Airbnb's new guest cancellation policy

[Mark1040]

My management company told me that Airbnb has a new cancellation policy, whereby any guest with a complaint can cancel within 24 hours of their arrival and receive a full refund. They also are not required to give the host a chance to address the situation first.

This basically means that guests can book a one night stay, stay overnight, then cancel for a full refund.

Does anyone know if this is true? My management company is rather anti-Airbnb so not sure if I've been getting the whole story.

Thanks!

[Emiel1]

@Mark1040 

The guests must notify the host to address the situation and give a change to resolve it

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/544/canceling-during-your-stay

[Colleen253]

@Mark1040 There is no new cancellation policy such as you describe, that I'm aware of. Here is the current guest refund policy,

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2868/airbnb-guest-refund-policy

Nothing has changed recently. Your management company seems misinformed. However, there are many hosts on this forum who have posted about CS reps acting against policy. Airbnb outsources it's CS to a third party who uses contract workers. They often are not even familiar with Airbnb policy. Many times exactly what you describe has apparently happened, where a guest has complained about something and Airbnb jumps right in and (wrongly) cancels/refunds the guest, completely bypassing the host. Perhaps this was the case in your situation.

[Sarah977]

@Mark1040  You can go read Airbnb policies for yourself, you don't have to take your manager's word for it. And you could also ask them to send you the relevant policy if they claim that something is true or has changed.