Open discussion - Moderate Cancellation Policy

Open discussion - Moderate Cancellation Policy

Recently I posted a Host Voice request to modify the Moderate Cancellation Policy to be stricter now that there are so many opportunities to cancel penalty-free by the guest. My reason for asking to modify it was due to the large uptick in cancellations we've been receiving since the "3 free" policy went into effect. Since it didn't get the requisite amount of upvotes from other hosts to be moved to "popular", it was archived.

 

So I would like to open a discussion about cancellation policies, the moderate policy in particular.   My original Host voice post is below.  Is my request for change unwanted by other hosts?  Did I miss something in my request? Please add your 2 cents.  

 

Original Host Voice request:  Now that Airbnb has provided a number of options for "risk-free" cancellations before a reservation - including 48 hours to cancel, 3 free a year, the Extenuating Circumstances Policy, split payments, delayed payments, and making the guest agree explicitly to the cancellation policy prior to booking - it's time to modify the middle cancellation policy to be more strict as the date of the reservation is pending.  Today the end of the grace period is at 5 days.  Even your algorithym admits that open reservation dates with less than a week to go are a detriment and Smart Pricing drops those open dates to the minimum long before then.  So a cancellation at 6 days will likely go unfulfilled and the host, after holding that reservation for weeks or months, will receive nothing.  With all the options for the guest to cancel prior to 5 days out or penalty free if they have a legit issue fitting the Extenuating Circumstances policy, the penalty phase of Moderate cancellation should start at 14 days.  2 weeks prior is plenty of time to know if you are not going on a holiday and want to cancel penalty-free.  It will also protect hosts who are popular and could book in advance had the guest not blocked the time.  2 weeks to try to rebook is a reasonable amount of time to get another booking so if the host should, indeed, rebook, the guest would get a full refund, otherwise they would be partially penalized as they are today. 

23 Replies 23
Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Alice-and-Jeff0 I agree & went to HV to upvote, but couldn't find...

@Kelly149 - that's because it was archived.  My hope here is to garner a consensus of what hosts want - if anything - by way of a change to this policy.  Once we get a general idea, I'll post another HV and let people know so they can upvote and get it moved to Popular to be considered by Airbnb for change.  

@Alice-and-Jeff0 well, as you well know HV is a mess of oft-repeated & buried ideas. Just in scrolling for your idea I noticed a recent posting with the same idea and then half a dozen repeats of things we’ve seen listed & ignored for years. 

Can I have more control of IB?

can guests have better profiles before booking?

can I specify more things by date:pricing, availablity, IB, cancellation, etc?

can all guests be verified on a booking?

how do I deal with guests who say absurd things in reviews?

 

cynical but I think there are reasons why HV is completely ignored & the admins post feel good fluffy stories & pay more attention to the other forums....

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Alice-and-Jeff0 And to your question, yes, 5 days is too little notice. 14 seems like a good minimum 

I think 21 days is more like it.

Jeremy144
Level 1
Austin, TX

Yes, I agree.  Seems like such a common sense modification, I'm perplexed that no action has been taken

@Jeremy144 @Alice-and-Jeff0 Imagine a business model where the bulk of your ‘customer service’ inquiries are handled by volunteers? Now this business doesn’t have to develop any service division.

The basic customer contacts are with mega call centers in India and the PI. 

A quick look at the available job listings will show you that about %90 of the available positions are in tech. The customer service is not being developed. The company is obviously winging it along the way and it’s clear there is no balance. A hospitality booking business that doesn’t know anything about hospitality?

The Admins on this forum also “shadow post” content. They hide post of interest and keep promoting the basic entry level questions over and over. The good and interesting content gets buried so New Host only see the few topics that are most relevant to New Host, “how do I get paid?”, “I had a horrible guest”, “before and after pics”.

Keep your eyes wide open. 

 

 

‘You know it’s hard out here for a Host’

Marzena4
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

@Kelly149 Yes, I've been on a 14-day cancellation policy on booking.com and generally it works fine for me. I've been lucky so far with (very few) guest cancellations but still support the idea of changes.

// "The only person you can trust is yourself"
ChuckandCarole0
Level 7
Springfield, OR

thanks so much for continuing this conversation!!
Airbnb now has the big corporate standards where the hosts are getting boxed into what airbnb wants us to do by the "Search algorhythms" . So much of the time, with big corporations, staff has to justify their postition by creating some new feature on the website, like “Free Cancellation”.
  i certainly have never had any problems getting bookings over 290 days a year with my strict policy….but now i, and other hosts, that don’t want to be jacked around, are not even showing up in a search, unless they opt for a "FREE Cancellation" policy....
 
moderate is a step away, and seems like it still won't get you preference in search listings.  you can look at all the first pages of listings....even if you have Instant Book, and are a superhost, like i am, we no longer get any preference. the algorhythms seem to be set against any hosts that have a mind of their own. 
 
 Airbnb tries to present to hosts that they care about us, when they show us time and time again, they only care if we conform….. what made airbnb special in the first place, was the unique quality of the listings, and the personalities of the hosts. 
Ben205
Level 10
Crewkerne, United Kingdom

@Alice-and-Jeff0I've been lucky, one cancellation in 9 months, and that rebooked (I think ABB did some promotion, not sure how, to help). But, I do support a move to a longer period for the moderate policy. I don't want to go 'strict' but would if we started to get more guests cancel.

 

With smart pricing and free cancellations, I have started to wonder if some guests make a booking, any booking, early on then wait until nearer the time to see if other properties are cheaper. Then the guest can cancel for free and re-book a different location. Am I being cynical?

Rebecca181
Level 10
Florence, OR

@Alice-and-Jeff0 - YES YES YES! Do you have a link to your original post in HV? I have never been comfortable with this 5 day arrangement but the 'Strict' is too strict for me, even as a host. VRBO/Homeaway's cancellation policy for 'Moderate' is 100% refund if cancelled within 30 days and 50% refund if cancelled within 14 days, and that one I can live with far more comfortably. As far as I am concerned, Airbnb's policy as written now is not 'Moderate', it is 'Extraordinarily Lenient To Guests And Unfair To Hosts'. Did your original HV post get archived? Or...?

 

On a related note: I am perplexed in general about how the HV posts work. For example, I posted about the need to change the 'Animal Assistance' policy (I think you commented on that) - It has 11 pages of comments and lots of 'thumbs up' and I have never had an Admin comment on it, even to say 'Forget it, it ain't ever going to happen'. I thought Admins comment on our HV ideas if they get a lot of comments and 'thumbs up'. Am I wrong?

Chris773
Level 7
Branson, MO

Totally. I wish there was something between "Strict" and "Moderate."

Moderate is way too liberal for me--as the OP said, I can't rebook within 5 days without steeply discounting. But I'm perfectly happy to give a 100% refund with 30 days notice (matching my HomeAway and TripAdvisor policies) and might even consider it with 2 weeks' notice, but 5 days is too little.

 

Airbnb has driven me to choose "Strict" even though it's too strict for me, because it's the least-bad option. But I'd gladly loosen my cancellation policy if Airbnb's options better fit the vacation rental owner's needs.

Jaysa0
Level 2
San Francisco, CA

I have asked numberous times for a change in cancellation policy something between strict and moderate. I agree the HomeAway/VRBO policy is right: more than 14 days full refund, less than 14 days 50% refund. Let's get everyone to submit a request here for the additional cancelation policy: 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

David126
Level 10
Como, CO

With is being so easy to get a full refund under EC it is not something I get particularly worried about.

 

My first question would be if your HV post did get enough votes and was not archived, what did you expect to happen?

David