New strict cancellation policy update

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

New strict cancellation policy update

Hello everyone,

 

The Airbnb team heard feedback from you and the host community about the upcoming change to our Strict cancellation policy. In order to address your concerns, we’re delaying the change until May 1, 2018.

 

Before the change goes into effect, we’ll share more about what we’re doing to address your concerns, particularly around protecting your listing details from being shared with guests who cancel. But for now, we’d like to clear up some confusion and help you better understand the new policy and how it will benefit the whole community:

 

Here’s how the new grace period policy will work—and some of the protections we have in place for hosts:

 

Limited-time refund within 48 hours after booking when the check-in date is at least 14 days away

Guests must cancel within 48 hours after booking and can only cancel if their check-in date is 14+ days away. This means that no matter how far out your guests book, they only have 48 hours from the time they book to cancel for free. We want to make sure that if guests change their mind, you have enough time to get another booking.

 

Three refunds per year per guest

To prevent abuse, guests are limited to three fully refunded cancellations a year.

 

No full refunds for overlapping bookings

To make sure guests are not making multiple bookings and then cancelling, any booking made by a guest when they already have an active booking for those dates will not be covered under our grace period policy.

 

Your hosting success is top of mind for us, and tests of this policy—including among hosts with strict cancellation policies in place—strongly suggest the change will result in increased bookings and successful stays. With this grace period, not only do guests book with more confidence, but they also have the ability to resolve booking mistakes without requiring your valuable time and intervention.

 

We value your feedback, and will follow up shortly with more insight into how your ideas are shaping this policy.

 

Thanks,

Lizzie

 

----------Update April 24th, 2018----------

 

Hello everyone,

 

Just to let you know there is now an update regarding protecting your listing details, as mentioned above. 

 

Here is the link to take a look: An update on the Strict Cancellation Policy

 

Thanks,

Lizzie


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

1,325 Replies 1,325

@Jamie629 

I am not sure how long you think that Airbnb would remain financially viable if they began to underwrite all the current refunds needed due to Covid9 as you are suggesting. It appears that your personal Airbnb  business model has shown itself to be vulnerable to a downturn in the tourism and travel industry and that is something that many people are just now discovering. 

Airbnb leadership are facing a huge challenge as are many individuals, industries, and communities worldwide. If the company survives, its people will be bruised and scarred, but hopefuĺly it will emerge stronger and more robust from the inside out.

Shaking your virtual fist, blaming others, expecting them to bail you out financially; is a distraction you can't afford to waste your time on. 

Re-evaluate your current practices and setups.

Restructure your venture, which was probably always vulnerable to a downturn, and work out what you need to do now, and what sensible changes you need to make going forward. 

Worldwide, millions of people have already lost their jobs and financial security, income streams which were modest, but a safety net. 

In travel tourism and hospitality , workers have been stood down or laid off. 

My message to so many indignant Hosts is; please stop looking for someone to blame. Instead, be the help that someone else needs.

Right now Covid9 is being reporded in countries that are extremely under-resourced to protect their impoverished populations, and Covid9 looks to be threatening refugee camps where there is little or no medical equipment or medicine and very few staff. Imagine if you were working for Doctors Without Borders, or living in a tent, and saw this may be heading towards the community you were trying to support or survive in?

For heaven's sake let's  be grateful for what we have and show a bit of grace and humility. 

This is meant to be a Help forum.  

Sincere regards, 

Christine Bruin from Wombats Studio at Glenbrook 

@Christine1Using your argument i pose the question whether Airbnb need to restructure and re-evaluate their business practice if they are vulnerable to a downturn and unable to support the host community in a period of financial difficulty. It is not a bail out many are asking for but fairness. A 50% cancellation refund seems the most equitable approach. 

For many people, using their property as an Airbnb rental is their only source of income. How does losing this income differ from hospitality workers being stood down? Hosts lose 100% of income whilst Airbnb are sacrificing the 3% service charge. This from a company with of an estimated worth of almost 40 billion dollars.

Maybe you should show other hosts some of the humility and understanding you ask of them rather than virtue signalling.

Kathy899
Level 4
Hawaii, United States

Strict is not strict enough, and Airbnb only allows "corporate" hosts to use super-strict (more than 6 listings and professional management).  

The strict policy still allows guests to cancel 7 days before check-in and receive a 50% refund.  That gives hosts very little time to rebook.  My home is in Hawaii, so it literally takes a plane for guests to get here.  Vacationers to Hawaii book 60 - 120 days out.  So I'm stuck with half my income to pay all my mortgage.  It's worsened by the fact that my bookings must be 14-day minimums to comply with HOA rules.  So a seven-day-before-check-in cancellation reduces my monthly income by half.   I am so, so dismayed that this company was built on the backs of "little guys" that opened their homes and bedrooms to strangers, but now is being run for the benefit of professional investors and conglomerates with multiple listings.  So ironic that they who need them the least, get the most favorable cancellation policies.  

@Kathy899 

Hi Kathy, I  read your concerns with interest, and the arguments you put forward in support of your position. However I am perplexed about your claims as a Host when your profile shows only 1 hosting review and over 30 reviews as a guest.

Do you do your hosting under a different partner account? I hope you don't  mind me asking about this. 

I just try to evaluate discussion points in conjunction with the lived experience of the contributer.  

