Does anyone like the 48 hour cancellation policy?

[David2023]

Does anyone really like the new 48 hour cancellation policy? When I sigend up with Airbnb 6 years ago I had a 60 day cancellation policy and it worked just fine. Then about 3 years ago they cut it down to 30 days (without even telling me they had made the change). The a few months back they changed it to 7 days and now it is 48 hours? Are you kidding me! Why don't they say guest can cancel anytime they want with out any penalties. No host can re book their property within 48 hours of a arrival date. This is so one sided for the guests!!

I had two cancellations back in January and Decmebr with guets arriving within 48 hours canceling and I took a hit for $6348 in revenue from that experience. Now it is even going to acclerate! 

Add insult to the injury as Airbnb just announced that if a host cancels a guest the first one we get a warning, the second time we are fined $50 the third time we are fined $100 and the fourth time we get kicked off of airbnb? Wow that seems fare doesn't it. I have had more cancellations in the past three months then I had in the prior 6 years before. Does Brian Chesky listen to half of his business partners, the hosts???

[Pallavi14]

Hi Matthew,

I came across this discussion because I googled it as have been confused about the policy as a GUEST.

We wish to book an Airbnb in Germany. The listing mentions this 48hrs policy. It's Feb right now and our booking will be for the month of June. 

I'm confused because I don't know the last date on which I can cancel so as to get full refund. 

It's scary to know that we won't get a refund post 48 hours of booking. It's 3 months away! 

Is it that if we don't cancel within 48hours then the "strict cancelation' rules are applied? 

If that's the case, then we'll be relieved. It's a big amount! 

I hope you find the time to respond to my questions 🙂

Regards

Pallavi

[Nick8]

I just sent this in on feedback to Airbnb but the best way to do the cancellation policy is to do this:

if if you cancel with less then 7 days, we will try to sell your booking if no one takes advantage of this you are on the hook for the cost alternatively if we sell portion or the whole thing you will be refunded or the cancellation fee will be adjusted.

The above is fair, looks after both sides

[Linda861]

This is how I handle cancellations.  I do so volutarily, and prefer to reserve the right to do so.

[Ben-and-Harmony0]

WORD.

If they wanted to make things easier on the host they would allow the host the option to refund up to 100% within 48 hours or at any time up to 14days, if the guest requests the cancellation. We are already dinged if we cancel on our guests through ratings and now monetarily.

We host in Alaska and our summer season is very short, we have a wonderful MIL apt, we charge a fair market price. However, (like Hawaii) Alaska is super expensive and we often get requests for discounts. This new feature will literally ruin the little time we have to make any revenue. I foresee more administrative costs in time and energy spent with guests that have zero intention on staying in our space. They'll book it and then turn around to use other listings to seek a discount. All of our last minute bookings are Airbnb guests, our VRBO guests book out months in advance and VRBO pays us as the guest pays us.

The revenue kicker? It's all for Airbnb, they hold onto all payments until the guest's stay, making as much gains on our revenue as possible. Airbnb and discount seeking guests are the only ones that benefit from this new policy. Unfortunately, the majority of Airbnb hosts won't feel the sting until this policy is in full swing and guests are used to the feature and we are neck deep in bidding wars with our neighbors and fellow hosts.

This is why we prefer VRBO, they look out for their hosts and guests, they realize our value, which is why they've made major changes in pricing and website features.

[MaryAnn-and-Rich0]

If it is 48 hours after booking but 48 hours before would be very detrimental to hosts. I truly hope it is the prior! I also sent feedback. 

[Tom-and-Christen0]

I'm surprised you have a preference for VRBO over Airbnb. We left that platform when they went nuts with greed and rate increases a few years ago and haven't looked back. It does seem that Airbnb is taking some actions lately that are a little unfriendly to the hosts, and we can hope that they will remember we are necessary partners in the process. We love hosting on Airbnb - it's fun and makes up a good part of our rentals. This 48 hour plan seems ill conceived to me, but I need to defer and see how it works. There are smart people at the helm of Airbnb and I want, and need, to believe they are making decisions that are in the best interest of both host and guest. In our primary business, our philosophy has always been to do what is in the best interest of the customer, and our success has followed. In this case, we are Airbnb's customer and I sincerely hope they are looking out for us. I do not believe this could ever be said for VRBO.

[Tom-and-Christen0]

I had a long conversataion with support on this - and it is a two way cancellation window. We as hosts are not going to be penalized if we cancel in the 48 hour window nor will the guests.

