Instant Book cancelation penalty right now?

[Monika64]

Hi fellow hosts,
I know probably most experts tired of answering this question but what is the instant book (IB) cancelation penalty RIGHT NOW that the 1 month trial period is over?
And yes, I did search on this info on several platforms, however the information is incredibly confusing and conflicting :-(((

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Monika64

Monika - it's confusing alright - the number one thing to remember is never ever cancel the booking yourself. Contact AirBnB, explain why you want it cancelled and get them to do it for you. Remember all the platform sees is a cancellation!

Second thing: never ever 'accept' a cancellation request from a guest - as this is the same as you cancelling.

Good luck!

[Monika64]

I'm totally with you on the "never cancel" idea @Gerry-And-Rashid0, however I wanna be prepared for guests who will not read my listing and will book regardless of breaking a handful of my rules. I know there will be some as I had the craziest requests lately. My listing is super detailed but people just don't read it (I'm sure you experience that as well). Truthfully I rather not go trough the whole big trouble of asking AIRBNB to cancel as simply getting in touch with tjem is a pain and takes up valuable time. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Monika64

I know - it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. Dammed if you do cancel and dammed if you dont.

Guest's don't read the full description - although thankfully we have never had to cancel on a guest (as yet!). We are probably lucky in that we are in London, people are out and about sightseeing all day and out having dinner in the evening - so our house rules are pretty slim (lock the door, no smoking, etc). So many people get caught out cancelling when they believe they are entitled to do so, but end up having to contact AirBnB anyway to remove the automated reviews, etc...

Not sure what the real answer is here as it's incredibly difficult for hosts to navigate when and how cancellations should be penalty free. I have read the rules and policies multiple times, and posts from other hosts, and I am no wiser - hence my 'let AirBnB do it approach'...

If you find out more, post it here!

[David126]

I use Instant Book and have had a few occasions when I have had a booking that made little sense so have mentioned my concerns. Sometimes they cancel sometimes they have not, but it is not very often. I have never felt the need to cancel.

The only time I have had an issue was when I had a burst pipe, then I did contact ABB. I have had a few cancellations due to bad weather.

[Monika64]

@David126I guess you are lucky with your guests. I was refering to guests who do not read the listing (in case of IB they'd just BOOK right away) and have requests that you just cannot accomodate. I just had a request (I had not turned on IB at that point yet) when the lady was absolutely shocked that I could not accomodate 10 people in my 34 sqm condo with a the description of MAX 4 people.

[David126]

Would you not mention that the maximum capacity is x and was your place the one that they needed to book? Presumably they would cancel and book somewhere that could host 10.

[Monika64]

@David126 Yes, you are absolutely right. I got lucky with that one because I didn't have IB on, yet. However, I can tell you already that there are just people who do not read listings. A lot of them. That request arrived a day after somebody asked for 6 people.

I'm anticipating IB bookings were this will happen, it'll be just the matter of time. I just wanna be prepared.

I actually just got an official reply from Airbnb and you can cancel IB penalty free 3 times within a year. If you know that the guest will break house rules (such as booking for more people) Airbnb will take care of the cancelation and it'll not count as one of the 3.

[David126]

I did not know btw that there was a one month trail period but I do know that the 3 free cancellations was done away with some time back.

It does change, both the wording and the implementation.

[Monika64]

@David126

I didn't know about the trial period either until I searched for answers. The period ended March 31st.

The 3 free cancelations still stands. According to the official Airbnb costumer service reply that I've just got emailed a few minutes ago:

"With IB, you are allowed up to 3 penalty-free cancellations a year. However, if your guest does not comply with house rules, you are able to contact us to request penalty-free cancellation and this does not go against your 3 cancellations per year. House rules are to be respected by guests and if not, they are penalized, not you. We want to ensure your protection and due respect is in course at all times."

[David126]

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reser...

I’m a host. What penalties apply if I need to cancel a reservation?

Because cancellations disrupt guests' plans and impact confidence in the Airbnb community, the following penalties will be applied for host cancellations.

Cancellation Fees. A fee will be deducted from your first payout following the cancellation. The amount deducted will depend on when you accepted the reservation and how soon before check-in you canceled the reservation:

• If you cancel a reservation accepted before January 1, 2016:
• More than 7 days before check-in, we’ll deduct $50 from your next payout.
• Less than 7 days before check-in, we’ll deduct $100 from your next payout.
• If you cancel a reservation accepted on or after January 1, 2016:
• More than 48 hours before check-in, we’ll deduct 50% of the payout you would have received from the booking (not to exceed $100).
• Within 48 hours of check-in, this fee increases to 100% of the payout you would have received from the booking (not to exceed $500).

Automated review. An automated review will be posted to your listing's profile indicating that you canceled one of your reservations. These reviews can't be removed, but you can always write a public response to clarify why you needed to cancel.

Unavailable/Blocked calendar. Your calendar will stay blocked and you won't be able to accept another reservation for the same dates of the canceled reservation.

Loss of eligibility for Superhost status. You won't be eligible to earn Superhost status for one year after your most recent cancellation.

Account Suspension. If you cancel 3 or more reservations within a year, we may deactivate your listing.

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, there will be no exceptions to our updated cancellation policy.

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[Monika64]

@David126

I've read this too but it's not specific to IB. Hence why I decided to contact Airbnb. I guess the Help Center need a bit of updating 🙂

[David126]

It used to say 3 free last year then it changed, so who knows?

[Jennifer178]

It does say on the website when they are trying to get you to turn on IB that one of the benefits is that you can cancel penalty free if you do not feel comfortable or the guests breaks your house rules.  It says it twice.  It does not mention a limit on how many times. I used to see the 3x allowance.   There is probbably invisible fine print there.  

I have had Airbnb cancel for me three times, no penalties.  

1. Girl used IB and then asked if she could have an extra person even though she saw that it says MAXIMUM TWO GUESTS. I told her this was not possible.  They were coming for a music festival.  I called Airbnb and asked them to help her bug off.  They did. I turned off IB.

2. I had IB turned back on but this guest did an inquiry first.  He booked but then a few days before his trip I got pnuemonia (actually had it for months but I am tough) and I did not have the energy to deal with a guest and did not want them getting sick.  I asked the guest if they wanted to cancel and they said yes. Because the trip was in 24hrs I called Airbnb and they canceled for me.  I even got a message later asking me how I was feeling and they hoped I felt better sooner.

3.  I had a young man IB for 2 weeks using his sisters account.  I told him third party bookings were not allowed and that he needed to register himself.  I contacted Airbnb and explained to them what happened.  They read my explanations to him and they canceled his booking with no penalties to him and he booked himself a half hour later. One of the best guest I have ever had. He stayed an extra week.

I think a lot of it is situational  depending on your hosting history, the guest, reasons, conversation thread, the customer rep you get, the phases of the moon and if Venus is in retograde.  There should be a highly detailed policy that is uniformly adhereed to while acknowledging that sometimes things happen outside the normal parameters.

I had three people cancel on me.  One canceled due to change of international travel plans. A host canceled 20 minutes after booking because he had not read that it was a private room and he wanted a whole house to admittedly party. He also asked me what the moderate cancellation policy was.  The last cancelled within 10 minutes of booking and I have no idea why.  All were well before the travel dates.