Trying to understand moderate cancellation policy

[Pete69]

• Free cancellation until 5 days before check-in (time shown in the confirmation email).
• After that, cancel before check-in and get a full refund, minus the first night and service fee.

Above is the language that Airbnb has for the "Moderate" policy.

So what happens if the check-in time is not set? For example, you chose flexible start and end times.

Also, what happens for example if a guest books a 7 night stay, but cancels let's say on the 3rd day of their check-in, after never actually checking in?

[Sarah977]

@Pete69  This is an example of Airbnb's confusing, incomplete, and ambiguous  wording. By flexible check-in time, I assume you mean your listing allows guests to check in anytime on the day their booking starts, or anytime after a set time. 

I also use moderate and have an 11am-11pm check-in window.

Just because you have flexible check-in time, check-in day is still check-in day, not 3 days later.

With moderate, if they never show and cancel 3 days into a 7 night booking, it seems they should be charged for the entire booking, as they didn't cancel before check-in. But Airbnb might refund them all the nights after the first 3, when they cancelled.

Never having faced this situation, I can't say for sure.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Pete69  where did you find the sentence you cited? Bc here is what I see:

Moderate

• Free cancellation until 5 days before check-in (time shown in the confirmation email).
• After that, cancel before check-in and get a 50% refund, minus the first night and service fee.

Here is the link https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#moderate

[Pete69]

Yes, that's the page for moderate, but really I'm also posing this question as it applies to the "Flexible" policy. It doesn't say what happens if a guest waits until day 2, day 3, etc to cancel.

And do you know what time would be shown in the guest's confirmation email if the host did not set a check-in time frame (in their settings)? Perhaps it would be 12:01 midnight (the very first minute of their check-in day).

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Pete69see below, in red

If there's no check-in or checkout time specified within a listing's description, check-in is 3:00 p.m. local time and checkout is 11:00 a.m. local time. You can also message your Host to verify check-in details prior to your check-in date. ( source: https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/41/how-do-i-coordinate-checkin-details-with-my-host )

Google is your friend 🙂