Guest Cancellation Policy Update

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks ago Airbnb made changes to what guests see when they book and what happens when they cancel a booking, those changes were discussed here on the CC.

You can read more about the changes in this Help Center article. We also want to open a thread here on the Community Center, to continue the conversation. We appreciate how important it is that our host community is informed when changes happen on Airbnb, even when those changes are for your guests.

What changed for guests?

The names of the cancellation policies themselves haven’t changed, so the policy you set—Flexible, Moderate, or Strict—will still show up for your guests. However, now when a guest makes a booking, they’ll see more information explaining the terms and refund cut-off dates for the policy you’ve chosen. We also changed Airbnb’s existing policy so that we now refund Airbnb guest service fees for cancellations, up to 3 times per year. This way, if a guest cancels within a fully-refundable window, the reservation—including guest service fees—will truly be fully refundable.

How will this affect me as a host?

This additional messaging for guests is meant to eliminate confusion about our cancellation policies and, ultimately, to encourage more bookings—especially for more flexible listings. The changes won’t affect refund cut-off dates, your payout, or your host fee. Guest cancellations are rare and we’ll continue to monitor this rate in light of the new changes.

Why did Airbnb make this change?

Through feedback and research, we’ve seen that guests often overlook the cancellation policy terms of the listing they book. This leads to confusion and frustration in the rare event that their plans must change. This added education is meant to help align guest and host expectations going into each booking.

I hope you find this information useful.

Thanks for your time.

Lizzie

[Jacqueline125]

If you look at a hotel, that has many rooms available and is probably never completely full, a generous cancellation policy makes sense. However, if you have only one room it is a different story. 

By holding a booking and then cancelling it too close to the booking date, a single room host would more than likely lose income as they have lost the time opportunity for other people to book the room. I choose a strict cancellation policy for that reason.

I think that by making it clearer to the guests that cancelling will incur lose of money if it is not done in the time frame provided by the host is a good move. If all charges are up front people are usually happier.

I am quite new to Airbnb (since Jan 2017) and I have not had a cancellation as of yet.

All has gone well so far and I am enjoying the experience.

[Marit-Anne0]

I also wish there would be a middle ground - a possibility to set the cancellation policy to strict during events, peak season etc.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Marit-Anne0 

agree, it would be great

[David_Melissa0]

Whilst the customer is always right, there have to be times when there is a penalty for abusing the system. We recently had a guest cancel at one hour notice. We had offered her a meal so this was somewhat inconsiderate but having cancelled at one hour notice she was seeking a refund. We did not offer a refund and my incination was to try and report this customer as being somewhat unresonable and therefore not really suitable For Airbnb, however there does not seem to be a mechanism for reporting this type of abuse. Host get reported if they cancel but guests seem to be untouchable.

[Belinda13]

After many years in consumer businesses I have learnt that one's suppliers are just as valuable, if not more so, than one's clients. Airbnb only seem to be interested in their clients. The new Airbnb cancellation policy is slowly driving me away from what was once a really attractive portal for managing my villa booking.  I, as a six quarter superhost, am now subject to increased encouragement to clients booking my 14 bed villa without total commitment. Where are properties of my size going to find replacement booking for groups of that size with the possibility of up to 30 day cancellation?  I realise that this policy is aimed at competing with hotel policies, which is fine for one bedroom at a time, but this policy sees myself and other multiple bed owner at a huge disadvantage where many of my bookings are made more that 12 months in advance.

[Leila40]

I empathize with you...please share what you are planning to do.  Will you look for another platform to list your properties?

[Colleen47]

Agree completely 

[Linda108]

@Lizzie  Can you point hosts to the "invitation only" description aspect of the super strict 30 and super strict 60?  I have wondered if there are rules for certain high end properties such as yachts or castles to which these cancellation options exist. Perhaps you are not able to provide that information. 

I think Air BNB allowing guests to cancel up to 3 times a year without losing Air BNB fees actually enhances traveler interest in using Air BNB as a booking platform and shares some of the risk with the host.  As we know, the guest fee is greater than the host fee, so Air BNB is losing money when a guest cancels.  The difference is that so many hosts have just one or two listings, unlike a hotel, or even those professional managers with a huge number of lists, so recovery from cancellation may be marginal.  In my area, there are 4 events that people will book a year in advance, so under the current strict rules, my listing can be cancelled  a week in advance with no compensation to me and little chance of re-booking.  Huge loss!

[Connie68]

This information seems to be for guests renting rooms in houses, not entire houses.......that would be good to make that clear. 

No guest have every knocked on my door; they have their own door they are renting to unlock and enter. My guests seem to like the privacy of NOT having to meet someone to check in. That is why they are renting a house unto itself, private and unattached.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Connie68

The new cancellation policies apply to all sorts of properties.

[Dael0]

I have just joined AirBnB and was about to host my first guest. But, she booked a week in June when she really wanted two weeks in May. She told me that I had to cancel for her from my end so she could get her money back and re-book, which I did. Now I fnd that I have bad mark on my pofile for having cancelled  I don't know how to get it removed, since it was not I who wanted to cancel. Any suggestions?

[William166]

I had to cancel when raccoons got in my attic...it doesn't make any difference to airbnb... cancel is cancel... I told the raccoons and they laughed...William.

[Kim176]

call AirBnB and tell them to remove it, if everything is in writing you should not be penalized and she should have went the route of canceling it on her end. Always call AirBnB if your questioning something, never let a guest dictate what you should do on your end as a host. 

[Amy38]

Try calling abnb and point out that it wasnt a cancellation but a date alteration which is what the guest should have applied for.  No harm, no foul.

[Barbara540]

Same thing happened to me. I will no longer accept requests to cancel, as there does not seem to be any other way around this attitude by Air BNB of punishing a host.