Changing our policy on avoidable Host cancellations

[Airbnb]

As our partners on Airbnb, Hosts do an incredible job of honoring reservations and going above and beyond to support guests every day. That’s why guests from around the world trust complete strangers with some of the most important days of their lives—from summer vacations and staycations to honeymoons and anniversary celebrations. 

But when Hosts cancel on guests for preventable reasons—like accidentally double-booking or wanting to host friends and family instead—guests lose the confidence to book on Airbnb, and this impacts all Hosts and hurts our entire community. 

Starting August 22, 2022, we’re updating our Host Cancellation Policy. The existing policy has been in place for many years and included small fees if you had to cancel a reservation. 

Get the full details on the Resource Center.

[Kelly149]

@Emilia42  Kind of. But abb expects you to still have a reason that is about THE GUEST.  So if you cancel for your own reasons, even if it’s only 1-3 times in the year AND abb finds out, you would for sure still be in trouble. 

Those 3 “free” cancellations are still supposed to be something that abb would agree is a problem that you are allowed to feel uncomfortable about bc of the guest. They aren’t to be used for mistakes, or breakages or changing your mind about hosting. 

[Toetsie0]

not under the new rules..

[Leslie323]

I had a house that the oven went bad on. This started right after Thanksgiving 2021 and went into January  of 2022.  We couldn't get a part to repair it and it took 6 weeks to order a new range. This is just a standard freestanding electric range.  I contacted all my guests and let them choose to cancel or stay and for the ones that canceled I got penalized.  Even though I called up and explained what was going on. 

Flash forward to the last 6 weeks and fighting with a hot tub not working, it took 3 weeks to get a repairman to look at it.  Once again I gave people the option, and those that decided to stay I gave a discount to, as I know why they choose that house. Luckily I didn't get penalized and I worked it out with the guests.  But I KNOW what would have happened if I had to call in! 

Now I have a house with a Failing septic system, by the time we get the permits and get it fixed there would be 6 weeks of cancelations.  Luckily no one had booked it on Airbnb.  

Meanwhile guests can cancel at a drop of a hat, and get out of anything.  Being a superhost means nothing, and I was pretty sure I was done with the last of the updates.  But now thanks to that summer release only my A-Frame is getting rented, so there isn't much of a loss here.   

Other platforms and my own website have always provided more qualified renters - but airbnb used to fill in the gaps nicely.   Will spend the rest of the afternoon blocking out calendars.  

[Mark116]

@Airbnb @Catherine-Powell  Can you explain what happened in @Leslie323  story. 

Doesn't Airbnb recognize that sometimes amenities break?  Doesn't Airbnb recognize that somtimes, especially in this environment, with so many supply issues, it takes time to replace a part or an itme?  It seems extremely unfair that a host would be penalized for something that breaks and then having to wait on a part.  I really don't understand this mentality.

[Kelly149]

@Leslie323 CS shouldn’t have penalized you for those situations 

BUT this is why hosts are concerned. 

ANY policy that requires CS to - understand & - make good decisions is a complete roulette wheel for hosts

CS is a maybe it works/maybe it doesn’t proposition and there is very little to zero recourse for escalation when a host feels that CS acted in error. “This matter is Closed” “Unfortunately we cannot disclose how we came to this decision”

[Paul1255]

 

A little late to the party as I only became aware of this change last night!

Wasn’t it only a few months ago that airbnb revoked the part of their updated refund and rebooking policy that we were all unhappy about (paying for guests to be relocated)

Now, they’ve updated their cancellation policy to ensure they massively financially sting hosts for cancelling, and also when hosts are found “responsible” for a cancellation, eg when conditions are grossly for materially different From how the listing was described at the time of booking. 

Seems like we are back to square one, with the doors wide open for unhappy guests/scammers/even airbnb to really take hosts to the cleaners- someone let me know if I’ve missed something or got the wrong end of the stick!

Surely it must be time for some more listening sessions to understand why hosts are so outraged and feel hung out to dry yet again (Covid policies, refund and rebooking, now cancellation policy)

Or time to wheel someone out to respond to everyone’s concerns in a way that just creates confusion.

Or time to revoke the changes, kick the can down street and wrap it up in a new policy change in a few months time. 

Anyone else feel like they’re in an unhealthy coercive relationship with airbnb?

