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


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1,325 Replies 1,325
Vincent-Kirti0
Level 2
Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil

good morning. I need to cancel a reservation made by a host, we both agreed on the cancellation how do we proceed wthout having to pay a fee?

 

Well that's it... they were given time to reverse this stupid decision ... I've closed the account and moved to other hosting sites.

 

Well I stand corrected .. I have repeatedly tried to contact them to close and funnily enough there no one ringing back... 

Great!!!

 

 I am a host and a guest so I understand this completeyly.   I once I booked a trip and got the dates wrong and immediately noticed I messed up.   Being that it was a strick cancellation policy it was insane trying to get credited as my actual  dates were unavailable with the first host/accomodations to simply change.  This clitch almost meant me cancelling my trip entirely because we couldn't afford two overlapping accomodations.  

 

Thanks!!! 

Elizabeth925
Level 1
Cape Town, South Africa

I am a host but have fallen foul of Airbnb policy as a traveler. For that reason I will be removing both my hosted listing and myself as a traveler from Airbnb. 

 

I made reservation and despite 4 repeated queries on the same topic to the host, which he answered positively (can he ensure there’s a second bed/sleeper couch in the lounge that we can use) , on arrival this was not the case. Having been given advice by Airbnb call centre - and a confirmation we would receive our money back - the reservation was cancelled. This policy is so skewed in favor of the host - who is now denying this, we are left fighting to get our money back. A dodgy character who’s review status is based on an apartment let in Barcelona - under another name - when we were renting a flat in Ibiza from “someone” with a similar name. How can Airbnb allow this!? I am scrupulous about my interactions as a host  - yet as being left fighting a rearguard battle with no assistance form Airbnb despite at least 4 calls to their call center - repeating our story over and over and being promised a response by  a supervisor. 2 days later and still waiting ... there are numerous other platforms to use for short term rentals and I would advise all hosts and travelers to think twice about airbnb ... I certainly will be.  

Hi Lizzie,

 

I agree with all other hosts and cannot stress enough how PRIVACY and SECURITY is a big deal for hosts. 

 

You make it WAY TOO EASY TO BE A TARGET for burglars and even kidnappers in the countries where this applies, I manage a collector's home in Guatemala (gorgeous but sadly not the safest country) and this is a very serious concern.

 

Recommending hosts to SIMULTANEOUSLY:

 

1/ publish online the most gorgeous pictures possible with enticing descriptions possible of your home for all to see 

 

 

2/ allowing people to back out penalty free while having access to your exact address, personal phone number, private email, arrival instructions, self check in instructions, etc...

 

= equals a recipe for DISASTER. 

 

Will the Airbnb insurance policy cover theft or other problems arising from this policy ? Very unlikely so.

 

I suggest like everyone on this forum, RECIPROCITY, only after the grace period is over should guests access the info.

 

AND for those committed guests who don't want to wait for the grace period to be over, I suggest a button to allow guests to decline the grace period. Some guests want to get right away to planning and booking their transportation and waiting 48h can in some cases be an impediment more than an advantage for the serious & commited guests we are all looking to host. 

 

Also we hoats don't want to lose lose our time helping uncommitted guests plan their travels, I always end up giving waaayy more advice than what I should, and I do it gladly, but I would definitely rethink engaging as much with guests  while the grace period is in place, which is a shame as you lose that first opportunity to create a FIRST GOOD IMPRESSION.

 

thank you

 

 

My cancellation was the same day. Instant Book. Strict Cancellation Policy

They booked around 5pm..got code....cancelled 20+ minutes later.

I called re: Security & Safety threat!

No...Airbnb did it..still cmg.

Guests were endeavouring to get a refund whilst staying at my accomodation.

I said it was cancelled and out of my hands and they had to go through Airbnb.

I had an email requesting full refund to guest from Airbnb...never happened before...ignored it re: my policy.

Next email request threatened with information being put on my site if I declined refund?

