Pro/Con of participating in air beta pilot program?

[Heather1086]

I have a message inviting me to participate in an beta test for a new cancellation policy... basically cancel 30 days prior penalty free and then it reverts to the strict policy.  I currently have a strict policy, and I know with my listing if I have availability 30 days out during high season I will most likely have it booked due to supply and demand.  Have any of you participated in a pilot with airbnb?  Have you found any advantages or disadvantages?  Before I decide and knowing how glitchy airbnb can be I wanted to see if any of you have any experiences before I potentially hit go.

[Anonymous]

@Heather1086 Remember when Airbnb rolled out the option of offering guests the choice between two cancellation policies? With a discount if they chose "non-refundable"?

Well, what happened was that a lot of guests chose non-refundable for the discount, but then when they cancelled with "extenuating circumstances" Airbnb gave them a full refund anyway. So it was a lose-lose situation for hosts.

The latest scheme sounds pretty crappy too. What's in it for hosts? More speculative bookings from non-committal guests?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Heather1086 The trial will offer our strict policy to half the views we get and the new policy to the other half. We are giving it a go as the trial promises to compare how many bookings we get with one  policy compared to the other. This will, hopefully, demonstrate what hosts will or will not get out of it which may then answer @Anonymous 's question.

[Nicole2223]

@MikeAndJana0 I also decided to try this beta.  We've had 9 new bookings since we joined the pilot on Jan 8th, and I have no idea which cancellation policy was applied.   I never see an indication that the 'modified strict cancellation policy' was chosen by the guest.  100% of my upcoming reservations say the cancellation policy is 'non-refundable'.  Perhaps that's because most arrival dates are less than 30 days away, but even the one that is > 30 days in future has the same indication.  

Does anyone know if the chosen cancellation policy is displayed anywhere in the reservation?  And/or when/how we will get the comparison that AirBNB promised at the outset?

[Heather1086]

@Mike-And-Jane0 @Yeah that is what made it interested to me... seems to be like an actual research type study. I’m curious if it also gives some sort of priority placement since they will want to see if this is something they want to launch larger...