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

[Judy202]

I have a problem with this and I don't know where else to ask. I chose the strict (with grace period) cancellation policy a few weeks ago after having moderate for quite some time. I did this because I was getting cancellations with full refunds 5 days out. It was my only choice as I am in an area where people book way in advance.

Today I had a lady book for July, but she meant to book for June (dates were unavailable anyway so can't change). She asked if I could refund her and I told her to cancel herself because I was penalized for doing this last year when I first started airbnb (although it said because I had instant booking, I would not be penalized-I was). SHe tried to cancel and it would only refund her less than half her money (she had only paid half-but it would only refund less than half of that). I have no idea how to help her, but I am sure not going to cancel on my side. I advised she call airbnb-if she can even find a number to call. I cannot find one.  

[Sean119]

@Judy202 Never cancel.  Let ABB earn their $ and deal with her. 

[Sean119]

@Lizzie Any new thoughts?

[Laurie62]

Lizzie, many hosts have made suggestions:  24 hours cancellation, not 48 hours;  at least 21 days, not 14 days;  no sharing of phone or exact address until definite confirmation;  the option to not accept this new policy.  Will you be arguing on our behalf to the decision-makers?  Thank you.

[Donovan0]

@Lizzie 

I have seen an increase in bookings for my listings allowing the 48 hour grace period and believe it will be positive overall, with a small percentage of undesirable outcomes.

[Viv-and-Barry0]

48 hours is far too long, 12 hours should suffice, and I don't even think that is necessary 

Just another case of AIRBNB looking after the Guest and not the HOSTS, who without they wouldn't have a business!

Will be interesting to see what they do in this case, although I think I know the answer.

[Greg236]

I think the 14 days away number is a bit low. Within 2 weeks is when I get about half of my bookings. This peroid is crucial and keeping one of my rental off the market for 2 days during that 14day period does affect my rental success significantly, especially in the off season. I think a 30 days away number would be more beneficial to hosts while not affecting guests as much.

I also noticed more cancellations recently booking the wrong day, I hope airbnb would focus on ensuring guests have the right day(s) before they book avoiding cancellations instead of helping guests cancel their reservations more easily.

[Marshall15]

The grace period should be an option that hosts can select.  If hosts believe this will create more bookings, and want more of this kind of booking, then hosts should be able to choose, or not choose, that.  People understand what it means to book with no grace period -- and buy non-refundable rates and fares all the time.  When hosts choose the strict cancellation policy, it's so that they can rely on the booking and make arrangements accordingly in preparation for a guest to stay.  Requiring the grace period also penalizes hosts by forcing them to block out their calendars and turn away other potential reservations while the guest can monopolize the listing risk-free.  Perhaps some hosts don't mind giving guests more flexibility and are not concerned about having firm, reliable plans in advance for their guests.  But the hosts with a strict cancellation policy that have this preference -- and I believe they are many and are the majority of this group -- should be able to choose whether or not to adopt the grace period policy.  And this optional grace period should be 24 not 48 hours if it is even adopted.

[Don26]

Thanks for the update and making us hosts feel and little more comfortable, I personally greatly appreciate the effort Airbnb puts forth and know that for some reason it doesn't work out well that they'll listen to us and remove something. The main issues I see are the REVIEWS, they should be taken a lot more seriously and maybe if a "Superhost" has a guest that has made false claims ( and can be proven ) and gave a bad review/star rating that Airbnb will actually REMOVE the review or make the guest prove their accusations.

Just my 2 1/2 cents.

P.S. Airbnb is 90 % Perfect in my eyes but we can still do better, let's try and get to 100% perfection, hosts need to be taken more seriously. I think maybe have a "online suggestion box" and when an idea/complaint reaches a VIRAL status then Airbnb makes that change.

Don S.

