cancellations

[Andrea888]

I need to have my listing show with a very strict cancellation policy of 60 days. It says this is by invite only? How do you get invited? This is a ski condo so the booking window is very limited and a 7 day cancellation could actually put us in the red for the season. Thank you!

[Jann3]

Two things @Andrea888, 

1: From what I understand through reading what others say (and it may be wrong) but you get invited by being a major hotelier and/or organization that offers a "different style" of property...like a castle, etc. (again, I may be wrong but there is really no guidance that I can find.)

2: Maybe - if you need that style of cancellation policy - AirBnB is not the place to list.

One last point, "strict" cancellation is hard enough to enforce through AirBnB if there is the slightest possibility that the guest was not "in the wrong"...I wouldn't want to know how they handle the "fairness" of a 60-day policy.

[Andrea888]

Thank you for your insight! I am considering removing my listing unfortunately. I hope they will invite me to the more strict cancellation as it's not possible to accept a 7 day cancellation.

[Farah1]

@Andrea888 I just want to make sure that you are aware that when a guest cancels more than 7 days, you still receive 50% of the payout...

[Farah1]

@Jann3 not sure why there is no option to send you a message. I hope everything is going smoothly with setting up the place. It is almost August, exciting!

[Jann3]

@Farah1, I know ... I don't know why we can't message people! I wanted to let you know Thursday that I was up in Seattle (and "Snohomish?" -sp?) for my nieces' wedding! I wanted to try to meet up while I was there! Flew back Sat night at 10pm to find 14 of my deliveries at my husband's JCPenney awaiting pickup! (And 4 more deliveries awaiting me to set a delivery time cos it's furniture and appliances!) We are testing doing the entire apartment from JCPenney to see how it works out. So far I have nothing that I've needed that I couldn't find there!

I am so thrilled we are almost set up for our first time AirBnB'ing!

Will keep you updated...meanwhile: am I missing something or why can't we "message" users on this forum?

[Farah1]

@Jann3 super exciting! I can't wait to see the listing!

[Fred13]

Super Strict 60, like Jann said above is probably reserved for unusual places, those requiring more complicated travel logistics than usual, meaning realistically impossible to re-book in less than 60 days. For example, like an island in a foreign country for. Btw you pay extra for it, 5% vs. the standard 3%.

[Andrea888]

I would settle for the 30-day cancellation but one week is not doable for people who rely on rental income to pay the mortgage. Other rental sites allow for the more strict cancellation so it feel like they are using their soft cancellation policy as a marketing tool to get renters to use their site ... but at the cost of the hosts. I haven't heard back from my online inquiry to Airbnb and there is no phone number to call so right now I just feel like they don't care anyhow.