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

I joined this community in 2014 and became a SuperHost pretty quickly as my city is a popular destination, and the guests I approved were always amazing.     After a two year hosting break, I am starting over and  now rely on this  income.  This new cancellation policy doesn't fit my needs at all.  Because my city tends to be very event oriented, travel arrangements are made  months in advance for my best earning weeks (income that is essential for me).  The new cancellation policy presents possible real issues, as it increases the chances for  cancellations of "event week" dates,  or to potentially having to accept last minute folks that aren't a good fit because I budgeted for the cancelled dates.

 

Is there a way to automatically set my calendar for Super Strict cancellation policy?

 

Let me see if I get what's going on...

On top of your fees to the client, 

Your fees to us, 

We now are expected to pay for what we already pay you for.. again. 

We pay the utilities,  mortgage,  the cleaning,  and maintain the property. 

In other words,  we pay a fortune already,  you scrape all the cream of off the top,  leave us the hard work and headaches. 

And you honestly think a cute little quip can justify any of this?

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!

 

This is why I do not use AirBNB during my peek months. I could not turn around another rental for my property that fast. I think 48 hours is too long and I do not believe that anyone trying to cancel their booking under 30 days should be able to cancel.

Interesting.....just received a booking from a South Korean guest on Airbnb and it appears that our usual strict cancellation policy has been applied.
 
I wonder if Airbnb have now decided to drop the special Korean policy.
 
Typical of Airbnb not to say anthing....

I think this sounds fair. I'd like to see Air BnB think about how to be even more caring of your hosts. I'm particularly concerned right now about how the company takes no responsibility when there is a guest in the property that is delinquent in payment. Although this hasn't been an issue for me (yet!) I do think Air BnB needs to take some responsibility for the situation if it arises. At least the deposit needs to be credited to the hosts acoount. Forgive me if I have misunderstood the policty/ practice. I'd be happy to be corrected!

I agree 100% with the consensus opinion that the stict cancellation policy is wrong.  Airbnb is clearly not listening.  As other owners have done, we do not make any of our homes available during holidays or peak season.  We often have guests book our homes over a year in advance.  If they cancel at the last minute, we're left holding the bag.  There is no way to fill that vacancy with another guest.  Limit your property availability to times when you cannot fill it on other sites like VRBO.  Use Airbnb just like they're using us.  

 

 

I also agree about this unfair (to the host) cancellation policy.  I had a German couple book 2 months over Christmas last.  They had never been to Indonesia and to the area.  They decided after 4 days, that they didn't want to stay for the 2 months and cancelled the 2nd month.   When you rely on the income it is distressing.

When I asked them nicely if they could let me know why, there was no complaints, just didn't want to stay in the area and wanted to travel around more.  It astounds me that some people do not do their homework of the area they are going to.

Why 48h? Current travel cancellation policies across the airline business are 24 hours.

Peta7
Level 10
Johannesburg, South Africa

We have come to realize that the once highly revered Airbnb platform has been permanently replaced with this all new infamous platform and we will simply all have to ‘adapt or die’.
We have consequently implemented our very own policy shift to keep up with this trend of transformation and aim at achieving more control of OUR listings by relinquishing total loyalty to any one booking platform.
The following corresponding measures were instated on this platform to achieve our goal; firstly, we removed Instant reservations, shortened our max stay, pushed our prices up and used every other available method of slowing our demanding City listings down and then plan on again utilizing alternative platforms to increase our booking rate with the resulting increase in revenue derived from OUR listings.
The recent Airbnb policy shift intended on benefiting guests only is thereby countered with our very own shift away from loyalty and utilizing others with tried and tested increased result in overall Booking rate already leading to our complete contentment, after all business is business.

Spot on JD

Hola

Creo que debemos ser los dueños de los apartamentos los que decidamos cual es nuestro criterio de cancelación, debemos poder elejir si damos o no periodo de gracia y si lo damos con que margen.

Con respecto a ofrecer nuestros datos completos antes de terminar el periodo de cancelacion, tampoco estoy deacuerdo.

 

Saludos

Margaret518
Level 1
Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, France

The new cancelaltion policy is very unfair to holiday home owners - we may have only one property to rent out and if someone books this then cancels a few days before we have little chance of re-letting. People booking a family summer holiday book in advance - our property could be unavailable during a long period and if the guest then cancels at short notice they have no penalty to pay but we have lost all of the income. This policy is OK for hotels with multiple rooms but not appropriate for all.

How about you offering some kind of realistic travel insurance option which covers the guest in case they have to cancel.  It isn't fair that the host has to endure the cancelation, as we are not hotels and don't have a quick turn around.  There again it would give us perhaps more confidence to open up the strickt policy into a more flexible one as we are aware that it does ultimately offer the potentail of more bookings (but how much of them actually then follow through)?  Utlimately however I am happy with the strickt policey as at the end of they day one knows where he/she stands.

I believe the Struve cancellation in necessary . We will never know what’s going on or what to expect . With lenient cancellation and such a wide range of choices on so many sites it will be so easy to change plans . If they cancel and book in the same area ...? That is not an accident . It  will only cause  hosts to  try and constantly lower prices to be more competitive in risk of them canceling and go elsewhere . I only use Airbnb for my bookings but this may be a reason I turn to other sites as well . I would ha e to raise my audience in fear of cancellations, something I never felt needed up until now when I had a booking . It offers hosts security . I think even the 2 weeks I’m not fair , no hotels would do that either or ever , why is ? We pay some taxes and expenses . Hope Airbnb re considers - (what is the point of pre approving them and all that stuff ?... it may turn out a waste ...) 

A true and loyal fan of Airbnb  

Julie

Hello,

These changes look good!  However I have had issies with internet being down in my area and not being able to log in and accept or decline requests fast enough to avoid cancellation fees.  And also I have had an awful amount of repairs/maintenance issues that have come up this year and have caused me to have to cancel reservations.  We do almost all of our own repairs so we get penalized because I don't have a bill to submit for approval so we lose the reso, have to pay for repairs AND get penalized by Airbnb.  If I host declines or cancels a reso for a repair they should not have to pay fees to Airbnb....these units only make us money when rented, we only cancel as a last resort!