Cancellation policy changed under my nose - BOO!

[Tanya258]

If I hadn't been looking closely I would not have known that the cancellation policies have changed. People can now cancel under strict just 2 weeks ahead and I get nothing as a host! this all happened without me knowing and without any revenue for me as a host! Hilarious- sure AirBNB makes some fee money - good for them of course,  but how are you helping or protecting hosts Airbnb? This is so blantant. 

It only stands to reason that a more forgiving cancellation policy will result in more cancellations, and reduced revenue for hosts, putting us at greater risk of not filling the space, if we want to have it strict we should be able to especially in cases were we need to have some assurance ahead of time that we won't lose the rental. We rent out our family home on holidays and in the summer and rely on the revenue to afford renting other places (often on AirBNB!!!!!) and so now I feel I can't risk that. If someone cancelled on us we would for sure never fill it in those measely short 2 weeks with an appropriate rental - people rent from us months in advance for a reason, and then we can plan around that.  We'd be risking then having to pay the cancellation to AirBNB for the cottage we then needed to cancel that we thought we could afford to go to! So in the end we lose and Airbnb makes a bit of money.

Airbnb evidently sees an upside to this,  but it's only bad news for us as hosts and driving us further away from using it sadly.  

Shouldn't Airbnb have an obligation to poll its hosts before making decisions like this?  If that happened, I certainly saw no such participatory outreach and shouldn't they have made this super clear to hosts. I would have been more upset if it caught me off guard and we were left paying weeks of cottages and not filling our house. I should have the option to make the cancellation strict if I want to. Others can freely set it to moderate if they feel it's okay for them to risk it. 

It's rare I'm upset with AirBNB but am. It's catering to empty full time properties which cities want to stop as well. 

Infuriating!!!

[Emiel1]

@Tanya258  ,

Airbnb changed the policy by adding a grace period. This was announced ! It means guest can cancel within 48 hours of booking AND if check-in date is more the 14 days in future to get full refund. Please note the word AND. It does not mean a booking can be cancelled at any time until 14 days prior to check-in and get full refund (Refund is 50% upto 7 days prior to check-in)

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

Best regards,

Emiel

[Tanya258]

Thanks Emiel!

This is not articulated in a clear way in the policy but I see now both conditions need to be met together. Friend hosts thought the same so I am not alone in this confusion. 

[Rebecca532]

Tanya, you are correct in your first message in that a guest can cancel 14 days before and get a full refund. 7-14 days they get 50%. And less than 7 days they get nothing. 

[Ute42]

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@Rebecca532 

You are wrong and @Emiel1  is right. Read the terms.

[Krista93]

@Ute15 I am not disputing that @Emiel1 is correct, but what I have written is not incorrect. @Tanya258 's concern seemed to be that guests could cancel 14 days in advance and get a full refund under the strict policy. This is true. She didn't refer to the 48 hour grace period anywhere in her original email, and so it isn't really relevant to @Tanya258 's concern. This is not what we are discussing.

The verbiage below is taken directly from the website, and reiterates what I outlined for @Tanya258 above.

For a full refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made within 48 hours of booking and at least 14 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in.

7 days prior

For a 50% refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made 7 full days prior to listing’s local check in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check in, otherwise no refund. For example, if check-in is on Friday, cancel by Friday of the previous week before check in time.

If the guest cancels less than 7 days in advance or decides to leave early after check-in, the nights not spent are not refunded.

[Kelly149]

Strict is only strict if abb doesn’t label a cancellation “extenuating circumstances”. Bc in those cases guests are fully refunded regardless of your policy even on day of arrival or during the trip. 

There really is no way to know for sure that an abb payment will happen.