BETA: Guests pay additional 7% per night and get a full refund if they cancel up to 24 hours before

Amy-and-Brian0
Level 10
Orlando, FL

BETA: Guests pay additional 7% per night and get a full refund if they cancel up to 24 hours before

This is now in our cancelation policy as a BETA.

 

While it's tempting to get 7% more, it's not worth the risk for us. Being near Disney, we get bookings months in advance - our calendar is 90% booked per year. If someone cancels the day before, or even a week before, we will lose that whole section of our calendar. RARELY does a family make a spontaneous decision to go to Disney World.  This is especially true for international bookings.  (Just today we got an inquiry from Brazil for late August).
The financial considerations for a normal booking of a family going to Disney take a lot of planning.

 

This seems like an easy "NO" for us.

 

What do other hosts think?

 

13 Replies 13

@Amy-and-Brian0 

Same for us..... we only host international guests and we tend to get bookings at least a month or two in advance, mostly for longer stays and rarely at the last minute. (Plus, we have settings for at least 3 days notice).

 

Who cares about a 7% premium, a cancellation means 0 income!!!!!!

Cor3
Level 10
Langerak, South Holland, Netherlands

Hi @Amy-and-Brian0,

 

For me it is a simple NO too!

Absolutely not worth the associated risk.

Tim622
Level 2
New York, NY

@Amy-and-Brian0 I've been hosting in NYC since July and haven't had a last minute cancellation with a mostly full calendar. Giving this a shot!

Pete28
Level 10
Seattle, WA

You gotta figure if they pay 7% more to cancel on strict...they are planning to cancel when they find something cheaper. It's a fool who activates this beta.

That's kind of what I thought too. That's why we have our property on "Strict" to begin with. We don't want people blocking off dates way in advance and not showing up - as it's hard to get last minute reservations for a mostly "family vacation" resort condo. 

That's what I was thinking, 7% of zero is zero.  If someone is willing to pay an extra 7% then I would guess there is already at leaste a 50% chance they will cancel, and 24 hours means the host will not get a new booking.  So, no thanks airbnb.

I despair of Airbnb. The cycles spent on this stuff is helping no one.

 

And yet still for the last month the map, price slider and list only show base price without any fee so it's impossible to search by price - even though the number one reason people use Airbnb is to save money. WTF ?

 

I tried to book somewhere in LA over Xmas <$100 got 400 results, all of which are over $100 with cleaning + Airbnb fee. I gave up. How is that helpful ?

@Pete28:  I'm in Santa Monica, near the beach. Please let me know if you are still looking for a place to stay. As of now, my room is open. 

 

Please let me know .

Blessings!

Maybe, instead Airbnb takes a little more of a hit on their side of the travelers fee to help keep booking activity from cancelling?  I see them marketing a lot about any open days on my calender to "add another disocount" or "use flexible cancelation".  They are giving a lot of room for hotels to squash out a lot of the bnb vertical.  I didn't realize the cost on the guest until recently.  It seems they could offer a discount on their side.

Sudsrung0
Level 10
Rawai, Thailand

A BIG NO from me also, we maybe get a couple of cancelations a year ok we have not lost because we are set to strick but we have never managed to replace that booking but this way we would lose 100%.

Please keep it simple and dont give guest to many options most dont read now.

Dont go down the Booking.com route being able to make many bookings and 24 hour cancelation and "No Show"

My friend only uses Booking and at the moment I am looking after his properties it's a nightmare his cancelation rate is 48% and when people do book I always send out a welcome message nobody replies even ask what time you intend to arrive, No Reply and No Show you could be sitting there all day for nothing Because they Can!

Please Airbnb dont go down this road your Platform is great the system works great, I do use some others but Airbnb is No1 for me

I think this is confusing for guests and hosts. Bad idea I hope it is not implemented out of Beta.

Booking options should be very simple and easy for guests not complex with options and decissions about what pricing to use. 

 

I also don't like smart pricing. It makes this a race to the bottom, not a good thing for hosts or guests. It encourages hosts to cut amenities and maintenance to lower pricing, and guests to hunt for best deals, not the nicest unique places.

Lou-and-TT0
Level 2
East Stroudsburg, PA

you are right. I participated in it. I had guest who cancelled his booking. Then I found out that Airbnb did not apply the Beta 7% more charge for  free cancellation with this booking while had it. The price was $450 oer night for the entire house. Airibnb added $4.75 into it. It should be $31.50 for 7%. I did not find it out after the cancellation. So Airbnb got the fee but 0 refund for me as a host. I called two times and was told that they would call me back. But they did not do so and never received an email to explain it.

 

Airbnb should have a track # when a host calls or have a dispute.