I have only hosted for 6 months, but I've used Airbnb as a guest for 7 years.  Guests dont have much skin in the game; they are risking discretionary income.  I have my life savings invested in my Airbnb place.  Guests can buy travel insurance, but hosts cant buy cancellation insurance.  

This does nothing about the extenuating circumstance policy. Its not enough time by any means to get a rebooking if someone where to cancel just barely shy of the 2 week window. But especially during slow season. 

Also, hey how old are you Lizze, I just have to wonder because I swear I have t-shirts older than you. Do you even have any experience hosting? 

I don't mean any disrespect, but I been hosting 7 years & have a HARD time seeing myself hosting after this mess. You can't even call your strict cancellation strict anymore!  I never bitch when that changed, but I will not deal with this new extenuating  circumstance policy. I was never informed about it

, I never gave consent & when I had to fight tooth & nails for a exhausting 2 week herd of cancellations during a bs media hype for a supposed "hurricane" which never happen. Than to find out that the money I fought not to loss (especially because this happened during our slow season

) & was told by your team that the money was advance to my account was just written off in my tax return. So I paid for it anyway! 

I've explain over & over & freakin over how this never happened before nor was it ever a problem before this policy. I don't expect people to understand basic meteorology, but I do expect my voice & judgement to be heard as I am native & can tell you I know better than most meteorologist who can't tell their ass from their hands. 

As someone who went through hurricane Katrina I can understand the concerns a company might have in these situations, but I ensure yall are way off at having a balance & fair policy. 

And as someone young, but old enough, I can tell yall that at the rate of all the "crisis's" happening almost everyday now, that I'm no longer in the mood to continue hosting. Especially being the most taxed business in the high cost banana republic state of Louisianan. 

 

I had only a modest townhouse and barely made about the same as any other minimum wage 

job. I was fortunate to be apart of this team before it was overtaken by incompetent complacent  tried ass tools who have no idea how much work it takes to run just 2 rooms. 

 

I might go as far as saying back than was some of the most happiest & best years of my life until it became over regulated & just another faceless, soulless, impersonal corporation.

 

But alas, all good things come to an end. I wish reason & common sense was on the table, but if this is the best yall got... pathetic! Barely even a baby step in the right direction.

 

Yall were lucky to have hosts as loyal & dedicated like me, now yall be lucky to bounce back at all. Its clear yall got some real brainless clowns running this **bleep** show. Let me know when yall clean house & come back down to earth. Till than goodbye,

 

P.S. to all other hosts, this whole situation is exactly why I never like to have my listing available to book more than about 2-3 months ahead of time. And thank god for that much otherwise I'd still be dealing with this nightmare. And if it was this much of a pain just juggle just 2 rooms, my sincerest apologies to those dealing with more! 

Please know this is no short of abuse and I highly suggest pulling your listings down asap. This is unlikely to get any better. Take it from me, 

 

formerly abused ex-loyal 7 year host.

 

@Jonathan385 ,  Many of your comments are excessive and a disgrace. In particular your sarcasm towards Lizzie.

You are experiencing difficulties, many people are, and some of them less than you, some of them a great deal more. This forum is full of examples of comments from Hosts, who are clearly very upset. But through it all they have endeavoured to maintain some degree of decency in sticking to a discussion of the issues. 

You have lots of great reviews from happy guests. But when we face adversity, thats when we should draw on our values and demonstrate our better character. Not attack people who are just trying to help us while doing their job. Nobody deserves to be spoken to or about, in such a manner. 

You're an adult who chose freely to list on this platform, and others too maybe. Nobody expected the current situation, not the least of those who are struggling to manage the medical challenges presented by this virulant strain of flu. 

An apology would be a good place to start your next posting.

 

Sincerely. 

Christine. 

 

@Christine1 Well said.

Pilar1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

I replied to this post earlier today, where has it gone? There was no error message and I definitely saw it was published as I had to edit it. Any idea of what’s happened here @Lizzie ? Can this be investigated please?

@Pilar1 , go to your CC profile and check your activity,  you see the notification of your posts, responses and feedback. 

Regards,

Christine Bruin from Wombats Studio.

Thanks for the input @Christine1, I was aware of that feature, I checked it and there’s no trace of the post I know I had written and published, hence enquiring about it by posting again. There were no other replies so it was not possible to be lost in the thread, still baffling and still no clarification, will have to keep copying my text to fight the ghost in the machine. : o )  

take care!

@Emil2407 I am interested to know who you plan to complain to. Believe me many have voiced their complaints and Airbnb have not done anything. Also of interest to me would be to understand why you think Airbnb should compensate you for a problem caused by a pandemic.

At the end of the day Airbnb got good PR from giving away $250m and so they get to choose how it is disbursed.

Hi Mike, I am sure I deserve the refund, provided by Airb & b, because I have had cancellations due to Covid. From the conversations we understand the reason for the cancellation but they told me that the cancellation terms are not adequate. Yet on the site we recommend using flexible cancellation, but it is not useful for a refund. For me it's an injustice and I'll talk to a lawyer if I don't have justice

@Emil2407 I really wouldn't waste my money on a lawyer if I were you. You have ZERO chance of a positive outcome and will just lose money and line the lawyers pockets. If you could find a lawyer to take on the case on a no win no fee basis then it might make sense but I suspect no lawyer will waste their time on such a case.

At the end of the day, whether you like it or not, Airbnb can set whatever rules they like to provide help to whichever hosts they like.

Sorry to be blunt but you really should just move on from this and hope bookings come back soon.

Use an arbitrator.