[Mark116]

@Paul1255  Gaslighting, check.  Power differential, check.  Unpredictable mood swings, check.  Financial dependence, check.  Apologizes and then does the same thing again and again, check.  I'd say we've moved from coercive into abusive. 

[Stephanie365]

I would go so far to say sociopathic....

"There’s just a total lack of empathy or recognizing that what they’ve done has hurt someone or it’s only benefited themselves..."

[Michael5047]

10 years of Airbnb hosting and never cancelled on a guest. 

Airbnb can have any cancelation policy they want to...if you are a good and responsible host this won't affect you at all.

Cheers

[Toetsie0]

@Michael5047  And then you get a leaking pipe.. It used to be a good reason.. 

And then you end up for a night in the hospital. It used to be a good reason!

But hey, if you want to be the one that hosts all guests, because it will never go wrong,  be my guest 🙂

[Michael5047]

I'm not sure I understand your reply...

If you get a leaking pipe, you go there to check it out and hire a plumber to fix it. The guests are OK if they see you taking care of the issue.

[Stephanie365]

@Michael5047 , since COVID, the number of guests scamming discounts and refunds for "inconveniences" such as this have exploded. They no longer see this as a host trying to make things right; they see an opportunity for financial gain.

I had a local (he lived an hour away) guest for 2 nights who wanted to get away from his kids with his wife for the weekend.  There is absolutely NO way a guy taking his wife out for the weekend is even going to think about doing laundry, especially when they live only an hour away.  But the heating element in my dryer went out the Friday they were due to arrive and my repair guy couldn't get a new one until Monday.  I informed the guest as a courtesy. Within 30 seconds I receive a message in reply:

"Thank you for the heads up. I appreciate it. This is certainly an inconvenience.  Is there any sort of discount that you can offer to offset this unfortunate circumstance?"

In nearly 5 years of hosting, I've had maybe 5 people use my washer/dryer and every one of them was here for at least 4 days or longer. 

I read today about a guest who wanted a refund because of a small cobweb they found. Spiders can weave webs very quickly.

Just the other day, someone wanted a refund because the sheets were dirty... after they'd slept in them for 2 days.

Incidents like these are becoming more and more common and AirBNB CS is enabling this behavior.

[Natasha433]

None of these changes will matter so long at their customer service continues to be trash. CS are handed a script to type and are impersonal and corporate to cover their asses constantly. I'm shocked, that they think they deserve any more money from Superhosts. When they are getting paid consistently for hundreds of my bookings over the course of years-- they sure are quiet, but when we need help with anything, its awful. I have complained multiple times over their poor customer service. They never once have had my back on any situation that has cropped up with complaints from guests who wanted full refunds on issues that were ridiculous and blown out of perspective of reality, down to when Texas was in a very real state of emergency from that snow storm in 2021 that almost took my life and they were rude and threatened to penalize me. 

In that case, it was a very serious reason to cancel as we had no water for a month, and they failed me.

How can they expect people to believe in them with 'preventative cancellations' when they don't even handle the very serious ones well-- laughable.  

[Toetsie0]

The whole reason why i host on Airbnb is that i know there is a good team behind me from Airbnb. They get a chunk of 23% i think from the money made? In the Netherlands. When I CANNOT deliver, for what ever reason, Airbnb gets my guest another place. Thats how it was since the beginning. A few weeks ago i had finally COVID, vaccinated and boostered and all.. My current guest had no problems and even brought ME groceries.. (her airbnb host of a few months earlier here in Amsterdam, took good care of her, when she - the guest - had covid while staying in the airbnb!) But the guest that was supposed to come later that week, had a bad experience with having had Covid, and rather not stay in my house, while i had day 6 .. Fair enough. I was a little bit surprised i had to push at the airbnbhotline: i told them i spoke with my guest, told him Airbnb would be in touch and that i expected them to give him a good other place. They did call him. But only offered him a 50,00 voucher?! Thats not what i expect for so much money they get from the deals! They hold the information of the people that stay, they vet the people for me. I have a nice place for the guests and make my money with it. Its all going DOWNHILL.. So sad.

[Ivan1957]

This is the final straw for me. I've  been waiting for more than a month for Airbnb to release the payout for my last reservation (for no reason whatever and after a glowing review from the guest) - and now this. Looks like they really are in financial trouble, as someone here has already suggested, and looking for more ways to part their hosts from their hard-earned money. I'm leaving.