cancellation

[Susanne413]

I want to have a cancellation policy only for long term booking, say 5 day prior cancellation no penalty then certain percentage if booking 2 weeks or more. How can I do that? Can I do that?
I just had someone book for 2 month and then cancel 2 days prior. Could have booked to someone else long term... Thanks for your input.

[Roberta2]

Hi @Susanne413 

Your cancelation setting is set to flexible. 

You need to change it to moderate.

Go to the listing -> booking settings, scroll down and under Policies, edit there.

I hope this helps

Regards

[Susanne413]

This does not help me, because I do want to be flexible on short term stays. I want guest to be able to cancel on 2 weeks or less stays whenever. I just don't want anyone staying if they don't want to.

However, if someone books for longer term (say 2 weeks plus or even several month), I need them to cancel at least a week ahead of time or pay a penalty.

[Mark116]

@Susanne413  You can't customize your cancellation policy.  As far as I know, you have to choose one of the standard offerings that Airbnb has.  If you want short term guests to be able to cancel 'whenever' then you should have the flexible policy where they can cancel up to the day before.  I'm not familiar with what Airbnb long term, e.g. 30 days or more policy options are, since we don't offer long term stays due to tenant right issues. 

[Colleen253]

@Susanne413 There is no facility for what you would like to do. However, the long term cancellation policy always over rides whichever policy the host has set for their listing, on stays of 28 nights or more. 

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

[Helen3]

Hello @Susanne413  if you want  develop cancellation policies that suit you then set up your own websites/social media channels and set your own terms and conditions. 

if you want to use a listing company then you can't make up your own cancellation policies - you use the ones they have available so guests have consistency .

have you looked at Airbnb's cancellation policy to see how they work? 

[Susanne413]

Thank you for responding. I was afraid that it was an 'either strict or flexible' policy. If I go with the strict cancellation of a week ahead of arrival,  that won't work with instant booking...

Can you say more about 'we don't offer long term.....' and '...tenant rights issues...', please.

I had no idea that was not done. I have offered long term (several weeks to several month!) all along. What is the time limit, then?  Was not aware of any issues... Thanks.

[Colleen253]

@Susanne413 In many jurisdictions, people gain tenant rights after a set amount of time. You need to research what the law is in yours.

[Susanne413]

I have never heard of this. Can you elaborate where I can find out more info or what 'tenant rights' are? Thanks. 

Found it for Virginia. Interesting. It does not say in the 'tenants rights and responsibilities' anything that could become a problem for me, or is there? 

I mean, the tenant rents only for the specified time, so they would not have a right to stay longer, would they?

[Mark116]

@Susanne413  Yes, once they are legally considered a 'tenant' then they have to be legally evicted by a court.  It's one of those things that doesn't matter 99.9% of the time, but if you should get stuck with a scammer who claims to be a tenant, then, you will have many months of problems and $$.  It usually kicks in after 1 month in most states, but there are some grey areas and differences.

[Colleen253]

@Susanne413 It doesn't matter if a booking has a specified end date, if the guest has gained tenant rights by the time the booking officially ends, and they don't leave, you face an expensive and lengthy legal battle to evict them. To my mind, that coupled with Airbnb being not the best platform for long term stays, it's best to avoid them altogether. My max stay is 14 nights.