Beta: Make guest stays non refundable for 10% discount

Shou-Kee0
Level 2
Glasgow, United Kingdom

Beta: Make guest stays non refundable for 10% discount

Just noticed on my host admin page today a new beta test by Airbnb - 

 

They have added a new Flexible vs Non refundable policy for guest bookings.

- If they choose the former, your current cancellation policy applies.

- But if they choose the later their booking becomes non refundable but they get 10% off the listed price.

 

Just to pick your brains what do all of you hosts think of this?

Many thanks!!

112 Replies 112
Marilyn157
Level 2
Denver, CO

It says host can customize the amount of the discount.  Anyone know how to do this.  It says it's typically 10%   but doesn't have to be.

Jon3528
Level 1
Penndel, PA

Where can the discount percentage for non refundable bookings be set/changed?

@Jon3528  It can't. Just like the rest of the various cancellation policy terms- hosts have no option to change them.

Thanks @Sarah977 !

@Shou-Kee0 - in principle, I love this - but it depends on the conditions of the non-refundable portion.  It also will depend on how they allow this to affect Smart Pricing.  

 

Edit:  Looks like I'm in the Beta test.  I've turned it on.  Let's see what happens.  

Heehee please do let all of us know what your experience is like!!!:)

Hi @ Alice & Jeff in Durham, NC,  how do you think the Non-Refundable BETA is working out for you?

 

I tested your Listing with several different configurations and IMO if Guests NOW see so many additional options - Refundable, Moderate, different rules associated with both, different Pricing Details, etc - it might be a bit confusing and/or overwhelming for Guests.   Also, the pricing mechanism refreshes the entire page when they switch between Non-Refundable and Moderate.   If Guests see a Total Price difference of $100s of dollars it might be appealing, but at the same time they might get concerned knowing if there's an emergency forcing them to Cancel, they'd lose all their money except for Taxes & Fees.  AirBnb displays this as "Full refund of the taxes and cleaning fee" 🙂

 

Hilton Hotels is now also doing something similar but all using small icons and descriptions -- i.e. displayed in a less confusing manner for prospective guests.

 

Since I'd have to raise my rates in order to balance out the trade off I decided to turn off the Non-Refundable BETA for now -- need to think about this more!!  LOL

 

 

Not sure that's it's doing anything at all @Basil6.  Haven't actually seen any additional reservations.  

UPDATE 4 WEEKS LATER ON BETA TEST

 

Since agreeing to be in this test, we've had: 

  1. ZERO bookings.  Yes you see that right - ZERO BOOKINGS SINCE BEING ON THE BETA TEST!! 
  2. Fallen in the search results ranks by 6 households.  We are now way down below the fold on the desktop. 
  3. Have seen our "views to booking" ratio plummet to 0.2%
  4. Had to spend several hours working with the product guys and help desk to get our listing to properly show both options - it still defaults to non-refundable instead of being used as a selling technique 
  5. Noted that in 2018 alone we had over 40 cancellations 

We are turning it off now and hope that we can recover.  

 

@Lizzie, @Quincy, @Shou-Kee0

May I know how to turn off beta testing??

how do u turn that feature on or is it by invite only. if theres a general link, can sum1 post it here so i can land on it w/o going 40mins tangent searching, thanks...

Pete28
Level 10
Seattle, WA

It hurts my mind - i get maybe 2-3 cancellations a YEAR, and usually collect 50% on those from my strict policy and also hopefully rebook the nights.

 

I make $20-30k a year, so if I gave up $2-3k a year to Airbnb (10%) I might make $200-300 (the 50% I lost). Thus based on those maths the answer is.... No way.

 

- If lots of people adopt this scheme then it will drive down prices, so we will all loose 😞

 

- in recent memory the cancellation policy used to let me keep 100%, but now I am paying Airbnb 10% of my revenue to do that. 

 

- rather than spend cycles on this, why not FIX THE PRICING on the web site where everything is listed by base price without cleaning fee etc, making it almost unusable and costing me real $$ and bookings. Is that too hard ?

 

Shou-Kee0
Level 2
Glasgow, United Kingdom

Indeed... been peeved with their automatic updates driving to drive my prices down to rock bottom!!

I always maintain close contact with upcoming guests regarding their itineraries so I dont see the point if this too!

Judi62
Level 2
San Juan, Puerto Rico

theres a super strict cancellation policy available they just dont publicise it. and u need2ask for that as an add on, aka thhey dont make it ez2do on purpose aka if on u will get 100percent of rez back not 50