I see a huge opportunity for Airbnb to make way more money with little effort. Create a cancelation policy that fits between “moderate” and “strict 30”. Is there any work being done on this? I have been managing vacation rentals in Whistler BC Canada for nearly 19 years and I would love and need to be able to offer a more flexible cancelation policy for my guests but I am not able to offer a full refund with only 5 days notice as per the “moderate” policy. The next level up is “strict 30” where guests loose 50% within 48 hours of booking. There is a lot of opportunity for a policy that fits in between these two vastly different policies. For instance, most rentals on the HomeAway network choose their “moderate” policy which offers guests a 100% refund up to 30 days prior to arrival and a 50% refund between 14 and 30 days. My suggestion for Airbnb is to do a little better than the HomeAway moderate and in doing so gain a competitive advantage. The option that would work best for me and meets the needs of guests is a 100% refund until 30 days out and 50% refund right up to arrival date. This gives guest the peace of mind to book well in advance and owners the time require to re-book a home if canceled, 5 days out is not enough time to re-book anything. Booking.com allows for owner to create their own policies although its system has limitations as I am not able to collect full payment 30 days out and still offer a 50% refund up to arrival date. Airbnb has gained a lot of good faith with guests by providing full refunds in this covid crisis and I strongly suggest that Airbnb continues to look at its cancelation policies to be ready to capitalize on this good fait in the future. Thank you.
