My cancellation policy was changed without my knowledge

[Stephanie1283]

Hi hosts,

I have always had a Strict cancellation policy--since I listed in 2014.  While making small updates to my listing today, I discovered that my cancellation policy was set to Flexible!  I absolutely did not make this change, and no one else has access to my account.  I looked through all of my upcoming reservations and discovered that this change was made sometime between January 6 and January 19 of 2021.  This also coincides with the timing that I was asked to participate in the beta project for the new Modified Strict policy, which I did agree to participate in. I suspect that Airbnb had a glitch in their system and instead of changing my Strict to a Modified Strict, it changed to Flexible. I'm furious.  This could potentially be a $10,000 loss for me if these guests with a flexible cancellation do indeed cancel their reservation, leaving me only 1 day to fill that gap.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?  Did you get help from Airbnb?  Help!  

[James3108]

Hi Stephanie,

The exact same thing has just happened to me too.  I have all my properties on super strict 60 days.  I had a booking cancel today and  they got a full refund.  They were supposed to arrive in a few days  so I was shocked that Airbnb fully refunded them.

Like you I am 100% positive that I did not change the policy.  But when I talk to Airbnb they say that only the host can change anything on my adverts.

Now i am in the position that there are 4 bookings on this property that i accepted unaware that the policy was flexible.

Now I see that I am not the only person that this has happened to.

[Bob297]

@James3108 
The same happened to me last year.
Airbnb told me that only the host could change that.
Our guests have to buy airfare and, most of the time, book more than three months in advance. It would have made no sense for me to change the setting to flexible.
I was lucky that no one cancelled.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Bob297 actually a flexible policy might make sense for you if the guests have to buy air tickets etc. For us strict only works as most guests come by car and could change their plans very easily.

[Bob297]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Thank you for your input.

Three of my homes are situated on the island of Curacao.

Our guests come from all over the world—no local guests.

If I use the flexible policy, guests can cancel shortly before arrival. Chances are slim that I can get a new reservation.

Unfortunately, booking.com does not handle the payments of reservations in Curacao.

I have to send an invoice myself and collect the rent

I notice that booking.com guests can be very opportunistic and book several accommodations to be sure that IF they decide to buy airfare, the accommodation is locked in. If they decide to cancel, I have no recourse.

With the flexible policy of Airbnb, I could run the same risk.

For our homes in The Netherlands, my policies are more flexible.

Although we have many overseas guests there, too, I’m in the fortunate position that I do not have too much competition in my area.

If a guest cancels, the apartment will be filled with (business) guests from the Netherlands or neighbouring countries.

[Sun1235]

Hello guys

Did anything come of this?

I have noticed this has just happened to me going back to last September 22!

I just noticed when they brought the new firm non refundable policy in!

Airbnb admitted first it was a known technical issue, but have now backtracked saying I had non refundable policy on which I did not.

Please let me know what Airbnb response was to you.

Thank you