Frustrated with no refund 10% discount

[Fred11]

I am hoping someone can provide guidance...

When bnb started offering the "no refund for 10% discount" option, i thought it was a great option for a lot of guests...

Over the last year, I've had a couple of guests book with that option then try to get a refund after cancelling within my moderate cancellation policy.

The issue arises when they contact airbnb and it appears airbnb replies "it's the hosts decision to waive the no-refund clause". 

In my opinion, that is absolutely wrong. They should explain the consequences to the guest.

Here's my thinking: when the guest then reaches out to me to approve the refund, if I don't, they undo the cancellation and just leave scathing feedback.

So in other words, I give up 10% of my revenue to maintain the stability of my bookings, but in reality, I do not get that stability as I am cornered into accepting a refund...

How would you guys handle this?

-fred

[Katrina79]

@Fred11 100% understand where you are coming from on this one. Every time a guest wants to cancel, change reservation dates, damages something, has extra guests staying, checks out late, wants early check in and everything in between: If I don’t bend over backwards and let them have what they want they get to review me negatively. Almost all my negative reviews have been from retaliation and there is nothing I can do about it. I’m so frustrated with the review process. What is a host to do but lose money, allow damages to go unpaid, allow house rules to be broken, in order to maintain good ratings? 

[Adrine4]

Completely agreed.  This is happened to no end. Now that I know more about hosting, I do believe my Airbnb days are coming to an end.  I am definitely looking to other platforms and doing more work with a small local agency.

[Trevor243]

I use other OTAs too. Every property listed on Booking.com has every date set to non-refundable. Occasionally a guest wants to cancel - but we still get paid. Sometimes they'll ask to waive the cancellation fees. Any response, whether yes or no, is taken by Booking.com as yes - therefore I don't respond.

There is another thing with Booking.com where they have "risk free" on some bookings. I think it's something to do with where a guest books 2 or more places for the same dates, then cancels all except one (or simply doesn't pay for the others) - Booking.com sees the guest as "high risk" because they cannot turn up to every property they booked at the same time, so cancellation is highly likely. When this happens, Booking.com allows the cancellation and guarantees us the payment. They then promote the living daylights out of our property for those dates to get another booking in so they don't lose any money.

If a guest cancels on Booking.com, they can't post a review, so no chance of retaliation (unless they book again).

As AirBnB generates only 10% of my income, I haven't bothered with non-refundable rates so far. I might change that, but we'll have to see .....

[Juan63]

I don't care for booking.com, the platform is sub par compared to Airbnb but I understand that in Europe, it's more popular. But I have always said, a guest should not be allowed to leave a review if the canceled or have damaged the property.

[Mark116]

@Fred11  Given airbnb's tendency to support guests over hosts, it was destined that no refund idea would harm the hosts, so why not simply stop doing it?

[Adrine4]

I stopped and get endless ads from Airbnb to keep doing it.  It's beyond annoying.

[Susan17]

Also, Extenuating Circumstances policy trumps the Non-Refundable policy, rendering it completely worthless.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

I agree with @Susan17  

Airbnb are being slightly disingenuous when they promote the certainty of revenue for a 10%  discount given that the Extenuating Circumstances overrules it.

A SENSIBLE approach would be to make it an absolutely non refundable booking which those guests with travel insurance would be happy to choose

[Adrine4]

I have realized more and more this is not the platform I want to be hosting on, I feel like it's a David and Goliath situation with Airbnb.  And I am not going to win, so I need to find alternate ways of sharing my home.

[Denni581]

I'm thinking Airbnb is not the way for us either.  The  cancellation policy options that can be set by the host is subpar.  It's almost impossible to re-rent our house in less than a month and there is no special policy that can be set for holidays - people book these dates up to a year in advance!

[Jafet4]

It’s November 2021 and STILL have the same issue,   We love the upgrades AirBNB platform, however the same thing about refund request, 

Support team doesn’t “educate “ guest that if they chose the Non- Refundable option , they would Not have the refund.  
Now I have the guest texting me over and over asking for the refund  because support team said that it’s up to the host to refund.

[Laura2592]

@Fred11 its very simple. Stop offering it. 

We had the 10% off/no refund for the 8 months we hosted. I didn't know enough that I thought we had to do it. But truly, all it does is force guests who aren't a fit into staying at your space, or wriggling out of the agreement in some way that is irritating or makes you the bad guy. So after reading some advice here in the forum, I discontinued using it and never looked back. Our bookings were steady as ever.