What percentage of your guests cancel?

[Pete69]

What percentage of your guests cancel? One out of every __ bookings?

And I don't mean ones who read your description an hour after booking and decide that there's something they don't like.

[Andrew157]

We have only had one guest cancel in nearly two years of hosting  That was "extenuating circumstances" as his granny in Aus was ill. Even though he was UK based he has not rebooked. 

I was able to rebook as they had booked part of Christmas. 

I have also cancelled one guest as we allowed a booking when the apartment was not available. I took the hit and learnt to watch my diary better. We also agreed a cancellation with some guests as there was late snow in the UK in March.

So about even 

[Cor3]

Hi @Pete69,

Till date we have had only 1 real cancellation out of some 60+ past bookings. The reason given, was a bit odd. But I got my 50% refund anyway.

And we had 1 cancellation after 3 hours of booking (which basically doesn’t count, because of the recently introduced grace period). And we had 1 guest intending to cancel last moment (for a very valid reason), but the travel companions decided to come anyway. So that doesn’t count either.

So with us, it is less than 2%

Usually when guests want to cancel, it is either health or family matters related.

And especially when a doctor or a hospital is involved. The chance is very high, that the guest will be fully refunded by Airbnb - on your expense. Despite of your cancellation policy.

[Kath9]

I've probably had around 5 cancellations in 200 bookings so around 2.5%. Some give a reason, some don't...

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

I've been hosting for 1.5yrs now, currently on my 6th guest 🙂 I get a lot of long-term guests so it would be hard to compare in general but I've had 1 cancellation, very recently. It was a "change of heart" cancellation - about 1 week after booking with me, the guest sent me a message saying she wanted to find a place to stay with her friends (maybe all stay in the dormitory together) instead of staying alone at my single occupancy private guest room, and cancelled. (guest and ABB CS tried really hard to trick/coax me into issuing a full refund - I firmly insisted that the cancellation policy be respected and followed) 

Things turned out better though 🙂 One of our guests from last year recommended us to a friend who decided to book with us. Thanks to the cancellation, our room was available. 

Other than that, one cancellation because it was a 3rd party booking. And one incident where I was tricked by the "guest requests that you cancel" message when I was just starting as a host last year. 

[Willow3]

I've never had a cancellation.  I have had many modifications.  I host a lot of nursing students who are doing practicum at our local hospital, and their schedules change on them and so they modifiy here.  I don't like the constan change, but I understand that it's out of their control and so I roll with it.  

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@Pete69

I had 3 bookings  cancelled :

1st. cancelled the check in day : the lady did not do her visa and was empeached to take the plane.

2nd. changed their mind 6 months in advance. The place was rebooked a few days later

3rd. The gentleman broke his elbow 1 week before their arrival date.

But the most tricky to manage for me was not strictly speaking a cancellation but a modification without my approval.

I had a booking for many months and i suddenly received a message saying that the dates were changed by the tenant to 1 month.

I discovered that for for lon-term lease (> 28 days), the traveller can change the dates without the approval of the landlord  to shorten the rental if the modification is done more than 1 month before the arrival.

I was obliged to change the house rules :

"Long term lease are commited to respect the French Law which requires the tenant to rent for a minimum of 9 months in Paris.
If the guest books for 9 months and then wants to stay for less time, the approval of the Landlord must have been obtained.
The landlord may refuse to shorten the rental period because the rental would become illegal. Therefore, the tenant would be obliged to cancel the reservation on his behalf."

[Mark3735]

Ive had 20 cancellations since last May. I’m running at about 75% utilization. All of the cancellations have been for weather or personal reasons. Wanted to see if anybody else had similar outcomes.