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

[Phillip65]

I know with some airlines they offer a 24 hour cancellation. Why is 48 hours prefable to 24 hours?

[Poppy12]

I agree with Helen and others above.

Surely you could let us, as hosts, choose whether or not to opt in for this? 

If we choose to (possibly) forego additional bookings, that's up to us. 

It feels very much as if you are imposing this on us which violates our freedom of choice.   

The bottom line is that without us, AirBnB would not exist, so it is a real shame that you are going down the route of maximising your income, rather than thinking about our interests. 

[Rose123]

@Lizzie I just joined this thread and attempted to post a message but it went straight to 'rejected items'. It seems to be being reviewed? Why is this - is that standard or is Airbnb censoring this particular thread knowing that so many hosts are bitterly unhappy about the recent changes?

[Rose123]

@LizandRobert Hi Liz and Robert, my feelings are similar. I'm still hoping for a resolution, but this is just terrible. Thanks for sharing. 

[Ann10]

@Martha0-@@

Martha

RE-

Here's my reply to him:

Good morning Prateek,
I appreciate your quick response on behalf of your CEO, to whom I addressed my email yesterday. 
I'm baffled by your statement, "There are few hosts who are happy and few who aren’t. " because it appears that you are misinformed. If you were to truly analyze the feedback from Hosts, you would see that
1. It's not just a 'few" and to say there are a few that are happy and a few that are not is statistically inaccurate. I suggest you try counting the "happy" vs the "unhappy" and you'll see that there is an overwhelmingly large number of Hosts who are very upset.

2. You say it's very difficult to cater to every input but in this matter, it seems that Airbnb is catering to only a small fraction of Hosts who support this change.

Please let me know what the plan will be if this change does NOT result in an increase in bookings for me as a Host? In other words, what type of evaluation will you all be doing to find out if this is working well for us Hosts?

Thank you,
Martha

-I was booked solid with Airbnb bookings with the Super Strict Policy. Then they started pushing me back. Due to my experiments, I believe the main reason was my refusal to accept Instant Book in New York City were I have hosted 2 criminals. One shoplifter and extortionist, and one who vandalized my apartment, stole a painting, and I don't know what exactly to call the other crime she committed. Airbnb is allowing both of these people to remain on the site. Other things have gone missing from the apartment, but I don't know who took them. Therefore, I do not want to do IB. I also will not to moderate to maintain Business Ready. Businesses have insurance. I am sure the people cancelling 5 days out are not businesses. It's sheer manipulation. Besides people can buy trip insurance. I also don't want to do Smart Pricing because I don't want to charge less than what I was pricing myself and getting booked every night. 

So, I don't need help from Airbnb to get booked. They are the ones who are causing my calendar to get filled up with Home Away and Wimdu instead of ABB. I didn't have to do anything. The reason they are losing solid money from me is because they would rather have people who act like employees instead of partners who know what they are doing and what is best for their particular situation. It seems ABB wants people who will do what they say and they value this over the steady solid stream of money they were getting from me. You are welcome to tell Prateek about my "inputs".

Lisa Ann

[Ross106]

I saw today that my cancelation policy has changed so that guests can cancel up to 14 days prior to arrival and receive a full refund.

I have only one house to rent out and we pretty well book out all our weekends and school holidays. When the guest books through AirBnB I have to block all my channels, ie all other websites including my own and that means I am turning away guests who would otherwise have stayed and paid - and from sites that do not force such a liberal cancelation policy on hosts.

AirBnB is either stuck in a mindset that sees all accommodation as urban rooms and apartments with high flux and if one guest cancels another takes the spot or else it has created a cancelation policy that serves the interest of the guest at the expense of the owner because the guest is where their revenue comes from. 

I spoke with customer service and although their are more strict cancelation options these are by invitation only yet they don’t know how you get an invitaion????

[Adrian255]

Quite simply this is totally unacceptable. This is supposed to be a partnership and therefore BOTH sides of the contract agreement have to agree any changes. This I firmly DO NOT agree. As far as I am concerned the guest is quite capable of deciding before they book... I've done that in the past so why can't they? Of course plans change as well as emergencies occur.. but that is what holiday insurance is for. The much vaunted AIrBNB insurance was a total disaster when I tried claiming on it so I hold out no hope at all for any of AirBNBs current promises.

Should AirBNB decide to bring in changes then it's a very simple IT matter to make these changes pending until the contract renewal and then the owner can choose which options to accept or refuse.

