Air Bnb recently cancelled 3 days of reservations at our home within days of occupancy. Why? Their “hazard assessment” indicated that there could be rain or snow in our area. We live in the low Sierras at 2000 ft. There was snow at the higher elevations - above 4000 ft.. But no one at AirBnB seemed to know the difference.
Now, there was snow on day one at our home - about an inch - and I did try to contact the arriving guests to put their minds at ease about access. I did not hear back from them but they had no difficulty and spent the first night at the home. The next morning was clear but they decided they didn’t like the weather and they left with a full days refund from AirBnB. I wonder how many refunds ABB did up at the ski resorts where there was three feet of snow. My guess is the renters up there were thrilled and stayed for the snow.
But here’s where it gets really interesting. AirBnB does offer cancellation insurance that a renter can purchase. But, guess what is not deemed a good enough reason to cancel. Weather.
When our bookings were cancelled at the last minute we had one inch of snow that was a detriment to nothing. That was day one of what were to be four days of rental. On days 2 -4 we had mostly sun with a little bit of drizzle. Now, this is our family home we are talking about. So when we rent on AirBnB we have to rent somewhere else. We rented a home on VRBO for four nights at $800 for the four nights. Our home rents for $485/nt. so there is a reasonable profit there. The outcome of this experience is that we lost $1455 in rent and paid $800 in rent ourselves. We just took a dagger to our finances of $2255 because of a hypocritical policy on AirBnB. Weather is not an acceptable reason to obtain a refund from their cancellation insurance, BUT it is reason enough for a renter to cancel their reservation and get a full refund from us, the home owner. At the last minute. Regardless of our announced strict cancellation policy. Our policy was totally disregarded by ABB.
We currently have six nights booked at our home Christmas week on AirBnB. We have absolutely Zero confidence that these rentals will not be cancelled if, god forbid, we have what most people dream of, a white Christmas. We have six days rented through VRBO and we are not worried about those. We are paid in full 30 days prior to occupancy and we have that money. If there is an issue, we can negotiate with the renters and reach a fair compromise if cancellation is truly warranted. (Road closure, impassable access, etc.) With AirBnB, all it takes is a change of heart combined with a little weather and the renter will receive a full refund. In spite of our strict cancellation policy fully disclosed in the listing. And by the way, we have had to rent another place for those twelve days. Another potential disaster, gift of AirBnB.
It is too late to cancel our ABB guests over Christmas. We would not do that. But we cannot handle the stress ABB’s policy puts on us. We are blocking ABB from next year’s months when there might be any weather at all. (Nov. - March) We cannot afford their policies.
Kevin and Jeanne Shipman
