel within 48 hours of booking and to receive a full refund if they cancel 14 days prior to booking date.

I never saw this option before and I did not sign up for it.  And if it was an opt-out choice, rather than an opt-in choice, that would be an alarming signal from the mother ship about priorities.

So, I'm not sure what you mean when you say that implementation will be delayed until May 1st. Is that meant to pacify hosts, or is there real debate going on?

In the nine years I've been hosting, I recall cancelling a booking only once, due to an emergency.

14 days is a VERY short period in which to receive a replacement booking after a cancellation -- and this compressed time period is patently unfair to hosts -- and will result in lost bookings!

I also strongly agree that private information should NOT be shared within the first 48 hours during which guests can cancel. This could jeopordize our security.

When I joined Airbnb I really did sense that we all had a social mission and common interests as a community. I once called Brian Chesky to air a grievance and he took my call and we had a conversation. Yes, much has changed. The stakes are much higher now. There seems to be a larger desire to cater to guests and to increase revenues.

The unrelenting pressure on hosts to sign up for 'instant book" and the assurance to new guests that whatever picture, documentation, or information they provide to Airbnb will NOT be shared with hosts are two disconcerting examples.

But I need to vet guests who could stay in my home according to my own (fully legal and moral) standards, and I'm often made to feel like a compulsive pest by sometimes puzzled new guests who don't understand when I ask them to post a brief profile and a recognizeable picture. 

Indeed, there are many more potential guests in the world than there are hosts. But my request is that you (all) keep hosts on the front burner. Almost anyone can be a potential guest. But good hosts are and should remain a treasured resource.

Thanks for your kind attention!

[Tracy0]

My concern with 'no refunds with multiple alternate bookings'  is that there is no clear mechanism for who is going to deal with that fallout. I see multiple messages begging for full refunds, requests for funds having to be managed by the host/s who were cancelled upon within that 48 hr period.  And what if the guest cancels none of them?  That is there problem, but we well know that hosts often have to manage these things...like guests not reading....all the time.

[Kelsey-And-John0]

I think 48 hours is overly generous. If someone makes a mistake in booking they should be able to resolve it within 24 hours, and if they do it more than twice a year they should not be allowed to do it a third time. At the very least there shoud be another case counted in the "mistakes" category - where a guest makes a booking and then fails to make acceptible payment arrangements, so the reservation is cancelled without costing the guest anything. This effectively gives them a 24-hour cancellation window penalty-free, and seems to be more common with split or group payments. 

[Rhonda81]

Good day,

I appreciate that our opimions are being considered. I do not understand why these specific policies are being imposed on EVERYONE. There are a variety of options. If the current strict, moderate etc policies are not working then is there any reason why we can't individually choose the features that are right for us. We are able to customise almost everything else.
-24 hour free cncellation

-48 hour free cancellation

-bookings within 14 day

-bookings within 30 days

-show host details

etc.

I feel like these are being imposed. If hosts are willing to risk fewer bookings for a stricter policy that should be their choice. Personally 48 hours is too long and 14 days is not enough time to secure a new booking. Most of my guest are international and have to book airline tickets and need to do so with more than 14 day lead time.

[David2118]

@Lizzie

Extremely disappointed in Airbnb and their mafioso tactics. Since clearly Airbnb is not paying attention, I too will look elsewhere for my listing and only use Airbnb for bookings where my strict policy can be applied.

Please request your technical team clarify the following edge use cases: hopefully it's all been thought through, even if it hasn't been communicated well at all to us. Please then UPDATE THE CANCELLATION POLICY NOTES so that everyone understands how this policy will apply precisely. 

I'm sure you know that guests will find these edge cases very confusing and I hope Airbnb is prepared for its liability, because 1 second past the cancellation period, I will never refund more than 50%. Before I was quite lenient, but now I expect Airbnb to take full responsibility. Further, I recommend a perpetual timer for both guests and hosts with a countdown on exactly how much time remains in the 48 hour period as well as the 14 day before check in issue (see below). Given time zones, this is going to be a headache for everyone.

USE CASE 1: The policy says: "...guests will receive a full refund if they cancel within 48 hours of booking a reservation with a Strict cancellation policy—as long as their check-in date is at least 14 days away."

Let's say today is June 1. A person books today at 3pm (listing local time). The booking start date is June 15 with check in at 3pm. (booked exactly 14 days before check in.)

At booking, the check in date/time is (listing local time) exactly 14 days away. So any cancellation within the next 48 hours is less than 14 days before checkin.  Does the "14 days before check in" apply to the booking date/time? Or the cancellation date/time?

