Alterations vs. Cancellation, same meaning for hosts.

[Troy216]

The long term rental policy AirBNB uses is a completely one sided policy, handcuffing the hosts that AirBNB makes their profit off of.

Any alteration that shortens the length of stay should be considered and cancelation and some type of monetary penalty should be applied to the guest.

If you alter 120 nights, you are in the same breath canceling those nights.  When the reservation has been made 5 months in advance this has a direct impact on the opportunities a host has to capitalize on those nights.  

If AirBNB had to foot the cost of assets when they weren't being monetized I guarantee this policy would not exist.

Has anyone found a work around to the long term policy in regards to this mess of a cancellation/alteration issue?

Thanks 

[Ricardo85]

@Troy216 

You don't need to accept the booking alteration.

Ricardo

[Troy216]

Ricardo,

With AirBNB's long term rental policy hosts do not get the option to accept or decline any alteration.  If the guests wants to alter their reservation while checked in they can do so.

[Huma0]

@Troy216 

I believe the host is only forced to accept the date alteration if the guest sends it within a certain time frame (I read something about 30 days in advance of check in). Otherwise, they still have to pay for the first month as per the cancellation policy.

However, the policy on this is worded in a really vague way... So, not everything is clear cut and I am sure guests find loopholes.

[Sarah977]

@Troy216  There are many reasons not to take long term bookings through Airbnb, this would only be one of them.

[Emiel1]

@Troy216

I host(ed) many "long term reservations" and never encountered a problem with it.

You need to understand the "long term stay" cancellation policy very well, it indeed has some quircks, but as a host you quickly will adapt on them !

Also some changes by the guest on the reservation do indeed not need approval of the host.

I always perform changes (like shortenings) myself (being the host), giving me the opportunity to change the calculated price in the pricefield of the change form.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1361/cancellations-of-longer-stays

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/help-test-a-new-cancellation-policy-for-longer-stay...

[Troy216]

I guess I'm not following on how shortening the stay or trying to change the price gives me any more control over alterations. 

With the long term rental policy the "quirk" is after you've checked in, you can alter the check out date whenever you want without the hosts permission. This is the quirk that needs to be changed to protect hosts against losses. I just endured an 18k loss because of this so called quirk. 

[Sylvia98]

I know this conversation is almost 2 years old, but I just experienced a similar cancelation made as an "alteration" that circumvented the Airbnb policy for long-term strict policy I signed up as a host. Airbnb must clarify these loopholes that savvy travelers use with the blessing of inexperienced Airbnb representatives.  Right now, alterations are automatically approved by Airbnb without input from the host. The loophole is that when a resident guest requests an alteration, Airbnb automatically approves, AND applies the short-term cancelation policy NOT the long-term cancellation policy.  This loophole hurts the host. 

Let me give you an example, this guest booked for 2 months. One week after he checked in, he contacted me asking for a one-year stay and offered to pay me outside Airbnb. I declined the payment offer and told him the apartment was already booked for some months. Two days later he submitted the alteration, automatically accepted by the system, and did not pay the additional 30 days as required by the strict long-term cancellation policy setup by Airbnb. I hope Airbnb understands this problem because it's frustrating and it hurts hosts playing by the rules. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sylvia98 This is strange because every alteration request we have had comes to us for approval (or otherwise). Quite why Airbnb is approving it suggests to me the guest must have called them claiming some sort of issue.

[Sylvia98]

If that's the case, I didn't get notified by Airbnb at all. 

[Sandra856]

@Mike-And-Jane0 A guest is able to manually alter a long term stay - just not shorten it to shorter than 30 days without any interference from host/Airbnb. It seems that it was what happened to @Sylvia98 ? Then the guest didn’t pay for those 30 days that the guest is otherwise obligated to pay for /per the cancellation policy. A guest can remove credit card details so when it is time to pay for those 30 days the host isn’t paid - even though Airbnbs  cancellation policy guarantees 30 days payment for longer term stays. So the host ends up empty handed. That is how I understand it. 

Airbnb doesn’t make sure that the host is paid for those 30 days. It is extremely unfair.