I refunded.

What is going on?

Jeroen35
Level 2
Amsterdam, Netherlands

I would prefer a small penalty for ANY cancellation, 10% with a Eur 30,— cap perhaps?

before I went Strict I’ve had quite a few cancellations from guests whom had hijacked a room for 3 months...

the new rule: 3 cancellations max per year per guests is a great one, by the way.

 

I am afraid I have little luck with these so-called innovators who seek to "disrupt" existing industries they now attempt to claim is in some way a great service to society, except so far paying appropriate taxes the rest of us are obliged to and use their power to skin the suppliers.

 

It is therefore a great way to put out of business traders who do pay taxes, make direct contact with the client, take responsibility for dealing with any issues that arise in h provision of the service or product.

 

We service providers have to stand together and show that their one sided approach is not sustainable and they have to adjust their conditions to tak full account of what is needed to make it a sustainable relationship.

 

Otherwise I for one will cherry pick what suits me just as their conditions were and maybe still are heavily biased towards their commercial tax-free business model.

 

My views and my knowledge of what has  worked well for all parties, supplier supplier's agent and the customer, is as I set out in my original email above. Clients also have to act responsibly and insure against genuine reasons for having to cancel.

 

The 48 hrs leeway would be acceptable if say bookings were made for say10 weeks or more as a fixed condition after which at the discretion of the supplier/supplier's agent, so in effect is an option held for 48 hrs to allow for consultation with parties travelling, securing travel insurance, flights, car hire, etc.

Otherwise requirements about payments to supplier/supplier'agents need to be a fixture. 

Such disrupting as AirBnB may seem a "free" or at least a public service to the community, but left unchecked for any responsibility to pay tax where they actually run their businesses if at all, clearly is not actually intended as a service to the community but a siphoning off of money supply to their own bank accounts to the detriment of the public in general.

 

AirBnB needs to  be required to do business on a level playing field

In my location , only a summer periods ( Jun/Sep) is attractive. Therefore, our hosting income would be highly ruined if we would have one or  few cancellations ( 14 days prior check in) . I would suggest to Airbnb to reconsider a variable policy related to each calendar week or so, leaving to us ,hosts, to pick up the best solution.

 

We absolutely agree with Helen and hope that at least a compromise of 24 hours can be reached.  We would prefer of course 12 hours as, in our case also, there was absolutely no increase in bookings due to the new cancellation policy  To have our dates blocked for 48 hours often times will lead to lost income as the room stays vacant because other guests passed on us during peak booking days.

Good idea, but why should guests be allowed 48 hours and not more.. Or less  time? Consider a booking for Xmas cancelled in December. It takes the host out for 2 valuable days. In fact, it is not logical to have it being all encompassing. Why not consider high/low seasons and local /global holidays? I believe that is when hosts get burned with cancellations.

 

About 3 strikes you are out, you need to smarten up. People sign family and friends up to evade that policy. Impossible to enforce a willing law breaker. 

Hi there, I would like to know if you are going to bring in the feature to customise our cancellations policies to certain seasons of the year.  For example I want Moderate for the most of the year and in busy holiday times I want Strict policy...it needs to be more felxible in allowing hosts to set up this.

As mentioned by others, I think the "strict" should still be an option, particularly for superhosts or hosts that have a certain number of reservations and never ever cancelled.

 

And personally I'm angry about the fact that I wasn't informed that this change was taking effect.

I accepted some reservations for summer 2019 with this new policy without knowing it has changed!

 

Now I just snoozed my listing waiting for an update from them.

 

For certain hosts or Superhosts the Grace Period must be an option and , if the old Strict is no longer available, at least have a way to cistomize the grace period terms.

People rents my place more than 6 months in advance the least.  50% refund far from the arrival date is ok, but a "no refund" a while before is necessary for me. 7 days is not enough to re rent my palce.

I only now get to find out about all of this and it's quite a surprise!