Free Cancellations --- more bookings???

[Gary1013]

This question is directed to Airbnb analytics or marketing department. 

Do listings with Free Cancellations tend to get more bookings than those without free cancellation?

Thx.

[Huma0]

@Gary1013 

This is a community forum for hosts and guests. You will not reach the Airbnb analytics or marketing departments here.

[Sarah977]

@Gary1013  There is no cancellation policy which offers free cancellations. The most lenient is Flexible, which offers free cancellation up to 24 hrs before check-in.

And unless your listing would tend to get last minute bookings (which can be problematic), getting more bookings wouldn't be advantageous if guests cancel a day before check-in. You would just be left with unbooked nights. More bookings is useless if half of them cancel.

[Gary1013]

Great point! Thx.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gary1013 I am sure listings with flexible cancellation policies get more bookings but these are not the sort of bookings we want.

[M199]

@Gary1013, @Mike-And-Jane0 , @Sarah977 , @Huma0 

Keep in mind every Airbnb is "Unique", so demographics, seasonality and all the other factors  plays an important role in analytics.

[Huma0]

@M199 

I am sure they do but I would be terrified of using even a flexible cancellation policy for my listings. I started off with moderate, because it seemed fair enough (from both the guest and host sides), but quickly learnt that some guests would wait until the deadline for full refund to cancel, with no valid explanation, leaving me in the lurch. This happened most frequently in high seasons, meaning I lost out on other the other bookings I would have undoubtedly have gotten with more notice.  

Someone suggested to me at the time that some of these cancellations may have been 'visa hunters', i.e. those that needed to show they had an official place to stay. No idea if that was true or not, but I got fed up of it. I didn't mind if guests cancelled in advance due to valid reasons, but cancelling a couple of hours or only minutes before the deadline for full refund became far too common.

I switched to Strict and haven't looked back. My bookings certainly didn't go down and cancellations were very rare pre-COVID. They are now starting to go back to being infrequent. I would prefer firm bookings. There are too many flaky guests out there as I can see from the enquiries I frequently get.

[M199]

@Huma0 

I can absolutely understand your point of view, totally understandable.  I guess that's the nature of the uniqueness.  In our experience, we do not get last minute cancellations.  Probably due to our seasonality and those who do not book early know they will not find a place.  We have had a couple of short cancellations, not minutes or hours, yet the cancellation was rebooked.  We tried the moderate policy and got no bookings.

Therefore, my uniqueness and demographics comment.