Cancel Policy is Way TOO Harsh as well as extenuating circumstances policy

[Kim356]

Guests should have to take cancelation insurance versus being not paid for the reservation when guest cancels last minute.  What I have had to resort to 

I had several guests cancel due to this "extenuating policy" all the guest has to do is send a "doctors note" this note can be written by anyone and all they have to do is use a doctors name on line that airbnb can verify this person is a doctor by looking him up on line airbnb cannot call the doctor to verify the conditions of the guest nor even ask if they are a patient of the doctor it is against the hippa privacy laws.  So this can be completely fake 

Get program airbnb VRBO requires guests to get insurance for this and does not allow a cancelation due to this.  Also I had a guest cancel due to a missed flight by the airlines they cancelled due to weather and airbnb allowed that as well and I got no monies on about 5 reservations due to this policy.  This is not right I have resorted to not allowing airbnb to book any reservations but last minute ones or that are for holidays or prime time.  I only rent non prime time or last minute on airbnb now.  

[Martin0]

I agree totally. It should be Airbnb policy that all guests should have travel insurance. They should make it part of the reservation process that the guest provides the name of the insurance company and policy number. It would save them money because the guest would claim on their policy. There are also compensation schemes for cancelled and delayed flights so, once again, the guest would not lose money nor the host. On booking.com, because of their T & C', I make all bookings non-refundable. 

I am not sure whether a host can have a cancellation policy though. Maybe someone else can answer that.

[Cormac0]

@Kim356

In my country of birth, it is a criminal offence to masquerade as a doctor or police officer for that matter and if there is any evidence of this, it could be very serious indeed for the defendant.

I think Airbnb should close the gate on this type of activity if it exists.

[Kim356]

Airbnb needs to have people take trip insurance and get rid of the extenuating circumstances policy otherwise I would think hosts will only offer their properties last minute and never for holidays 

[Hugh0]

It is unacceptable that hosts have to provide defacto travel insurance - I have been stung thousands a couple of times by people cancelling because some pre existing condition flared up - why book a strict cancellation policy apartment when you know this could happen?

[Nancy391]

Again, this is part of the "Hotelization of Airbnb" that I think is a bad idea.  Hotels can have liberal cancellation policies because they have a lot of rooms.  What are the chances that 100% of their reservations will cancel for a given day?  If a guest cancels on me on short notice, I have probably lost 100% of the income for the time I had blocked off for them.

There should be a fee charged to the guest that cancels less than 14 days out.  And it should go to the host if they cannot rebook for any of the days.  

[Gail-and-Beth0]

"Hotelization" culture has had more negative effects, than positive.  Extenuating circumstances policy should be eliminated.  'Guests' may choose to purchase travel insurance, or not -- according to their personal risk tolerances.  They otherwise must be held accountable to the stated cancellation policies for their bookings, which they created.  No mechanism exists for hosts to recover losses that result from this policy, which AIRBNB imposes, suddenly, unilaterally and unfairly.  AIRBNB shares no risk, but is nonetheless rewarded. 

[Gill13]

I agree completely with those who say that the cancellation policy is completely unbalanced.  Due to exceptional weather conditions in their home city we had a guest cancel a booking one hour before their reservation was to start.  They had the choice to take out travel insurance against such an eventuality.  I have no such choice. Airbnb should not be taking it upon itself to penalise me for the weather in the guest's city or any other circumstance they choose to class as 'exceptional'.  Guests should be advised to take out travel insurance.

[Kim356]

I now only take last minute reservations on Airbnb to fill slots and I never will take prime time or holiday rentals on Airbnb due to their extenuating circumstances policy.