Thank goodness for this acknowledgement of host concerns. Lizzie, your message is appreciated. I think you are still hearing from hosts that there is still so much room to improve this significant proposed change to a strict cancellation policy. Delaying the roll-out until May 1 seems like a fair way to continue a conversations with your host community. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THIS!
I'm going to respond to each of Lizzie's bolded headings from her Airbnb update above.
"Limited-time refund within 48 hours after booking when the check-in date is at least 14 days away"
I understand how this 14 day lead time works, but 14 days is NOT enough time and presents a risk to bookings in my case. In my market, and for my listing, if I still have an open weekend coming up in the 2-3 week window, there is often a flurry of activity and listing views say 15-20 days out. Airbnb's "Check Trends" often confirms that homes "are going fast." Within my listing, a guest will see a prompt that "X number of other people are viewing this home." Airbnb is basically building pressures and incentives for a prospective guest to hurry and book. They do this because it works to get people to seal the deal. If someone ties up my booking and then cancels, you better believe a handful of other prospective guests have moved on and booked other listings in the meantime, which means my chances of securing another booking ARE diminished.
I've shared this before (but feel compelled to repeat here since the other threads have been closed and I fear my concerns may be diluted)...in my case, if I leave my calendar set up to receive a booking that is just outside of the 14 day window, I am effectively keeping my entire family's schedule in limbo so that we can be nimble enough to take the booking and make it work from start-to-finish. I manage my entire listing myself and have a 3 hour round-trip drive between each booking to clean and stock the house between each guest. I have two young children who I am primary caregiver for. If I get a booking 15 days out, you better believe I have to hustle to make arrangments for childcare, synchronizing with my husband's work schedule, and planning my property management tasks for that booking. For a guest to then cancel, I am left undoing a lot of this logistical work. Inconvenience doesn't even begin to describe this scenario.
I'm not sure what the 'right' number is for lead time but 14 days is certainly not it. 3 weeks would still be pushing it, but would be heads- and-shoulders more fair and manageable than 14 days. I have read data suggesting that the average lead time for a booking is around 18 days.
I will also echo other hosts in saying that 48 hours seems to be overly-generous to guests who may need or want to cancel. Any special offer expires in 24 hours. I have 24 hours to respond to an guest inquiry. Why is the Airbnb 24 hour language suddenly changing to 48? I could argue that cancellations should be given less than 24 hours, but in any case why isn't 24 hours the starting point for discussion here instead of 48?
"Three refunds per year per guest"
I've never cancelled a reservation in 18 months of active hosting, but I understand that hosts are not given three penatly-free cancellations. I struggle to understand why there wouldn't be parity here. I also do not see how this discourages guests from abusing the policy. Sure, there are some people who use Airbnb numerous times each year (business travellers), so three cancellations a year per guest could be enough to help those guests take their cancelling habits seriously, but many of the guests I host are very infrequent Airbnb users...they are often brand new to the platform or make just 1 or 2 airbnb trips a year. This 'three refund per year' business would mean nothing to them.
I've seen on the platform that there is a standard statement that autopopulates a host's reviews if they ever cancel a reservation....it says something like "This host cancelled the reservation xx days before checkin." Airbnb could consider a similar prompt appearing on a guest's profile if they cancel. (I saw somebody else suggest this, not my idea. ) For those hosts who have not given into the immense pressure from Airbnb to allow Instant Booking, they would at least have an opportunity to consider a guest's reliability when they consider a booking request. Guests already do this with hosts' reliability, when considering whether they should choose that listing or not and they notice the host has cancelled in the past.
"No full refunds for overlapping bookings"
This only makes a lick of a difference if guests book multiple bookings at once as a way to hold them. It does not prevent a guest from lining up an alternate Instant Booking (entering nearly all the required information to complete a booking), right befor they hit "cancel" on reservation 1, and then quickly submitting the booking for the alternate place.
It seems to me if this feature were to be more impactful in actually discouraging guests from tying up listings when their only intention is to shop around, then they should be prevented from making another booking for a defined period of time....I come back to the precedent of 24 hours for nearly everything else on Airbnb. I don't know how much time, but you get the idea. That would introduce some risk that those who are just shopping around may lose the alternate booking. THAT would cause lookers to be very intentional about booking, as opposed to booking willy-nilly with no real thought of consequence.
My additional thoughts and concerns in response to Airbnb:
- I continue to feel it important to say, that not all hosts want MORE bookings. This policy is not for me. I do not want MORE bookings. I want the right bookings.
- I understand that the policy was tested. I remember when I got the invite to try it out. It was in December, leading into a major holiday season...when I was making my own life/travel plans....I was especially averse to trying out a new grace period at THAT time of year. Did Airbnb poll the hosts who did NOT opt in to the policy during the test, to gather host concerns and feedback about why they were not opting in?
- This grace period will (I'm just being honest) likely change they way I interact with my guests. Lizzie and others at Airbnb, please look at how allowing a grace period stands to place MORE demands on my valuable time, if I am asked to be responsive and invest time with guests who then cancel. As it is, I quickly reply and share information with my guests. I am routinely asked for information to help guests prepare for their trip. Historically, I jump right in and am generous with my time, because this is part of my entire hosting philosophy. (I have even chosen to spend hours with guests BEFORE they book, sharing answers to their unique questions and circumstances.) With a grace period, I may feel compelled to be more scarce with a guest until their booking is no longer provisional. What a dilemma for a committed host! Creating a sense of mistrust, and inadvertently encouraging hosts to adopt an arms-length approach with their guests would be an unintended consequence of this grace period policy, and that's not good for anyone in the Airbnb community.
- To the extent that there is to be a grace period imposed on those of us who have been operating under the strict policy, I remain hopeful that Airbnb will make some structural changes to the booking flow...as it is my phone number, address, wifi, and house manual are instantly shared with a guest once they book. This is a security and privacy risk to me. This is a SECURITY and PRIVACY risk to me. Clearly there are many of us with this concern. It is also something that stands to create yet an additional demand on my time if I have to compensate by removing that information from my listing and shift to a manual system of sharing these details in the Airbnb message center. These are the steps I feel would be necessary to take to protect my privacy and security. But I do not think this is in anyone's interest. The message center is NOT the best format to share key information. It would be cumbersome for a guest to wade through. And I do NOT like the idea of extra steps and extra work just to share the same information with guests that I always have in the past. Again, Lizzie and others at Airbnb, can you please see how some of these nuances place more demand on our valuable time, not less?
I chose Airbnb as a listing platform and the Strict cancellation policy because that is what works for my family. If a guest doesn't want to book my listing because of the strict policy, then they do not have to book it. I am well aware that prospective guests may look elsewhere because of a strict cancellation policy, but I have made an informed choice to work within that limitation . And by the way, there are circumstances where I absolutely would have no reason to keep a guest's money if they cancel....just because I have a strict cancellation policy does not mean I would always enforce it. But I think I deserve a choice.
I believe this so strongly that I just spent my only time off all week to write this piece. I hope our collective concerns as host can make a differnce on this one.
Thanks for reading--
Kindly,
Lila
