New strict cancellation policy update

[Lizzie]

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

[Adrian255]

@ Joel      Yes... the key lesson is go elsewhere to advertise. 

Especially given Andeas all too plausible scenario above. 

[Richard664]

I apologise that at present I do not have time to review all prior comments, however here is my input.

We are predominantly a seasonal place here. Guests book my place because it can accomodate upto ten adults easily, more if a floor space is used!

So it is potentially a large loss or change to us if a big and upcoming booking suddenly unbooks. I am sure many are in the same position. We do however try to rebook, and if we can we do not mind passing this on to the canceling party. So perhaps there could be some crowd sharing or group process invented here....  perhaps we could belong to an Airbnb refund group and sponsor refunds through our average group refunds... just a thought.

Happy Airbnbeing

Rick

[Bertrand58]

@Joel108

Yes, turn off Instant Booking so you can declined instead of canceling. It still going to earn you some bad points, but at least you can book it with someone else. 

[Vince55]

I think that the cancelation is ok within 48hrs if it in excess of 30 days from the reservation date not 14.  2 weeks is not enough time to replace the booking.   If they are booked over a month in advance it is more reasonable that circumstances could have changed for them and we could still find new guests.   Also releasing the personal information should not be done till a few days prior to arrival when there is no chance they will be canceling.  I had a drive by from a guest that booked then was going to cancel but did a drive by to check it out.  Innocent enough but that is a potentially dangerous situation.  This was regarding a reso. that was 6 weeks away.  

[Shaan6]

Bula from Fiji.

I am so confused by this new updated strict policy with Grace period, I had a guest suggest to me that under this policy there is now a 100% accommodation refund right up until 14 days prior to arrival regardless of when they booked. The wording of the policy allows for this to misinterpreted. I rung Air BnB to confirm that 50% of the accommodation would not be refunded after the 48 hour Grace Period, at first they agreed and then I was told actually with the new Strict policy accommodation is 100% fully refunded to the guests if they cancel their reservation more than 14 days from check in even after the 48 hour Grace Period. Look below at what the lady told me:

Hi Shaan, I understand that this is a bit confusing, however, It's the same explanation that we are trying to explain:

As requested, here is the email about the Strict (grace period) Cancellation Policy: If the guest cancels within 48 hrs from the time they booked and more than 14 days prior to the check in time, they will get a full refund. But if cancellation will be made after 48 hrs from the time it was booked (even if it is more than 14 days), guest will not get a full refund anymore.

Yes, the Guest will not have a full refund if they cancel the reservation after 48 hours of booking because the service fee will be no longer refundable. However, the nightly rate for your Listing will be 100% refundable. It means, The Guest will have a refund but not includes the service fee and taxes.

Today at 01:00

 

Can someone please give me a definitive definition of the Strict (Grace Period) cancellation policy. Air BnB staff believe guests now receive a 100% refund of accommodation if the guest cancels 14 days from check in. This is not what the policy says on the website!

 

Please help!

 

Thank you

 

Shaan

[Maya5]

For me this totally sucks.  We can only rent out for three months a year since we love on  a touristy island that lives off off tourism and that's when we can rent outhe.  Our guests mostly rent out many months in advance and if somebody cancels with short notice we lose a lot of money because no one will book within that time period. It's a lot of work and I depend on the money so for me I want to keep the strict cancellation policy and at least not lose money. 

I keep getting annoying offers on how to keep my top hostess status and that by getting rid of my strict policy is a big deal to keep my status but then I really screw myself. I don't think that us fair! What about protecting us the hosts??

[Elizabeth884]

I had a crazy conversation with an Airbnb representative yesterday---First I was told that I would not qualify for and INVITATION to Early Payout Service because I did not have Strict 30 or 60 day cancellation settings.

So-----

I asked, "How do I put one of those settings on my account--?" I then was told it also is only by INVITATION. I then asked,  "which host types were getting these INVITATIONS?" She told me these were only available to hosts in rural areas---not urban.

Makes no sense to me  and now even less when I read comments below and see where these comments are coming from.

So I cannot get Strict 30 or 60 I can't get Early payout-Airbnb Plus is not in my Area---it just goes on and on and on with what is available to others but not to me.

 It's very frustrating. I have 30 say cancellation with VRBO----I have 50% paid to me at time of booking with VRBO---When I direct book I have 30 day cancellation---I ask for 50% down at time of booking. I have elegant full homes with every ammenity and cannot get any of the features that would make things work better for me. Very frustrating. 

[Susanna123]

I agree with hosts that fear more cancellations by making the policy less strict, leaving the door open for FOMO to take over the lives of Airbnb hosts. 

[Adriana483]

This is for me to much work to keep canseling gasts when they do not read my rules and airbnb give them automatic booking. For that reasen i close my acount for a while

[Ronda12]

Airbnb needs to offer OPT out option for group payment.   HOSTS do not like this!   BLOCKING our calanders and no cancellation restrictions come on?   The reason we can’t opt out is because everyone would and this is something Airbnb is providing as a benefit to guests not hosts.   Totally unfair and bad business to force this on hosts and there will be backlash.   More than that - let’s say they pay - then it becomes impossible!  Now you have 4 & 5 families to communicate with one 1 reversation - no one ends up happy - impossible situation.   Stop the madness - add a button to opt out! 

[Thomas885]

Hello, I have not had a chance to read all of the comments on this post but for us the change to the strict reservation policy is generally unacceptable.

We only rent 6-7 weekends a year for local football games and because of our location we are sold out for those weekends months in advance.

The grace period should not affect us but we cannot refund any cancellations of any kind after the 48 hour grace period.

Maybe AirBnB could add a super strict cancellation level to the tiers for event based rentals such as ours where the rental periods are so closely linked to local events like sports, festivals, etc.

[Steffy1]

Good Policy!!!

[Keith41]

Our firm is VERY DISAPPOINTED IN TTHE CHANGES in the CANCELLATION POLICY FOR THE FOLKOWING REASONS:

One. These are often our homesteads that we rent; and these homesteads are rented at a substantial discount from hotels yet we offer five star and sometimes grader services for people at less than half the price of hotels. 

Two. In consideration of this discount and benefit the displacement of the homeowner combine with only 14 days of cancellation often times creates a great inconvenience and hardship upon the person who is hosting who has engage services that are very expensive to prepare of the property search it it can be fully rented outin the manner in which both Airbnb and many of the five star homes expect to continue their highest standards!

three. Given the previous policy which held all parties to a high standard, now Airbnb is creating a unexpected and unearned vulnerability for the property owner furthermore during such high seasons such as graduation weddings and football games a and other sorts of events. Therefore, the new policy should at least be a 21 day timeframe rather than a 14 day time frame because 14 days is certainly not enough time to mitigate the damages of a canceling Tenant especially during a high season. Airbnb will ultimately caused damages to its well supportive hosts in the coming years I urge Airbnb to change its policy to at least 21 days thank you

[Anna1546]

Hi, last night 1 person booked in my structure, then sent me a message he is coming with his partner. I wrote him backwards saying that maybe he made a mistake booking for 1 person when instead they are 2 and he didn't reply. I would prefer to cancel his booking, I know there are consequences but I have no time to deal with this. Any suggestions will be appreciated  Thanks

[Martin140]

@Anna0

Just edit the reservation to 2 persons, the guest has to agree to your change.
Airbnb will collect the additional fee (if any)