New Hosting Cancellation Policy - Boo!

[Liz140]

Really unhappy!

In the last year I had one set of guests show up with additional people and demand that I accomodate them. (At the time, I had one bedroom and one bed) And they were drunk. I turned them away. I had another woman who made a three week reservation who sat at my kitchen table screaming at people over the phone. After 4 days, I could not take it any longer. A few weeks later, a young man experiencing a severe episode of schizophrenia showed up with a 3 week reservation. He'd obviously been living outdoors, and it took 3 days to get rid of the smell, after being in my home for only an hour.  

Now I cannot cancel these types of guests without severe penalty.

I do not rent a home, guest home, apartment or condo, etc. It is a bedroom in a small house, that is my home. I cannot have guests that are unruly or potentially dangerous. I use the automatic booking for the guest's convenience, as opposed to screening everyone. This was something that Airbnb has encouraged us to do, but gave us 3 penalty-free cancellations a year as a back-up. This was fair. The new policy is not. I will now have to screen people, making my life much more complicated, OR simply move my home to another service, other than Airbnb. This new policy is simply not do-able.

Further I'm unhappy with the way Airbnb communicates (or lack thereof) with hosts. I don't want to have to follow the bullitten boards to find out what's happening. (I have a life) And I don't want  to find out after something becomes policy. Whatever happened to the courtesy of a letter sent out 30 days in advance to clients to inform them of changes and perhaps to solicit feedback. Not only is this, in line with contract law in most places, it's professional.

It's hard to believe that a company this big, does not have people at the helm who can do better.

[Vinay7]

Hi @Liz140, you have a beautiful place, your listing is very clear and you have amazing reviews!!

I see that you are priced much lower in your neighborhood. Probably this is attracting the kind of guests you don't want to have. Consider increasing your price. If you think you are over charging, you can later offer a discount to guests or provide more amenities to compensate. You want to be more careful as you are sharing your space with the guests and quality of guests you receive is very important.

Regarding policy, I do believe that every company wants to be better than last year, as the customers get more demanding. I see it as an opportunity to better myself most of the times. But yes, it can be frustrating to keep up with it. By keeping up with it, we would become better hosts which translates to better revenues!

🙂

I hope you will have better guests in future and also hope that you will figure out a way to deal with the policy changes.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Liz140,

Lovely to meet you and welcome to the Community Center.

I am sorry to hear your upset with the changes being made to Strict Cancellation policy. I wanted to let you know that due to the feedback received here, we have recently shared an update and we are gathering feedback on the policy. Please do take a look at the topic and share any thoughts you have there, as I am feeding this all back to our team. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Terry3]

HI Lizzie,

I too am VERY upset with the new cancellation policy.  I feel totally taken advantage of by Airbnb.

I was told that my properties were some of your best bookers however because of your policy I am renting through other sources.  My home books all the time and usually last minute for up to 3 months at $15,000 a month or $650 a night.  I can not book with you way in advance when my guest can cancel up to a week before check-in.  As I said, most of my bookings are last minute industry people.

Airbnb use to be very host-oriented, now it's all about them making money and the host

being held, hostage.  I was very active in ALL the local city council meetings, I was on TV speaking out for Airbnb, not anymore, not unless some of the new practices are reversed.

Thanks for your time.

Terry

[David2643]

I agree , the policy is way too one sided. 

I have been burned twice by late cancellations by guests (both within 48 hours).

Problems and errors by AirBnB and their software contributed to the errors and offered no easy support.

I had to scramble to avoid large losses after holding reservations faithfully for months.

The policy is apparently in the Airbnb interest but it is not in mine so I am DONE with hosting.

It is too much risk for too little reward, so I am done Hosting with Airbnb and will look for a more fair situation Airbnb 0 for 2.

best wishes,

Dave