Note: Please only answer if you have direct knowledge and can back-up your answer by pointing to an article or providing a message thread from support so there is something in writing.
There are numerous posts both on the Community Center, FB pages and Twitter with no definitive article identified that shows the policy for allowing an alteration request opens a new 48 hour window for the guest to cancel.
Assume you have a "Strict" cancellation Policy, when a guest books which entitles them to a 48 hours grace period to cancel without penalty and the ability to cancel at least 14 days before the check-in date to receive a 50% refund, after that the host gets paid 100%.
The rumor (or truth) is that if a guest asks for a modification of any type and it is accepted by the host that it will trigger a new 48 hour cancellation window for the guest.
In multiple calls with support (and a case that remains open), no rep has been able to point to any article that lays out the policy for an alteration, but I have been verbally told (waiting for the rep to put it in writing) that any adjustment to the start or end date will trigger a new 48 hour window regardless of your policy and irrespective of if the start date.
This means that, if a guest asks you to add a day to their stay a day prior to their reservation and the host accepts the alteration, the guest could then turn around and cancel.
Example:
Booking Date: January 2, 2024
Stay: February 1, 2024 - February 7, 2024
Modification Request Received: January 30, 2024
Modification: Change Stay to February 1, 2024 - February 8, 2024 (1 day addition)
Host Accepts on: January 30, 2024
Guest Cancels on: January 31, 2024
Refund: Guest is Refunded whatever the paid and host receives 0 and ABB gets their fees.
I do not think that any host looking to accommodate a change for their guest like this should then be allowing the guest to cancel. I clearly understand if the guest wanted to push out the reservation beyond the 14 days (i.e. in this example March 1-March 7) would open up the policy to allow for the 14 day advance cancellation policy, but not open the new 48 hour booking policy.
More importantly is that the information regarding this policy does nots seem to exist in any article or in the TOS on the AirBnB site. (From what I understand this has affected hosts by guests that knowingly scam through using this loophole, but so far that is anecdotal).
Please, if anyone has found or can find any article or written policy on this, it would be greatly appreciated because as of this point I will not allow modifications to a reservation for an extension until after the guest has checked in and I have been paid. I don't think this is what AirBnB intended nor has advertised.
