Cancellation 48 hours

[Robert844]

Hi everybody, I read that Airbnb offers the possibility to get full booking costs (including service charges) back if you cancell within 48 hours after booking. Even though the booking cancellation policy is strict. Could anyone comment on this, please?

Best Robert

[Marit-Anne0 · Accepted solution]

@Robert844

Yes, you can if the policy is strict with grace, but not with last minute bookings.  It will have to be more than 14 days till your arrival.  Just take care to read the cancellation policy carefully before you commit to book.

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

If you book in Italy, the strict is different

https://www.airbnb.com/home/updated_cancellation_policies#strict

[Robert844]

Thank you for your answer, dear Marit Anne. My host does not offer strict with grace, it is only strict. So there is no chance, right?

[Marit-Anne0]

@Robert844

Not unless your cancellation falls under extenuating circumstances clause. In such case you would need to cancel through airbnb and they would ask for proof.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoid...

[Laure3919]

I was scheduled to check into ZEN HAUS. An inner SE Hawthorne/Division Studio in Portland, OR on : 1/19/22

I canceled 17 days before this date.

I did review cancelation policies associated with this booking, but thought a 50% refund would be issued if cancelation was before : 1/12/22. I thought this meant 50% of my deposit money returned, which equaled $198.00.

Instead I received no refund, the Airbnb kept my $198.00 after receiving a 17 day cancelation. This is confusing the way Strict Cancelation is written and does not seem ethical or right. I would like to alert others like me who believed differently before loosing their money.

[Sarah977]

@Laure3919  Refunds are based upon the total cost of the booking, not on how much you paid upfront. That is stated in the cancellation policy info if you really read through the terms of the cancellation policy. A lot of guests are confused about this, so I guess Airbnb should make it clearer somehow to guests.

The pay less upfront option is just a convenience to guests so they don't have to come up with the entire cost of a booking at once, but it is unrelated to the cancellation policy.

If you really think it through, you'll understand why it makes sense. Let's say that we both book the same place, for $100/night for 4 nights, but you chose to only pay half up front and I chose to pay the entire booking. 

We each need to cancel and are due back 50%. But I paid the whole shot up front, $400, so I get back $200. 

You only paid $200 to start with, so you get nothing back. 

We each forfeited $200. 

There's no logical reason why the guest who opted to pay in two installments should only be out $100, when I am out $200- that would be totally unfair.