[Patricia32]

It is good that Airbnb is protecting Guests, but what about Hosts? We are penalized if we cancel and without hosts there is no Airbnb. You should also try to be more flexible with your cancelation and changing polity for hosts

[Mariea1]

 I am very concerned with this new policy. I think the big thing that Airbnb is overlooking is that many hosts have automatic house manuals that give all sorts of important information about their loft. Once someone books, they will receive a house manual that will have our address, our location of our keys, our Wi-Fi password And other important pieces of information. This might allow people to book, just in order to get the information to access  hosts properties. I know other hosts who have had their belongings stolen from fraudulent guests on Airbnb and I believe this new policy will make it even easier for more and more  potential and dangerous problems. I feel that all hosts have a right to decide whether we choose to sign up with this new 48 hour cancellation/ refund policy. Airbnb should not force all hosts to agree to this. 

It should remain as it was before, only an option for hosts to choose whether or not to do this. If you force all hosts to have to agree to this policy, that is not being fair to your mission goal of Airbnb  and to your many hosts around the world who work hard to help make this new way of travel  A success. Many of us, including myself, or pioneers in this lifestyle. I was one of the very first host in my neighborhood, which is an up-and-coming artistic neighborhood. And I’m afraid of the problems I will have if I am forced to agree to your new policy. Airbnb is about allowing hosts to choose how they  want to run their own Airbnb listing and property. Airbnb does not alone our properties, they are owned by us, it is not your right to make decisions that could be harmful for us. Decisions like this make me feel that Airbnb is no longer focusing on remaining a home sharing Website and instead trying to be calm another hotel service.

Please do not make a horrible mistake and allow this new change to go through. Read all your comments and admit you are making a mistake and that you actually listen to your hosts.

[Lila-And-Chris0]

I agree with the spirit of what @Alice & Jeff  are saying. However, I think there is a key nuance at play here... the difference is that hosts with a flexible/moderate cancellation policy are already practiced in having property information shared with prospective guests who can cancel with fewer penalties. Hosts with flexible/moderate policies willingly opted in for that, while those who have adhered to strict cancellation policies did not sign on for that same level of exposure or 'liability' or what-have-you.

True, guests have always been able to cancel and it's the penalty that has varied, as you point out--and for that exact reason, a Strict policy discourages cancellations (or, put differently, it attracts guests whose travel plans are more certain and/or who are willing to absorb the penalties); listings with Strict cancellation policies are less likely to have guests that actually cancel. This bears out in our experience and no doubt in the experiences of other hosts who use the Strict policy (plenty of anectodtes suggest this is so). We've had a one cancellation out of more than 65 guests overall, and that cancellation happened almost immediately after booking when the guest quickly discovered his mistake (there is more than one city named Athens....whoops).

The whole point of offering a spectrum of cancellation policies is so hosts can choose to align themselves with a policy that minimizes the liklihood of cancellations in accordance with hosts varying degrees of willingness and/or ability to absorb cancellations if and when they do occur.

[Sarah964]

I am temporarily relieved that AirBnB are postponing  the introduction of  48 hr free cancellation on strict bookings. I'm not sure when hosts were consulted on this policy, but I for one missed an opportunity to express my opposition to it.

I've chosen the 'strict' policy, for the very reason that I want to avoid bookings from guests that are likely to change their minds. If that means I have fewer potential guests then so be it. For those guests who want to have that flexibility 'flexible' listings are available. 

This means that there will be no strict option at all for hosts, as the 'super strict' cancellation option is generally not available. It means I will not be able to organise cleaning and management until 14 days before my bookings, nor send check in details for security reasons. 

Perhaps there could be an additional category of 'flexible' to cover this new policy, leaving the 'strict' policy in place for those of us who need it.

[Charles333]

This policy change, as well as the automatic blocking of dates in my calendar when I decline a reservation, are punitive to airbnb hosts that do not turn over full control to AirBnB.

The idea of selecting a strict policy was to have our operations run more efficiently. We undertook the "business risk" of losing bookings because of our firm booking policy.  AirBnB is undermining our autonomy and control of our affairs in a manner that is not appreciated.

If this must go into effect, which I object to vehemently, then the cancellation window should be reduced to the same 24 hour window within which we have to accept/decline (in a fully committal manner) a reservation request.

[Svetlana42]

I feel that that it should be 30 days instead of 14 days!