Cancellations: is anyone else seeing this frustrating trend?

[Erin443]

I've been so happy to see booking up again, to the point that nearly all of our summer months were filled. But then this month everything went haywire- we had more cancellations in the last three weeks than we've had for the last 15 months - including the Covid Cancellation Disaster Spree. Two of them - one that booked for seven weeks and another that booked for ten days - both canceled this week! They both booked over six weeks ago. I'm getting the sense these guests are just booking our home like a "placeholder," or something... like blocking out the time in case they really decide to show up. I've never seen this before. The frustrating thing is that potential actual, sincere guests have booked elsewhere because our calendar was filled up. Airbnb is always pushing everyone to ease up on cancellations, but I'm beginning to look at stricter cancellation guidelines. I might get fewer guests, but at least they'd show up.

Is anyone else seeing this? How are you handling it? Have you stayed with tougher cancellation rules? I'd appreciate some advice.

[Ute42]

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@Christine615  

• Covid-19 is destroying a lot of people's plans. Now imagine you are stuck paying for your mortage when you can't host, have lost your job, and don't have alternatives.

Would't it be fair to split the loss 50:50 which in most cases is the case with the strict cancellation policy?

[Christine615]

Given that we all have to pay Airbnb half at booking that might have made sense. But every hotel is refunding and I got all my deposits and payments back so in my case it was fair to extend the same courtesy to guests since pandemic is such an unusual circumstance.

[Debra300]

@Christine615,

Just out of curiosity, when did you make your reservations and when were the scheduled travel dates?  Was the booking made after the pandemic was declared?  Did you wait until a few days before arrival when you requested a cancellation.

[Christine615]

I booked both early this year. Well before the pandemic. Both were exceedingly gracious about it given the circumstances.