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. 

[Linda108]

The benefit you receive when booking for a month is often a steep discount of the nightly rate.  To shorten your stay and qualify for the short term cancellation policy will probably result in a nightly rate increase.  However, since travel insurance does not seem to be a viable solution for you, you might want  to weigh cost against flexibility.  Also, I would imagine as a host, you would be willing to refund unused days if they could be rebooked.  Perhaps you could find a like minded host.