Best cancellation option for hosts

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

A guest just enquired about cancelling a booking late in August, almost 6 months away.

Who knows what the situation will be then? So with this probably being the first of many, what do other hosts think the best way to handle this is?

Obvious options:

- Don't be daft, we've no idea what that far in the future will hold.

- We have a strict policy. You can agree to pay 50% and then you can cancel.

- I'll check with Airbnb to see if they will include it in their 'Covid-19, made up dates' policy for you so that you get 100% refund.

- Go ahead and cancel and we'll flip a coin on whether the strict policy actually sticks.

- If you're uncomfortable, we'll let you rebook dates later in the year.

Does anybody have any favourite plan of action, and can help me with mine?

[Rodney11]

On Mar 15, I took the approach of contacting all my guests with bookings through the end of my 6 month booking window and recommended they cancel their bookings, citing COVID-19 as the reason, and I would provide them with a full refund, no questions asked. I thought this was the ethical thing to do. It also allowed me to clear my calendar of booking from int'l guests whose trips were very unlikely to happen in the midst of a global pandemic, and I doubt int'l travel restrictions will change significantly over the next 6 months. This lets me refocus my AirBnB business on long-term stays for local guests whose living situations have been thrown into disarray by the current crisis, but who are also not subject to int'l travel restrictions. I've cut my prices by 30% to try and accommodate the large number of local people whose incomes have been drastically impacted by the crisis. I'm trying to keep myself afloat while doing what I can to help.