Instant Book: Penalty Free Cancellation – What is the Reality of Your Experience?

[John1574]

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The text set off below I copied from AirBnB's help pages concerning "No Penalty Cancellation for Instant Booking Hosts".  I included a link to the page at the end of this post.

I’m not seeking comments on whether to use or not to use Instant Booking but rather comments from hosts who do use Instant Booking and have experience using or trying to use AirBnB’s “penalty free cancellation” feature as outlined below in their Help guidance.

The more details you can provide of your experience the better.  If you have quotes or links to add, please, do so.

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Instant Book hosts can cancel 100% penalty-free under certain circumstances. Learn more about Instant Book

Unlimited cancellations

Hosts never have to host a reservation they’re uncomfortable with.

Some examples of when a host can cancel penalty-free include:

    The guest has several unfavorable reviews that concern the host

    The guest hasn’t responded to questions the host needs to know about their trip

    The guest makes it clear they’ll likely break one of the host’s house rules, like bringing a pet or smoking

100% penalty-free

Penalty-free means:

    No cancellation fee

    No automated cancellation review

    No loss of Superhost eligibility

    No permanently blocked dates

Remember, you can’t cancel for any reason that violates Airbnb’s Nondiscrimination Policy.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2022/how-do-penalty-free-cancellations-work-for-instant-book-hos...

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[Linda108]

I have instant book and have cancelled but always included Air BNB rep in the cancellation process, @John1574.  No problems so far.

[John1574]

@Linda108

Thanks, Linda, that is good to hear.

And a good tip about using AirBnB during the cancellation process.

I'm forseeing the day when I will have to cancel an instant booking due to the number of people new to the platform or due to people who want to mis-use it.

[John1574]

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Per Instant Booking penalty free cancellation, I came across several incidents n the thread linked to below where it may have been appropriate to use the IB penalty free cancellation.

When red flags are raised trust your instinct and don't let IB rule your business:  it was set up to both increase business and to protect hosts.

Read below, i.e. IB for Pimps and Ho's.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/prostitution-set-up-in-basement-apartment-of-single-fami...

[Kelly149]

I have IB. I have canceled myself (you are allowed to do this 3 times) and subsequently I have had CS cancel IB reservations. 

Based on this experience what I believe the help article should say is this:

” ABB CS may cancel as many IB reservations as they agree you are allowed to feel uncomfortable about. These will never be subject to the terms of your cancellation policy nor will there be any penalty assessed to the guest for taking your time, blocking your calendar or otherwise being a bad guest. Therefore time is of the essence. And if CS doesn’t agree that you are allowed to be uncomfortable then this policy is null and void. “

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

I also have IB on and I've cancelled (myself without involving ABB CS) without penalty because the booking in question was by a 3rd party (not the guest who was planning to stay), but if I had any concern about penalties for cancelling, I'd contact ABB CS and have them handle it for me.

[John1574]

@Jessica-and-Henry0@Kelly149@Linda108 @Yan

I read a great post by Yan in the thread linked to below.  What I learned from him is valuable to me and maybe to others concerinig this topic of IB penalty free cancellation.

Yan wrote,

Your only option is to avail yourself of your right to cancel an IB on the basis of not feeling comfortable with the reservation. You'll find a lot of conflicting information across the site about how many IB penalty-free cancellations you have on that basis, and largely customer service don't have much of a clue themselves and each will pick their favourite and quote you that.

Yan went on to say this about that:

I had some spare time on my hands so I dug deeper, and the final word is that yes it's three, but it's also unlimited.

Meaning you have three for whatever reason (like you screwed up with your calendar)

And here Yan provides great info:

and unlimited    [penalty free cancellation]  on the basis of not feeling comfortable with the reservation and other

Yan then adds:

the first three you can do online, then you need to call. Just don't expect them to know what you're talking about as they're largely clueless.

I've had agents trying to block my calendar and charge me $50 or even $100 in penalties and had to educate them on how it works, before they reluctantly lifted them.

Yan adds further this great quote:

The review+profile system is the ONLY advantage of using Airbnb over other platform, and if I can't fully avail myself of it I'm not taking it, as Airbnb has become a "risky" platform to me after the shift towards guest satisfaction at the expense of Host income in the last year or so.

And Yan concludes with this:

They're  [AirBnB ] overriding House Rules and cancellation policies like there's no tomorrow and handing out refunds and I just don't trust them to hold my payouts hostage.

Yan's post is right on topic for this thread and it clarified a few thing on the topic that I and I suspect manyothers were unclear about.

Apologies toYan for cutting up his writing for the sake of emphasis.

Thumbs up if you like a post.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Reservation-requests-and-bookings-are-being-made-WITHOUT...