Long booking short stays

[Todd528]

I have a guest that booked for 5 months. I have only been paid for 2 and they are leaving early do to wanting closer to job site. On the Airbnb calendar it showed them booked for 5 months. What business have I lost do to them booking for the hole 5 months. What do I need to do. Help

[Emiel1]

Long term stays have the "long term stay cancellation policy" attached. So when the guest cancels, they have to pay for next 30 nights. Your calender will be free then from date of cancellation for new bookings.

Another option is to shorten the reservation ("change"option on the reservation).

If it is done by the guest, then you have to acknowledge it.

If it is done by the host, then you also have the option to change the calculated price in the Price filed of the change form to what you consider a fair deal.

@Todd528

[Huma0]

is correct in that, if a long term (or any other) guest cancels or shortens their stay, then your calendar will be opened up for the rest of the stay, allowing other people to book.Although the long term cancellation policy sounds pretty firm and protects you, there are some loopholes, which means that a host can be left a bit in the lurch, and it's important that hosts offering long term stays are aware of it.

According to the policy, if a guest cancels more than 48 hours after booking, they must pay for the first 30 days of the stay, but they are not made to pay for any of the rest, even if the stay booked was for six months.

If they cancel during the stay, they have to pay for the nights they already stayed + the 30 days after (or the remainder of the stay, whichever is shorter).

The rest of the dates will be automatically opened up.

Where it gets more problematic is when a guest decides to shorten the dates of a long term booking BEFORE the stay starts, but that's a another topic..

@Todd528

[Emiel1]

Hosts can choose between a "strict" and "flexible" long term stay policy.

The flexible one offers full refund when cancelled before the reservation has started:

Full refund up to 30 days before check-in. After that, the first 30 days of the stay are non-refundable.

@Huma0

[Huma0]

Sorry, tried to tag you earlier but the CC site is being super glitchy today.

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I forgot to specify that the long term cancellation policy now has two different options. Personally, I would never opt for the strict one. A guest tying up my calendar for a month or longer booking only to cancel and get a full refund up to 30 days before is far from ideal.

If a host is doing both long and short term stays, that might be more feasible, but I find that typically, my guests book two months or more ahead, so having a long term booking cancelled a month before is problematic. But, each to their own...

What I really don't like about the policy is that a guest could potentially block the calendar with a booking of several months and then send an alteration request to shorten the stay considerably (as long as the stay ends up not shorter than 30 days) at any time before the stay starts, even just days before, and the host has no say in the matter.

@Emiel1