Question on a listings cancellation and refund policy

[Christopher64]

I'm actually asking this as a guest, but these boards seem to be geared towards hosting and hosts, (I'm also a host) , but anyway...

I've been doing a lot of long term traveling, staying about one month at each Airbnb listing.

I have noticed the cancellation policies are often: "Full refund, minus the service fee and the first 30 days."

I interpret this basically as, "No refund."

If I stay a month, and the refund is "full" minus the first 30 days (a month), that basically means any booking less than a month there would be no refund in case of the need to cancel. Am I interpreting this correctly?

To kick you when you are down, even the service fee would not be refunded. This seems very strict. That's a lot to forfeit in case something happens. And they could still get new bookings if I were to cancel. Thanks for any enlightenment on this. 

[Emiel1]

@Christopher64 

The cancellation policy for a stay of 28 nights and longer is always the "long term stay" cancellation policy:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1361/cancellations-of-longer-stays

Alternative of a cancellation is "shortening" the stay ("change" option on a reservation). If performed by the host, the host has the option to give (voluntary) some refund (by amending the recalculated price in the price field). Also the Airbnb service costs will be recalculated then.

[Christopher64]

Ok thank you very much. I did not know long term stays had one unified cancellation policy.

So according to that link, for example if you cancel before the reservation has begun you would probably lose your first payment installment. But would no longer be charged? Something like that?  

[Huma0]

@Christopher64 

That article is written in a slightly confusing way. It's my understanding that if you cancel before your stay starts and the check in date is less than 30 days away, yes you would pay for the first 30 nights and be refunded the rest.

Likewise, if you cancel after the stay has started, you would be charged for the nights already stayed prior to cancellation + the 30 nights from the cancellation (not from check in) and be refunded the rest. If the remainder of the stay is less than 30 nights, you would just be charged for however many nights are left.

The article explains that the host might have to accept a change to the reservation if it's still more than 30 days away, but doesn't really explain what happens if a guest wants to cancel more than 30 days before check in...

[Sarah977]

@Christopher64  I guess it's not really a harsh policy when you consider that an entire month of the host's calendar would have been blocked from anyone else booking. It's not like cancelling a one or two night booking that the host might not be able to rebook.

[Christopher64]

It's harsh. If I cancel they would get paid for my entire month, then they could get new bookings for the same timeframe. Unless there is a policy against, that sounds like double dipping. I am not here to sympathize or subsidize the finances of a capitalist host. Secondly, life happens. Deaths happen. Plans sometimes need to be canceled. Having a 0% refund for a months stay is harsh, period. In the case of permitted exceptions, Airbnbs policies are hardly automatic, you still have to fight them and they don't always follow their own policy on that. 

If your stay is 30 days, and no refund for the first 30 days, that means no refund. Airbnb should really make this policy easier to understand. It sounds like there is confusion among the responses here as well.

Fortunately I am not canceling this time but I will scrutinize this in greater detail next time.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Christopher64 You are absolutely right that life happens. Deaths happen. This is why the capitalists created travel insurance. If you cannot afford a loss then insure against it.

[Christopher64]

Of course I can afford travel insurance. As far as I know they only reimburse if the trip must be interrupted after the trip has started, not before. But I don't know the details on that.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Christopher64 You definitely need to educate yourself regarding travel insurance. Generally, for cancellation, it covers the time from when you buy it to the end of the trip. 

[Huma0]

@Christopher64 

As a long term host, I normally only take bookings of 28 days or more. Unlike with short term guests, long term guests are not a dime a dozen. If a guest cancels a one month stay less than 30 days from the booking date, the chances of filling those dates is slim, unless you reduce your minimum stay radically and even then it's not certain that you will book all, or even some with a last minute cancellation.

Host have the option of refusing extra on top of the cancellation policy. If I can rebook nights, then usually I offer to do this, so there's no 'double dipping', but that's really my choice. I think it's a bit harsh to call hosts 'capitalist' because they stick to the cancellation policy that you agreed to when you booked. It's really your responsibility, not theirs. You did not know about the long term cancellation policy, yet you say you frequently do one month stays.

Yes, life happens. Deaths happen. There is an extenuating circumstances policy to deal with some situations. However, life also happens to hosts. Guests book month long stays, blocking their calendars (who knows how many other guests might have booked those dates otherwise?) and then guests cancel last minute demanding full refunds because they didn't check the cancellation policy before booking or that it simply shouldn't apply to THEM. The guest expects the host to lose the income when there is no guarantee the nights will get rebooked. The guest is outraged because, even though they signed up to a cancellation policy, of course, an exception should be made for THEM. The host is harassed, not for something they have done, but for the guest's problems.

No, you are clearly not here to sympathise, because this is about YOU. Clearly, how the situation effects anyone else is not your concern...

[Debra300]

@Christopher64,

Since my husband and I usually travel away from home at least four times each year, we purchase an annual travel insurance policies.  The cost is significantly less than buying per trip policies.  In addition to trip interruption, most travel insurance policies cover trip cancellation for events such as sickness, injury or death to the traveling parties.  You should do a search for the specific details.  Fyi, I use Allianz.

[Christopher64]

Thanks very much, I will look into this. I have heard most about World Nomads (and used once), but there are certainly others. Annual insurance might be the way to go as well.

[Dora486]

There’s always travel insurance?

[Christopher64]

Obviously. If that applies, they have their own terms and conditions.

[Sarah977]

@Christopher64  "It's harsh. If I cancel they would get paid for my entire month, then they could get new bookings for the same timeframe. Unless there is a policy against, that sounds like double dipping. "

A host may be able to rebook some of the dates. There's no guarantee that they will be able to. And the host always has the option to refund a guest for any rebooked dates if they choose to.

I don't know why you see this "non-refundable" as any different from buying a non-refundable airline ticket, or many other things. When I flew to Canada this past summer, the Covid entry regulations were such that I had to book 3 nights in a hotel to quarantine, until I got the results of the PCR test given on arrival. Even though the results came through within 15 hours, at which point with the negative result I was allowed to leave, the 2 nights I didn't require were non-refundable. I knew that going in to the situation and simply had to accept it. It was about $400 down the drain.

If  you don't want to be bound by the long term policy, book less than 28 days. But then you wouldn't get a monthly discount, would you? There is a trade-off.