Obviously this is crucial: if the person can cancel on June 3 at 3pm, the cancellation itself is only TWELVE DAYS from the check in, not 14, and gives that host only TWELVE DAYS to replace the booking. I hope you have a clear answer here.

USE CASE 2: Let's say today is May 30. A person books today at 6pm (listing local time). The booking start date is June 15 with check in at 3pm. (booked exactly 15 days and 21 hours before check in)

If guest cancels on June 1 at 3:15PM, that is within the guest's 48 hours cancellation period. But it is less than 14 days at that point from check in. What policy applies and why? [This is the same issue as USE CASE 1, but from a different perspective.]

USE CASE 3: Let's say today is June 1. A person books today at 3pm. The booking start date is July 1 for 15 days with check in at 3pm.

I offer to book the first day only (July 1). Then, after the 48 hour period of cancellation has passed, I offer to extend the booking through July 15. Does that extension re-start the cancellation policy? Does the option for the guest to cancel *include* the first booked day, or only the extended period?

I'm sure I will think of more examples, but let's start with the obvious ones. I refuse to bring up all the problematic daylight savings time issues around the world. It's going to be embarrassing.

David

PS If I made any math errors, I hope the community will help correct them and my thanks in advance.

[Jordan126]

Why doen't airbnb also issue refund to guests. I know you offer once a year that refund but it sounds like a double standard that the host can take the hit on cancellations and issue a full refund within 5 days yet you allways get to keep your cut. sounds like Airbnb is run by the Mafia! using our proprties to make money off even when we lose money. Time to move away to HomeAway! 

[Nancy458]

I have been a host for about a year. I am following this post because I am not happy that airbnb supports guests and not hosts.  I have had guests lie. Guests to say and do anything they please . Hosts do not. Hello--do I actually own My property and have a right to decide who stays?

Under this new grace period,  a guest just booked,  after lots of chatting back and forth about details that are clear if one reads the listing. AFTER BOOKING, the guest inquired about bring 2 extra adults and suggested the kids sleep on the floor . So now, 6 guests are staying, with beds for 4. After conversation, this guest decided to cancel after all. I was actually relieved! She just messaged me because she is upset that airbnb did not refund her service fee! I did alk the work, airbnb charged the guest, and I got nothing for all my time. I do not want to run a motel. So--who knows of an alternative to airbnb?

[Cari13]

Hello.  This new policy does not work at all for us.  Our place is booked a full year in advance for the winters.  If they can cancel that easily, we will be stranded, trying to scramble to rebook and will definitely LOSE MONEY and/or have to offer our place at reduced rate.  This makes zero sense.  We WERE on HomeAway and VacationRentals.com and cancelled those this year, but now we are seriously considering going back with them and letting your company go, as are A LOT of our friends and family.  Something has to change with this, please!!!  My daughter has three Air B and B's and depends on the income.  This is not fair to the hosts.  Also, if and when we have had a cancellation, we fully refund the money if we rent it to someone else.  Something has to change here.  Please advise if you wish to keep us as clients.  We are adding a second home, four friends have Air B and B and my daughter has 3.  This is seriously going to affect your users....there must be somewhere to meet in the middle?  Cari.

[Katie193]

It is almost May 1 and with all the hundreds of hosts (53 pages) who have given feedback that we don’t want any changes to strict cancelation policy, all I see is that they won’t give out our personal information. Nothing else with 4 days until changes? After everyone has spoken?  I find this to be extremely disrespectful and very bad business practice with their business partners. Has anyone found another platform yet? I know there was talk about it!

[Zojka0]

Again AirBnB did not listen to owners and did whatever the heck you wanted to do... proving again that you do not care about owners at all and we are losing control over our own properties. This 48 hrs policy is horrible and does nothing but causes damage, pain and suffering to hosts. Further disappointment with AirBnB...

[Katherine238]

I need more time to thoroughly consider the ramifications of these policy updates, however, I wanted to suggest that for any host whose guest cancelled that AIRBNB temporarily increases their placement on the search pages to aid in a new replacement booking for those dates. 

[Helen427]

Ditto Katherine where Guests have written inaccurate Reviews and used the Public Review section instead of proper channels to address any perceived, often non existent, issues that may have arisen during their stay

where a host has there listing "Paused" without first establishing FACTS from all parties.

The damage that a vast number of Hosts appear to have been subjected puts any reasonable person off wanting to even let a room, let alone one's whole property.

[Helen427]

* subjected to