Cancellation Policy

[Tom47]

My current cancellation policy is "full refund 1 day prior to arrival"  and it works fine most of the time.  I get an occasional cancellation but I think the flexibility probably enables more bookings in the long run.  The problem I have is special events. My property is in a college town and there are football weekends, graduation and other events that command a much higher rate and I would prefer a different cancellation policy on these dates as it is a much bigger deal (greater revenue loss) than an average day.  Unfortunately it does not appear we can selectively choose cancellation policy for specific dates.  Interested in other thoughts and if this is a problem others face so maybe AIRBNB could provide a solution.

[Lisa723]

@Tom47 you're right, you can't create date-specific cancellation policies. In your shoes I would try switching to the moderate policy and see whether it actually has any negative effect on your revenue-- it didn't, for us.  (And you can always note in your listing that you will refund cancellations if the dates rebook.)

[Brian2036]

@Tom47 

A liberal cancellation policy may garner more bookings, but more last-minute cancellations as well.

We’re using “Firm-Nonrefundable” and have plenty of bookings and no cancellations.

Despite our official policy, if someone was polite and offered a reasonable excuse, I would probably refund them.

 I just don’t want people who can’t plan in advance to book on a whim.

[Mark3922]

What if you as the host need to cancel, is 30 days notice fair or acceptable?

[Sarah977]

@Mark3922  If the host cancels, you will receive penalties, regardless of what is fair or reasonable. 

[Sarah977]

@Tom47  It seems to me that guests would be less likely to cancel during a busy weekend that books up quickly because of major events in your area. But I would switch to moderate if I were you so if they did cancel, you'd have a chance to rebook the dates, which probably wouldn't be hard if town is full and there are few places left to book.

[Pat271]

@Tom47  I’ve been wanting what you are suggesting for a long time.

Hosts should be able to set custom policies, just as they are able to do with other custom settings like trip length, check-in and check-out days, etc.

For me, custom policies would be especially useful for my seasonal property, in which booking November-April is high season and usually booked months in advance at a much higher rate than low season. A high-season cancellation is much more costly and much harder to rebook with short notice at my location, so I would like to set a stricter policy on it. The same is true for special events, holidays, etc.

Custom policies based on check-in dates and days of the week would also be useful, for instance setting the policy to Moderate or Flexible if the check-in date is less than x days away, or is a weekday.

@Nick @Stephanie @Quincy Do you happen to know why custom policies have not been implemented? It seems to me that it would be a highly-requested function.

[Steph27]

@Pat271 I 100% agree. WE NEED CUSTOM CANCELLATION POLICIES. 

To my mind, the "moderate" setting (5 days) is excessive for a 1- or 2-night reservation, and way too loose for a 2- or 3-week reservation. I'd like a cancellation policy of "48 hours or half the length of your reservation". 

At the very least, we need more gradations, where now we have 2 - "long term" and "everything else". A 1- night reservation and a 27-night reservation are very different things, and should be treated differently.