New strict cancellation policy update

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

New strict cancellation policy update

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


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1,325 Replies 1,325

I am curious about whether Airbnb surveyed hosts prior to changing the cancellation policy ...and other policies too? BTW where is my payment for the guest who checked in 24 hours ago ?

AirBNB explained that its 14 Mar 2020 extenuating circumstances policy due to the Covid-19 virus is meant to protect the AirBNB community.  But, if one reads through the policy, it essentially gives a green light to guests to cancel their reservations, regardless of whether they are affected by the Covid-19 crisis personally or domestically.  Whilst there are genuine cases of reservations being affected by Covid-19, not all cancellations in recent times are genuine as not all domestic locations are as affected .  In fact, I would not be surprised that some have taken advantage to cancel and re-book at lower prices in the current market.  Air BNB definitely did not survey the hosts before coming up with the policy; if they did, the policy published on their website prior to the 14 March 2020 update makes more sense as it makes the guest accountable to some degree before a cancellation could be effected.  It would appear that AirBNB's definition ofAirBNB  community means Air BNB "guests" as hosts are left to bear the cancellation costs solely and wholely under the Extenuating Circumstances - Covid-19 policy, whilst guests are free to cancel and re-book.

 

So, would they really consider the rights of hosts when updating their strict cancellation policy? 

Incidentally, I had posted in another forum concerning the Extenuating Circumstances policy and how I feel it's biased towards guests at the expense of hosts, and it was removed shortly after it was posted.  Maybe I hit too close to home for Air BNB.

Kathy312
Level 2
Scotland, United Kingdom

We completely agree with this post and others complaining about Airbnb treatment of its hosts during this time of ‘extenuating circumstances’. It is not only unfair but shortsighted to completely re-imburse guests, who in our experience usually have travel insurance, and deny hosts any payment what so ever. Airbnb does not check insurance, meaning some guests are paid twice whilst hosts are left without any payment at all.

A much fairer policy is to pay 50:50 after a cancelation under this heading, unless a rebooking for that slot is obtained. As Jamie, and many other hosts have said, the current policy is unfair to hosts.

We like many hosts, rely heavily on payments from letting. If hosts go out of business where will Airbnb get new hosts for its cash rich guests when they eventually re-book. Even if they survive this episode hosts may well question using Airbnb if they are treated in this way. We supported Airbnb during a recent Scottish Government review of short term lets. It is telling that Airbnb do not support us – a super host - now.

Some hosts may also ponder on the legal…as well as moral aspects of this policy…. of Airbnb unilaterally changing conditions once a booking has been accepted under specific terms. We assumed our insurance for hosting was Airbnb’s cancellation policy. Obviously not!

There must be a relief for financial hosts!

Here is my take:

 These are uncertain times. This is real and will go on.

We all know that airbnb favors guests over hosts. However, as a host--I really do not want folks from high profile covid-19 areas trying to escape to my house.

Everyone should simply stay at home. Discretionary travel should stop. No one can effectively sanitize against an unknown virus. There are no guarantees.

We all should support all the CDC and world health council recommendations. 

Remember travelers are uncertain too--all group events these travelers were attending are being canceled. I offered all my booked guests for March and April a travel credit just in case their travel plans unexpectedly need to change.

In these uncertain times, be kind.

What happens now during the CoronaVirus pandemic?

Nena87
Level 2
Caracas Metropolitan District, Venezuela

Thank you x helping the hosts regarding this matter.

Airbnb no tiene ningún sentido, a veces, durante los períodos ocupados, se deben utilizar políticas estrictas. 14 días en ningún lugar cerca del tiempo suficiente para buscar nuevos huéspedes. Durante los períodos ocupados, los anfitriones confían en estar completamente reservados con anticipación y tienen todo el calendario planificado, especialmente para los anfitriones con más de 1 habitación / alojamiento. En cuanto a la divulgación de todos los detalles ... esto es perfecto para los anfitriones, pero no tiene sentido para Airbnb. Un huésped puede obtener fácilmente los detalles, cancelar la reserva y luego contactar al anfitrión directamente y reducir todos los costos adicionales para ambas partes. Una ventana mucho más corta sin revelar ningún detalle tiene más sentido. Si Airbnb sigue adelante con estas nuevas políticas, eso significa que no podremos ofrecer nuestras habitaciones durante nuestra temporada alta o en las épocas ocupadas del año, cuando Airbnb podría estar haciendo la mayor cantidad de dinero de los anfitriones.
Por favor, reconsidere lo que está haciendo Airbnb.  
Diferentes políticas en diferentes épocas del año es todo por una muy buena razón

Thank you, Christine. Already done!

 

Jane, the truth is that AirBnb has no legal right to break the contract they made with us their valued hosts.  The whole relationship has been built on trust and they have broken that trust and the contract.  Travellers purchase travel insurance to protect themselves and still AirBnb decided to refund the guests in full, reaching into our pockets to fund their public promise in order to look good in public.

As hosts, our trust in AirBnb has been broken along with the contract.  Our trust in AirBnb will never be the same again.  The founders of AirBnb stood to gain millions in 2020 by selling the company to investors, on the strength of the trust built with hosts who provide our properties for them to rent out.  If AirBnb can so easily break the trust of their valued hosts, how could a prospective investor trust that their investment cash will be well placed?  Google the story of the AirBnb IPO to see how much they hoped to gain from the sell off of the business.  And then compare it to the €250M which they are proposing to share across the millions of hosts who have had their confirmed bookings cancelled by the company.  Their approach does not seem honourable or trustworth

Do you have a link to the IPO info?  Did that IPO ever happen?  Do you consider the fact that all businesses and market change over time and that especially during severe crises may change a lot?

Bom dia, estou perdendo muitas reservas porque as pessoas não estão podendo viajar por conta da covid 19 , gostaria que vocês me ajudassem no super host, pois dependo muito dessas reservas 

So, let me get this straight…. if a guest cancels with anything more than 7-days prior to check in, the guests get a 50% refund and I receive only 50% of the booking value. How is this a “Strict” cancellation policy?

 

If a guest cancels 8 days prior to arrival, I have little to no chance of getting another booking for these cancelled dates. Sure, feels like yet again, hosts are being thrown under the bus in favor of guests. Hey Airbnb, you post a video saying you really care about hosts and talk about how important hosts are to your business model……sure does not feel like it.

 

Strict: Full refund 48 hours after booking, up to 14 days before check-in

  • Free cancellation for 48 hours, as long as the guest cancels at least 14 days before check-in (time shown in the confirmation email)
  • After that, guests can cancel up to 7 days before check-in and get a 50% refund of the nightly rate, and the cleaning fee, but not the service fee

For a 50% refund of the nightly rate, the guest must cancel 7 full days before the listing's local check in time (shown in the confirmation email), otherwise no refund. If only 50% of the reservation has been paid, no refund will be issued and the remaining 50% will simply not be charged.