How often there are Guest Cancellations

[Jason-Paul0]

Good day Member, I'm new to hosting on Airbnb and just returned from from first trip using the services, since signing up I had numeros inquires and also had two confirm booking, one was for later this month and one was for last sunday gone, to my dispointment last sunday about an hour before chin in time the guest cancell without any mesages and while trying to figure out what was happending I got a second email from the other guest who had book a few weeks ahead of cancellation also, at that moment I was really feeling down, because I rent my property short and long term by myself and had turn down a good short term cash offer because I had airbnb booking, I'm wondering is this is regular thing and how can this be solved and can anyone give me thereir advice if they had similar problems?

[Amy459]

 Hey Jason, 

I remember my first few reservations also cancelled last minute. I felt extremely discouraged. I think listings with no reviews, or very few reviews make guests a little nervous. Once you have a few people stay that leave positive reviews I believe you will see a dramatic decrease in the amount of guests that cancel on you. My suggestion to get those first few people to actually commit to a reservation would be to take great, well-lit photos of your listing, and to answer any inquiries or confirmed bookings with a professional, and informative response. Good luck!

[Donna240]

Hi Jason,

Unfortunately, with the cancellation policy options, even a moderate cancellation policy allows the guest to cancel within 2 days. This system is geared to make cancelling easy for guests and disappointing for hosts who offer their property in good faith that guests will honor their bookings. Many people will take advantage of free cancellations to look for a better deal until the last minute, but would take to the streets in protest if a host cancelled their booking at the last minute.

I believe this would not be a problem if everyone lived by the Golden Rule (do unto others etcetera) but since everyone doesn't, the best solution would be for Airbnb to not offer cancellation policies that are so slanted in favor of guests behaving badly. I think your luck will change, just hang in for awhile longer.

[Joy127]

I had a few of these over the school summer holidays so I changed my listing refund policy to strict so that if they cancel close to the booking they lose their money. As hosts we lose potential bookings if people are looking and they see us booked to only have it cancel soon after. Since changing I haven’t had one cancellation

[Donna240]

@Joy127Are you still getting as many bookings as before you you changed to a strict cancellation policy? I'm asking because I have always thought the more strict the cancellation policy and the higher the security deposit, the fewer the bookings would be.

[Joy127]

Hi it doesn’t seem to have impacted me yet but we have just finished summer school holidays and I am near the beach so maybe time will tell. I just got fed up with people booking 3-7 day stays and then cancelling a day or two before they were due. I lost over 15 days in December from this. I was booked about 18 days in January which is the best month I have had so far on Airbnb. 

I look at it this way. If there is a strict cancellation policy then I know those who book are genuine and not time wasters. I have 3 bookings in March already as well. I don’t charge a cleaning fee or any other fee. I also travel and work my plans around bookings so that I can clean after a guest stays so having cancellations when I thought I had a booking for a few nights is inconvenient in my case as I need to either change my plans or block dates. 

[Donna240]

I don't charge a cleaning fee either, and believe my guests appreciate that fact and may even take better care of the place. I know for a fact, that I as a guest am slightly insulted to be charged such a fee, and as a host, believe it is part of what I am being paid for in the first place. Someone mentioned the idea of being able to refund a cleaning fee if guests leave the place as they found it. I think that would certainly encourage guests to do the right thing.

[Jason-Paul0]

Thanks for all the advice, I took it all into consideration and apply same, I changed my Policy to Strick and it is paying off Today I had my first sucessful check in and soon after I'm exoecting another guest, I lost a few bookings due to last minutes cancellation in the past but I'm now looking forfard.. Once again, Thanks All...