New Strict Cancellation Policy - Boo!

[Ryan63]

This new strict cancellation policy is really lousy for my business, and I'm pretty unhappy about it.  

My vacation home is booked almost every night, and nearly everyone who books it does so months in advance.  For the few reservations that guests have canceled, the rates I could charge for those canceled nights were only about 50-60% of what the canceling guest paid.  

It only stands to reason that a more forgiving cancellation policy will result in more cancellations, and reduced revenue for my business.  

Airbnb evidently sees an upside to this, and maybe it's a good thing for the whole community, but it's only bad news for my business.  Since I've been marketing my properties outside of Airbnb, this decision brings me a step closer to removing my listings and offering my property through other channels, where I can set my own cancellation policies.  

Shouldn't Airbnb have an obligation to poll its hosts before making decisions like this?  If that happened, I certainly saw no such participatory outreach. 

Infuriating!!!

[Michelle838]

It's merely inconvenient and results in some lost revenue for many hosts, but for others (like me) this change literally destroys our ability to host. It's a long story, but the gist of it is that if a guest cancels a reservation with me, even one minute after confirming, I'm simply out the revenue for that booking, and I have real costs associated that can never be recouped.  I can absorb the rare 50% hit to my income with a cancellation under the current strict policy, but if I had multiple cancellations, which is inevitable with this new policy, with NO payout, I'd be bankrupted. I'm sad about it, but I will have to take down all my listings on April 5th when this ill-conceived policy goes into effect. 

[Matthew285]

@Michelle838, 

I know it is a long story, but how does a booking that is confirmed, then cancelled almost immediately cause your business to incur such great expense?

[Michelle838]

I host points based timeshares. Reservations cost me points, and I have a limited number to work with. When a guest inquires about a reservation, I inquire with the parent timeshare company as to availability. If it is available I place a hold and extend a special offer to the guest or approve them booking, depending on the circumstances. Once the guest accepts the special offer or actually books using the pre approval I complete the reservation with the parent timeshare company. In nearly all circumstances once I have taken that step i cannot cancel with the parent company without incurring penalties that are very close to 100% of the points required for that reservation--and I'm not making a huge markup on them; it's actually quite small. So I guess it's inaccurate to say that I would lose the entire cost of the reservation. It's close to it though, since I effectively do not have the ability to cancel and rebook. If I cancel the reservation with the parent company the points are gone or so severely restricted as to make them unusable. 

[Matthew285]

@Michelle, that makes sense.

Would it work to delay the booking of the timeshare until 48 hours had passed from the booking confirmation? That way perhaps the 48-hour grace period would not affect you monetarily. Once you are past the 48 hour grace period, then it is back to normal with the Strict cancellation policy.

[David126]

I am with @Matthew285, could you explain why, I have a few people book where it was pretty obvious it made no sense, have drawn it to their attention and said is they cancel immediately I would refund, I guess there may have been sombody I missed in the hour pr so it was not available but seems a relatively small risk.

[Michelle838]

Explained above. 🙂 Not sure if it makes sense to most people, but that's the problem for me and many other timeshare based hosts.

[Donald28]

Like they said, wait until 48 hours have passed after the guest agrees to book and then firm up the booking with the imeshare. That does leave open the possibility that those days may become unavailable due to another person booking them during the 48 wait. 

[Margaret278]

Margaret Fliehaman

is the new policy for cancelling?

[Matthew285]

@Margaret278 it is only for Strict Cancellations, and it doesn't begin until April 5, 2018.

Bookings made on or after Apri 5, 2018 will have the 48 hour grace period.

[Fred13]

To think this new policy will come into effect on my birthday, the inhumanity of it all.

@Michelle838I know time is precious, but if a guest is given the option to cancel entirely say 1 hour after booking, in case they made a mistake (perhaps the HOST should have been given the same option), would that been a brighter idea, in your opinion?

@Ryan If you are booked so well in advance, is the change to a full refund before 14 days of arrival is the part that you find more objectionable, than the 48-hour grace period?

If not mistaken, these new changes were first tested in Italy, then in SF about a year ago and now has arrived in all our shores.

[Ryan63]

@Fred13 It's the 14 days.  My properties are vacation rentals deep in the mountains.  That's not a trip that people plan casually in the space of just two weeks.  Most of my bookings originate from Instagram, where people see photos of my property that I've posted, or that other accounts have posted, and then they book on Airbnb.  Knowing what I know about that audience and how my guests have described their decisions to book my property, I'm very concerned that I'll get a lot of impulse bookings that will get refunded two weeks out.  At that point, I'm out at least 40% of the canceled revenue.  

[Fred13]

I know what you are saying; in fact, Super Strict 60 will only do for me, albeit I am the extreme case - an island in 'Timbuktu'.

[Sean119]

@Fred110 Can you give us some details on how you were invited to be Super Strict 60?  Thanks!

[Louise0]

@Ryan63  I'm not sure if I see the probem for you.  If you're booked almost every night, and most folks book months in advance, what is there left for anyone to book 'on impulse'.  Even if they did, and then subsequently cancelled, they've only taken your place off the market for 48 hours.  So, all you've missed out on is any bookings that might have otherwise been made for those dates during that 48 hour window.  When you think about it, it's really not that bad and I doubt it will lead to the doom and gloom scenario that many hosts are anticipating.