In terms of other points made it is indeed totally unacceptable guests can see your details before fully booking.

[Adrian255]

Dear Sirs

Recently I signed back up for a further two years with AirBnB as I was pleased with how things were going. However, suddenly this policy  was thrust upon me without any option or involvement by myself. This is totally unacceptable and I firmly and completely reject this change, at the very worst I should be offered this option at the contract renewal position and not before.

It seems a lot of other hosts are similarly unhappy with these changes and a lot of good valid suggestions have been forthcoming to try and produce a compromise. Nevertheless it seems AirBnB is ignoring these and driving hosts away from yourselves.

I find it incredible management can be so divorced from reality that simple meaningless platitudes are being sent out with messages of "here to help" and then nothing happening.  I trust that this situation will rapidly alter in favour of the hosts... after all they are your basic resource you are selling ... and incidentally charging a high fee for the privilege. Perhaps I should also change the terms and conditions in a similarly arbitrary fashion and say your fees are now only 5% and that you owe me the difference and I sue for lost revenue and then damages followed by class action.

Kind regards

Adrian **

[Link hidden as per the community guidelines]

Winner Unique Tour Operator of the Year 2018 Normandy - Luxury Travel Guide

2015 - 1st in Normandy - Tour HQ

[Ann10]

@Adrian255 I think class action law suits are against the terms, but it would cost them a lot more if we all file a claim w the AAA. We have all agreed to arbitration. It cost them $1500 per claim. It costs us $200 and they have to pay for our fees if we win.

[Adrian255]

Some more email addresses to be used...

[Email addresses hidden as per the community guidelines] press@airbnb.com

[Adrian255]

@Ann0 New York (one of many perhaps? 🙂 )

Thank you but that doesn't apply in the UK ... and frankly the bad press around this will kill AirBnB ... I've already had other sites ringing up citing this disaster as just another example of how AirBnB no longer supports the hosts.

@Ann10 wrote:

@Adrian255 I think class action law suits are against the terms, but it would cost them a lot more if we all file a claim w the AAA. We have all agreed to arbitration. It cost them $1500 per claim. It costs us $200 and they have to pay for our fees if we win.

[Adrian255]

Chip replied to my email by automated response...

"Thanks for writing me. After nearly four years of an exhilarating immersion with Airbnb, I've recently moved from a day-to-day role to being a strategic advisor to the founders. Based upon the purpose of your email, let me help you navigate who you might talk to about various subjects as I no longer use this email address." 

Perhaps he should read this email address.. it's clearly a gross strategic FU*K up !!! 

Single sided terms and conditions like this can be overruled in British law courts as being totally unfair and abusive ... clearly these changes fall under that category.

[Adrian255]

I am heartily sick of a system whereby I don't get any money yet have to provide a service before payment. Why, given AirBnb are so keen on this model of payment in arrears don't the management put their money where their mouth is and be paid AFTER delivery of the service and not before?  This strict cancellation policy update is the final straw... it's time management realised WE pay their salary and they work for us.

[Adrian255]

This is the pathetic head in the sand response ...  

Hi Adrian,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your feedback about our Terms of Service. I'm sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with these updates.

In order to continue using Airbnb, you will need to accept these new Terms. If you do not wish to operate under these Terms, you may cancel your Airbnb Account at any time via the "Cancel Account" feature of the Services or by sending us an email. Please note that if your Airbnb Account is cancelled, we do not have an obligation to delete or return to you any Content you have posted to the Site, Application and Services, including, but not limited to, any reviews or Feedback.


While we’re sad to see you go, we respect your decision. If you change your mind, you can open an account with this email address any time.

Best,

Greta

[William139]

I manage a seasonal resort property directly at a ski resort. The unit is on the resort proper, and close enough to the 'village' of restaurants, shops, and ski lifts that it takes less than one minute to ski there.  There is an involuntary owner's association which supplies an elaborate recreation center for $4000 per yar per unit and a total overhead of about $20K per year including all taxes etc. These are operating expenses only, we don't have a loan. We book maybe 40 trips per year.

One group of clients books based upon immediate snowfall numbers. These book within the last two weeks before a trip and will de-book if snow conditions worsen. There are other units close to mine they can use to rebook if conditions improve. You are permitting shopping by cancelling my unit and booking one next door for two days later. While this practice won't kill us, it may make the whole operation unprofitable requireing strong measures to deal with the new rules.  Only time will tell the actual effects. It is possible that your rule change would effectively put us out of business.