Hi Clare,
Thank you for your response, which was very helpful. Reading through the information in the link, in summary:
- I get a reduced protection from cancellation of bookings
- My host fee is increasing by 67%
I’m not sure that the new ‘strict’ policy really deserves that name. A guest can cancel anytime with no charge up to 30 days before their booking. They can get half their money back within 30 days of a booking commencing and 50% of the remaining booking in they leave during their stay. That sounds remarkably flexible to me!
I’m currently staying in a hotel apartment and have to give 30 days notice (and pay for the full 30 days if I leave early). Some of my friends have 90 day notice periods for longer rentals.
My holiday home is fairly remote and only open in the summer months. Bookings are made well in advance (I have never received a booking with less than 60 days notice), so if someone cancels under the new policy I am very unlikely to get a replacement booking. My costs, on the other hand (cleaning and maintenance) are relatively fixed, so if I get a late cancellation, I will still be obliged to pay the cleaners, etc.
Airbnb saying that the new policy benefits me (because I might get more bookings if guests see greater flexibility for them) is akin to applying lipstick to a pig. I won’t (can’t) get more bookings, but I might get more cancellations, so the net impact is definitely negative. I don’t mind if guests choose not to book with me because they want more flexibility, but I do mind if I can only rent on terms I don’t like. As the saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Airbnb is taking the birds from my hand and putting them back in the bush, and charging me more for this.
To put it another way, I always knew I could choose a more flexible cancellation policy and that, by choosing a stricter policy I may put off some guests. I chose based on my own balance of risk and reward. Why does Airbnb believe it should now determine my risk v reward balance for me?
It’s not immediately clear to me why it should cost more to be ‘strict’ either. It doesn’t cost Airbnb more to run their IT systems if I choose one policy over another, nor should it involve more staff time.
So overall it’s a lose – lose for me and may also reduce the income for Airbnb (if I get a cancellation they won’t get paid their guest fees or the uplifted host fee).
Guests can insure against forced cancellation of a holiday under most normal holiday insurance packages. Hosts would find it very difficult or impossible to insure against a cancelled booking (except if caused by e.g. destruction of the property). So why is Airbnb protecting guests from an insurable risk at the expense of hosts for an uninsurable risk?
Given all the above, the question then is, ‘will this mean I stop using Airbnb?’
The answer is ‘possibly’.
I will stop renting through Airbnb if either:
- I find a solution for promoting and renting out my property that better matches my needs, or
- The costs in time/effort and money start to outweigh the rental income (which will be the case if 1 or more guests cancel a booking over the short summer rental season)
Will Airbnb care? Possibly not.
One final point… why do users of the Airbnb platform have to visit an off platform website in order to find out what the fee rates are? I would have thought that this (failing to disclose the fees chargeable for using the service) was illegal in some jurisdictions.
Thanks again for your response, Clare. At least I now know what’s happening even if it seems to make very little sense to me!
Hello alice & jeff,
my name is Ali from Airbnb customer support. Thank you very much for your email.
I checked this article: What are host service fees https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/63/and in english you are totally right with your notice that it is not mentioned, if you would set the language to german, you will see the 3%.
I will forward your email as a feedback. Thank you very much for letting us know about this issue.
I wish you a very nice evening.
Best regards,
Ali H
www.airbnb.com/help