Prior to this change, we had always automatically considered every Airbnb booking solid and confirmed instantly. As such, we immediately removed those days as available inventory from our other listing sources to avoid double bookings.

The possible problem we see is that if we remove the dates from other sources (for example our direct booking site) and the guest later cancels, we could lose possible booking from other source. If we don't remove the dates, and another booking comes in during the 48 hour look-back period, we'll have to defer to the direct booking and cancel the Airbnb booking since only it has the cancellation option.

It really puts us in an awkard position now to treat all Airbnb bookings as only tentative for 48 hours. I'm not too sure there will be many confilcts, but I was assured by support that if the rare occurance exists where we had to cancel the booking, as long as we do it by phone or directly with support, there is no pentaly to us.

It may all work out just fine...we don't think this will happen too often and will take a wait and see approach. I just don't think possible guests understand that the 48 hour window is a two way street - how does the possibility of the host cancelling on you increase their confidence in using the platform for accommodations? I, for one, do not want to wait 48  hours to know that the host has accepted my reservation - I thought the whole idea of instant book was to be able to book and confirm on the spot and know the deal was done.

Any thougts on this or am I mis-understaning?

[Matthew285]

@Tom-and-Christen0, thanks for posting this!

If indeed the "no penalty" aspect of the 48-hour grace period is two-way (and hosts would not be penalized for cancelling), then that is pretty big news and is a really good thing to know.

Now I wonder if the grace period would apply to cancellation policies other than Strict?

[Tom-and-Christen0]

Here is a quote from my message from support:

"If in case you need to cancel any reservation then you will need to contact us at the number or using the same messaging system and we will assist you with the cancellation by following a cancellation process and will assist the guest to make a new reservation. "

I followed up with a few questions to make sure it was a two way cooling off period.

[Jayesh0]

@Tom & Christen

I have been thinking about this and it just does not make sense to me.  Do you think this means you will be using up one of your 3 free cancellations or do you think it is just the policy for every booking?  You could use this reason to cancel because you forgot to update the price or forgot to update your calendar.  Have you had occasion to use the 48 hour free cancellation?  Lisa

[Fred13]

@Tom-and-Christen0 You probably didn't misunderstand what 'someone' in CS said, but I assure you that ~couldn't~ be the case because that would mean that the ~host~, like the guest, now could go also 'shopping for a better deal; BUT the 'pending' initial booking has caused the days to be 'blocked' already and the host must honor and wait for the initial applicant for 48 hours, before the days are unblocked. 

If both have the same option, host & guest, then there was no sense instituting this policy in the first place.  Granted stranger things do happen nowadays.

[Tom-and-Christen0]

I'm not worried about the days being blocked on Airbnb., although that would be nice if they would keep them open. Perhaps give guests the option "I want to book and confirm now with no grace period" or "I want to book with a grace period and understand others can rent in the 48 hour window".

We do about 50% of our bookings via direct from our website for one of our properties. My prior practice had been to immediatly remove the dates from our website so they could not be double booked. But that was when I knew every Airbnb booking was automatically confirmed.

Now, we're going to leave the days open during the grace period. In our busy season, it is a 50-50 possiblity that we'll have to cancel an Airbnb guest if a reservation for the same time comes in while they are "deciding" if they want to confirm with us.

I think it's a sucky policy and will only create more work for me in tracking stuff...but as long as Airbnb won't penalize me for cancelling (just as they need to look out for their business, so must each of us), I'm good with it. We are just going to book the dates with the first committed reservation regarless of the source.

I'll also ad that I don't see this becoming an issue for 75% of the year. Only potentially in the summer months. Our other property is almost exclusively rented via Airbnb so we don't think there will ever be a problem there.

Wait and see, I guess.

[Fred13]

You have a similar reality as I, most bookings way ahead and many (45% are not with Airbnb in my case now). Aye, we can work around it. I also do VRBO, so manually keep up 3 calendars. Using AvailabilityCalendar for website.

[Tom-and-Christen0]

Fred, your English is great so hopefully you're familiar with an old phrase: "Don't keep all your eggs in one basket". This is a reminder that hosts who take thier business seriously ought not rely on a single source of bookings. Airbnb is our favorite and most frequent source of bookings, but, this "all bookings are tentative for 48 hours" policy may undermine their reliability a bit and it's good that we continue receive some bookings elsewhere. It is a bit more complicated now, but I will adapt - as it seems you will.

[Fred13]

Adaptation = survival 😄