How are other hosts dealing with cancellation requests in light of COVID-19?

[Jack90]

Hi Hosts,

With Airbnb allowing all guests to cancel any reservation made before a few days ago for stays up until the 14th of April, how are hosts dealing with requests to cancel reservations for stays beyond the 14th of April? 

Under my strict cancellation policies guests are still liable for 50% of the accommodation cost. Would it be unfair for me to enforce this 50% cancellation fee? 

Deceptive guests may potentially cancel stays regardless by proving extenuating circumstances, or Airbnb may simply just start incrementally increasing the free cancellation window as they have done so already.   

How are other hosts responding to cancellation requests for stays beyond the 14th of April? Would withholding the 50% but offering it as credit towards any stay later this year be a fair compromise? 

It seems given how guests can potentially 'prove' they have extenuating circumstances and that Airbnb is likely to extend the window for free cancellations, we don't have much of an option. Would love to hear your thoughts. 

[Patricia2604]

Hi Jack

I think you should charge the 50%. That is your cancellation policy. That being said, you may not get the option. I have had $4700 worth of cancellation executed before i was even informed. 2 of these were for bookings after the 14th April.  My policy is also set as Strict. 

[Karen2537]

I’ve had a request for April 20th, I’m so torn between accepting in the hope that they book again in the future and ignoring it enforcing them to pay 50%. Personally I think 50% is reasonable, that way both the guest and I share the burden however m guest previously messaged me saying they thought this was harsh. 
By Airbnb /the guest putting this onto me I feel slightly cornered. What did you do in the end?

[Sebastian318]

Hi all, 
I am in the same position, I have a guest arriving on the 28th of April and he wants to change the dates to the same dates next year 2021.
If I approve the change he can later cancel and I get nothing (I think), not an option. 
If I decline and he decides to wait, and Airbnb extends the period of 100% refund, I lose 100%, not an option.
If he cancels now, I enforce the 50% cancellation fee but I give it to him as a credit for later, then he does not lose anything, I still lose 100% because he will take the week of another paying guest next year, not a good option.

So, I am thinking of offering them 50% of the 50% cancellation fee as a credit. That would mean he gets 50% back now when he cancels, he gets 25% as credit and I get 25%.
I as a host get at least 25% paid for the cancellation. Note, this is only for him arriving 28th of April, for bookings further in the future,  May/June, I will not give any credit at the moment if they cancel now in March.

What do you think?

[Joanna39]

It is a hard call to make but I am sticking to the strict cancellation policy for all guests who fall outside of the EC policy. The reason for this is that this the policy that the guest agreed to when making the booking and the fixed costs of the property haven't changed. I may have taken a different approach to handling these if Airbnb hadn't been so brutal towards hosts in recent times. I have a fixed template I send to all guests requesting to cancel and I refer them all back to Airbnbs EC policy that may or may not offer them a full refund. I have received some truly upsetting responses from guests by taking this approach. It's interesting that in all of the cancellations I have received from guests canceling under EC policy and getting 100% refunds, I have never become aggressive, threatening and abusive, but when it doesn't work in a guests favour, they are very quick to get nasty. 

[Laura4220]

This is a pandemic. Should be full refund!!!