@Roger684
Roger, in this time of pandemic restrictions there is no such thing as 'security of our bookings'! It's a world where we live on a day to day basis.
Here in Australia we have been lucky to keep Covid largely at bay, although you have suffered more than your fare share of Covid restrictions in Victoria, and for that Roger, I am sorry for you.
But we do have to realise that plans do change on a moments notice! We never know when an active case is going to escape into the community and I think it is up to us as hosts to be a bit creative in how we handle our hosting on a day to day basis.
I have a flexible cancellation policy, and I have set that because I have never expected to be paid for a service I did not provide....I don't want something for nothing. I have had a guest cancel 2 hours before arrival because the Mt Barker they thought they were booking was in Western Australia, not 1,700 Kms away in South Australia. It wasn't the guests fault, it was Airbnb's....my listing showed on the WA search page. Roger I still gave them a full refund, these things are going to happen on odd occasions!
April last year and again in November saw me potentially lose a large percentage of my bookings, but I found by offering to defer the scheduled stay to another date and offer a small discount for the inconvenience many of my reservations remained intact. And for those who did opt for a cancellation and a refund some of those nights were re-booked by unaffected locals.
Roger I lost very little, I understand why you set your cancellation policy the way you do but, I do feel by doing that you are to a certain extent shooting yourself in the foot. Try to firstly offer the guest an alternative solution before you shut the door on a refund. If you are conciliatory towards the guest, in many instances they will respond.
Cheers........Rob