An update on changes to the Strict cancellation policy

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

We recently announced that we’re updating our Strict cancellation policy. Starting May 1, 2018, guests will have the option to cancel for free within 48 hours of booking, as long as their check-in date is at least 14 days away.

In response to this announcement, many of you voiced concerns about Airbnb sharing your details with guests who may cancel. We take your privacy very seriously, so thank you for that feedback—it inspired important updates that give you more control over when your listing details and contact information are shared with guests.  

Here’s how we’re addressing your concerns

You can choose not to share your address, phone number, and last name with guests during the period that they can cancel for free. Guests will never see these details if they cancel their reservation during the free cancellation window.

To use this feature, go to Listing > Listing details > Edit location in your Airbnb account. Under Visibility for booked guests, check the box next to Share details with guests after the free cancellation period.  

This feature will be available to all hosts on May 1, regardless of their cancellation policy (Strict, Flexible, Moderate). And just in case you missed the announcement, here’s what’s changing for hosts who have a Strict cancellation policy:

• Guests will get a full refund if they cancel within 48 hours of booking, as long as their check-in date is at least 14 days away. This means that even if a guest books a reservation months in advance, they’re only able to get a full refund if they cancel within the first 48 hours after booking.  
• Guests can only get 3 full refunds per year. After that, guests will no longer be able to cancel for free.
• To discourage guests from making multiple reservations for the same dates and then cancelling, overlapping reservations aren’t eligible for a full refund.

This change helps hosts with a Strict cancellation policy compete with listings that offer guests more flexibility. Guests feel more confident booking reservations that give them room to make changes or fix booking mistakes immediately. The updated policy gives guests this flexibility, but only for 48 hours after they book.

Airbnb is committed to the success of all hosts and we know changes impact how you work. We don’t make changes like these without extensive testing, and after we change the policy on May 1st, we’ll continue to monitor the impact by providing the grace period to a portion of guests before making it available to all guests. As we roll this out, we’ll continue to listen to your valuable feedback.

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Ann10]

@Sean-What are transaction fees? 

[David2088]

We are paying Airbnb fees and hosting so we should determine if we want to keep our strict cancelation policy. There are other platforms that have no free cancelation policies for Host to choose to list their homes with.

Forcing Hosts to adopt a free cancellation policy creates more work for Hosts but not for Airbnb.

Its costs us extra time to respond to guests and to make changes to our personal calendars.

We are also loosing the chance to accept guests that may want to book in the free cancelation window.

Personal entry information to our homes may have already been given out during the acceptance of a reservation to save time for hosts. This can compromise our security.

Airbnb can offer us other cancelation policies choices but it should be our choice as hosts. Airbnb should not be charging Host fees if they want to dictate a free cancelation policy.

Thank you for your time!

[Ange2]

My listing changed to 'Strict with Grace period' offering Free Cancellation on May 1st.

I removed IB and stated my reason as this new problematic strict hybrid policy, whether a coincidence or not today I checked and it's back to 'Strict' with no free 48 hour cancellation.

[Ann10]

@Ange2-Good for you!

[Ange2]

@Ann10    HA! it has been changed back to the hybrid non-sensical grace period. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it!

"Strict – free cancellation within 48 hours of booking.

Cancel within 48 hours of booking and 14 days before check-in to get a full refund. Cancel up to 7 days before check in and get a 50% refund (minus service fees). Cancel within 7 days of your trip and the reservation is non-refundable."

[Bryn5]

To force me to allow potential guests-because that is what they are with this new policy- to block my calendar for TWO FULL DAYS, well, I'm going with other booking companies. I'm taking some of my eggs out of your basket, Airbnb. You've become too controlling.

[Ann10]

@Ange2-Oh no!

[Chris959]

Can anyone help my memory out?

Was it the case that previously;

Strict: 50% refund up until 2 week prior to check in

and now it is..............

Strict: 50% refund up until 1 week prior to check in?

It leaves very little difference between the choices you now have in your cancellation policy....moderate and strict just 2 days difference and then a huge jump to very strict of 1 month if you application ws successful.

[Ange2]

@Lizzie

Any reason why the Strict Freebie wording has now changed and the 14 days is no longer mentioned unless one clicks  1. see more,  and then another click to  2. see details and still 14 days is not mentioned you have to 3. scroll down the page to the "example"  - and only then is the 14 days is mentioned.

That's a lot of cover, which requires a deep drilling down to find out what the actual terms of the policy are.

- Yesterday on my listing the following wording appeared, which is somewhat transparent.

"Strict – free cancellation within 48 hours of booking.

Cancel within 48 hours of booking and 14 days before check-in to get a full refund. Cancel up to 7 days before check in and get a 50% refund (minus service fees). Cancel within 7 days of your trip and the reservation is non-refundable."

____________________________________________________________________________________________

- Today the transparency is gone and the wording is extremely misleading to the point of being completely disingenuous - no mention of 14 days before check-in.

"Strict policy – Free cancellation within 48 hours

Cancel up to 7 days before check-in and get a 50% refund, minus Airbnb service fee."

________________________________________________________________________________________

Or is this new wording  in preparation for nixing the "14 day" requirement and hollowing out the strict policy terms further? 

Is Airbnb's next step to nix 'strict' altogether?  Followed by nixing  'moderate', thus taking away any choice and forcing all hosts  onto one policy, 'flexible',  or something even more restrictive and detrimental to the host.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Ange2,

Thanks for sharing your observation here regarding the display of the cancellation policy. 

I was having a think about your message regarding this and had a look at a listing earlier, I saw in the Cancellations section this is how a Stict policy is presently being displaying: 

For me,  14 days is highlighted here, is this what you are seeing?

Thank you,

Lizzie

[Jessica165]

Is there any update to the availability of hosts to collect TOT tax through the resolution center? Currently I'm not able to collect it until the final payment has been made which means I have to keep track of it it's been paid or not which is just asking for an error (since some guests pay 100% and we list on other sites). Is there going to be an update to allow request of additional funds through the Airbnb platform prior to full payment?

[Dalene3]

Hello fellow hosts and @Lizzie now that this has been forced upon us I have spent the last few days listing my cottages elsewhere and this is already paying dividends. Airbnb did not listen, did not accept our reservations about the policy, etc so now I am yet another host who is leaving you. I’m also sick to death of being told to lower my prices to ridiculous levels to “allegedly gain me more bookings” and to turn on instant booking.  

[Ange2]

@Lizzie  

The message with 14 days was showing two days ago, and then it changed to the following message yesterday:

"Strict policy – Free cancellation within 48 hours

Cancel up to 7 days before check-in and get a 50% refund, minus Airbnb service fee."

As you can see the 14 days is not mentioned and that is a huge problem and confusing for guests.

I haven't looked today but it has changed 3 times in three days,  when I have time I send the screenshot from yesterday and grab a screenshot of today's interpretation.

[Lizzie]

Thanks @Ange2, that would be handy. I will keep an eye on this too. 🙂

[Ann10]

I'm w you @

Dalene. I feel exactly the same way. I actually started my phase out years ago over disgust over how I was treated and manipulated by the staff. Also, they let criminals remain on the site. It's all wrong. I could write a book about it.