South Korea cancellation policy in Canada?

[Mary450]

I just got a request from a nice man whose profile says he lives in Toronto. He wants to visit here with his family, which is lovely. His name is written in Korean. When I approved his request a message came up saying that I had to agree with South Korean cancellation regulations. They seem to be the same as the "strict" cancellation regulations but I'm a bit confused... what's up with that?

[Monika64]

@Mary450 I just read a post yesterday where someone mentioned Airbnb rolls out new, experimental cancelation policies in few places such as Italy and San Francisco where the guests have a grace period to cancel after making the reservation. Don't know the details but it might be something like that. Odd though since he should be in Canada. Better you check with Airbnb directly if there are different details in South Korea and they'd apply to this guest in any way. 

[Don72]

Most of my guests these days are Korean (my apartment is in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia). As a small operator I can't afford this new cancellation policy for Korean guests as they can cancel from 30 days  up to day of check-in for full refund leaving host little chance of picking up a new booking for the same dates. This is ok for hotels but not for small operators. It does appear to be racially discriminatory which I thought Airbnb was against. Time to find a new hosting site I think.

[Zacharias0]

If you read the fine print they can cancel at ANY point during their stay and still receive 50% of their money back minus the day they put in the cancellation. What host would accept such a reservation? A guest wants to book 4 days, but stays only 1 and youre out 50% of your expected income. 

[Kelly3]

This is actually the biggest problem. I can do full refund for cancelation 30 days prior, but the fact that the guest can cancel on the same day and still get 50 percent refund, that is just not going to work with me.

[Landhaus-Osborne0]

sadly true. Yet again, Airbn has taken it upon themselves to meddle with our policies. You can read about it here: https://web.vreasy.com/airbnb-south-korea-cancellation/

What next, we will have to start accepting various policies from guests from arround the World? No! Our house is in Austria, so Austrian laws - not Korean.

We are lucky to be in a high demand area, so like all the hosts in this area, we are just declining. You should mention in the comment when declining, that you do not accept the South Korean policy imposed by Airbnb. When guests are smart, they will just book on another site as we have seen happening.

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

This was implemented by the South Korean government not airbnb  but SK has illegal rentals like officetels where the police arrived and very nicely took everything into account before telling the guest (a celebrity travel vlogger on youtube) to call them if he ran into any trouble.   

In Manhattan, there have been incidents in K town of renting offices illegally as hotel rooms including to a girl band that was documented in a video about their stay in NYC.   

My issue is that the guest inquiries are blocking my calendar.  So it affects other would be instant bookings.   An inquiry is an inquiry and should not block the calendar.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Mary450 @Landhaus-Osborne0 @Don72 @Monika64

https://www.airbnb.com/home/updated_cancellation_policies?korean_strict_policy=true#strict

No matter where your listing is located, this applies to "reservations made by South Korean travelers on or after June 2, 2017".

I totally agree with @Don72 that this does not seem to be in line with all the fuss about nondiscrimination Airbnb has been so eager to promote. Airbnb should do a better job of practicing what they preach. 

[Monika64]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 I think it's discriminatory and completely illogical to have a cancellation policy depending on the origin of the guests! How can the host even keep track of the different policies around the world? You, as a host, choose one policy because that's what you want to use for your place, regardless of who your guests are. 

[Don72]

If this is a regulation imposed by the Korean government I can understand it being applied to Airbnb hosts located within Korea but they cannot have any jurisdiction over hosts in other countries. Surely it is up to the host to determine their cancellation policy and up to the guests if they want to accept or not. I am still waiting for a response from airbnb on this matter.

[Rose-and-Andreas0]

We had the same issue today (in Indonesia) and needed to decline a booking from a south Korean guest as we don't see why in a sane mind we would accept cancellation terms from a south Korean guest when this can lead to a loss of revenue?

The articles below explain more why this is happening

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elaineramirez/2017/04/04/airbnb-will-ease-strict-policy-refunds-in-sout...

https://web.vreasy.com/airbnb-south-korea-cancellation/