Just had another cancellation for one of my listings, this time for the Christmas week. Guest says they want to renovate their new house so are cancelling. So on a whim they can cancel penalty free. They must've know weeks ago their house needed renovating.
If I suddenly decide on a whim to revovate my listing and cancel their Christmas booking, I am fined, receive a negative review and lose my Superhost status!
I operate a 'moderate' cancellation policy on all three lisitings because I think that's fair for guests, but so fed up with guests (especially Instant Bookers) cancelling last minute (especially for Chrsitmas!) and their profile/review record not being effected in any way.
As said at the top of this conversation, seems very unfair that hosts are penalised for cancelling with an automatic review: 'The host cancelled this reservation', yet guests receive no mention that they cancelled on their profiles/reviews.
After chatting with other hosts have realised that there are repeat offenders out there and this should be brought to hosts' attention so they can protect themselves. Perhaps guests who cancel more than 3 times should be made to pay nonrefndable deposits or excluded from instant book...?