Allow different cancellation policies for different times of the year (FEATURE REQUEST)

[Susie0]

Based on several host comments in this thread, it seems many hosts including me want the ability to set cancellation policies based on the month instead of having 1 constant cancellation policy.

This is an important feature for seasonal, vacation rental businesses especially, in vacation areas.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Flexible-vs-Moderate-Cancellation-Policy/td-p/328498/pag...

SCENARIO:

Have stricter cancellation policies during busy seasons, with higher rates, when people book in advance at higher rates.

When the season is slower, and it is to be expected that fewer people are traveling, a flexible cancellation policy would be more logical.

PLEASE THUMBS UP THIS POST IF YOU WANT AIRBNB TO ADD THIS FEATURE.

[Emiel1]

@Susie0 

You can also sent your wishes to Airbnb via feedback: Airbnb Feedback 

Some hosts duplicate their listing and list it with different cancellation policy for the specific time period.

[Claudia1184]

I'm going to have to do this but it seems like a hassle. 

[Cédric117]

That's what I was thinking about, but the new ad will not have any previous reviews!  😞 

[Pete69]

Airbnb's cancellation policies are is too rigid, with no middle ground. I write my own policy of 3 days to cancel otherwise they pay for the first night stay plus Airbnb fee. No 50% of additional nights.

[Helen3]

How are you able to write your own policy and have Airbnb enforce it @Peter69? 

[Denice0]

That's a great idea @Susie0 !  This is the type of improvement they need tech, CS, and management working on, something that actually helps hosts.  But you would actually have to be a host to have this much insight as to what is beneficial.  Instead they just send us more useless guest check-in notifications.

[Denice0]

Or make us take the time to duplicate our listings, so we can get cancellation policies for different seasons!

[Elaine701]

That's what we've done; Two different listings for one villa. We have no choice, really. 

Not because of cancellation policy, but because for us, the pricing structure must be different for each season. 

In our patch (a villa accommodating 8 pax) , it works like this:

SUMMER (APRIL-OCTOBER) 

Whole villa, one price. The reason for this is because in the high season, it's pretty sure you'll get high capacity. 4-8 people consistently book in this season. Normally at least 6.

If we priced on a per-person basis, we'd be consistently booked by couples all summer, at 25% of the price we can easily get by pricing it flat. In this season. 

LOW SEASON (NOVEMBER-MARCH) 

Almost never get 6-8 person bookings. It's far more often 2-4 pax.

If we flat-rate price the villa for 8 pax, we'd price ourselves out of the market. So, we charge per-person in this season. Starting with 2. Each extra person has an additional charge. 8 pax therefore ends up similar to the flat rate. 

Also, our expenses are higher in winter. We have to heat (at night) , and there's less sun, so more cost for electricity. 

If we priced flat rate suitable for 2-4 pax, we'd often get 6-8 pax paying for 2-4 pax. Not wise. Couples cost much less to host than 4 or 6 or 8. We like couples. We price it attractively for them. In winter. 

Morale of the story is; we can't be change the pricing structure on a seasonal, so we are forced to have two listings.

I've been recommending this to Airbnb for years. Never a response. But now, it doesn't matter. Both listings have their own ratings & reviews, and even if Airbnb had this feature, we probably wouldn't use it, because to close one of the listings would mean throwing away some great reviews. 

So, whether it's cancellation policy-per-season, or pricing structure-per-season, the only way to do it right now is to have two listings. And once you have two listings, you may not be able to go back to a single listing without giving up hard earned ratings and reviews. 

I think it could be extremely helpful if somebody at a director level would actually be an Airbnb host. Then they'd get it. But I'm sceptical whether anybody in any meaningful position at Airbnb has ever been a host. Or even knows one. 

[Dewayne10]

Pricing structure for different seasons can easily be solved by using a dynamic pricing tool like pricelabs. It has very robust manual overrides you can add for seasonality to do exactly what you’re trying to do. 

[Elaine701]

@Dewayne10 

What exactly is price labs?

If you're talking about some automated system that automatically changes the pricing structure in  listing in certain date, then we can also do this. 

The problem arises when a guest searches in say, August, for dates in November. If the pricing structure doesn't change until Nov 1, then we end up with the listing being presented to them at full rate without considering number of guests, -OR- if we've blocked those dates so this doesn't happen, then the guest doesn't see it at all, until we open those dates with the new pricing structure. 

The reverse is also true. Somebody searching in March for a booking in July might never see us ...or could book high season at less than 25% of the high season rate, just by booking for 2 pax. 

We used to change it every season, but it became so cumbersome and we lost so many bookings...

AND we made mistakes. For example, when changing the price structure, you also need to change the base price. So, for example, in summer, it's a flat rate for the entire villa. A premium rate. In winter, it's a low base price for two, plus a price for each additional pax. 

One year, when changing the price structure at the end of March, I missed one week of setting base price to full high season rate, leaving it at the base winter price. We ended up hosting 8 pax in June for the equivalent of a 2 pax winter rate. We could have easily gotten more than 6x that price. But we had to honour the booking for that mistake. 

So, without any means for seasonal adjustments, two listings is the best and only viable solution.

[Karol22]

Great suggestion! Our high season is in the summer while our lower season is in the winter. I would be more lenient with cancellation policy in order to fill the rooms in the winter time. But in the summer, we really want any occupant that stays with us to be more committed to the reservation.

[Claudia1184]

I need to be able to have a firm cancellation for Christmas - Christmas and new years in a ski resort is the most expensive time of year. We had a group cancel last year three weeks before Christmas and was impossible to refill at such short notice. We lost thousands in revenue. 
I need to be able to customize the cancellation for two weeks of the year - the rest o the time, I'd be happy to be flexible. 

[Cédric117]

Same for minimum number of nights, it would be great to be able to adjust it depending on seasons.

[Gina1796]

@Cédric117  This is something you can do using rule-sets 🙂