Confusing cancellation policies

[David13882]

Like others, I find the cancellation policies confusing, particularly for long term rental.  Our lakefront property is very popular in August.  We have a guest who booked the entire month next year so we will be out by $1K for that month by accepting this request (they get long term discount).  The concern is they will cancel late and we will lose bookings in our most popular month.  There ought to be more strict policies for long term rentals in high revenue weeks.  No matter how many times I read it, Firm seems more strict.  I’d  like a 60 day cancellation period option for certain bookings.

Right now, Firm or Strict, our guest can cancel right up to a month before the booking with no consequence whereas our property shows unavailable for that entire valuable month until that happens.  

But as with many things on the ABNB app, it is confusing and not intuitive.

Seems we now need to place further restrictions ourselves to protect revenue opportunities, like no long term at all, or in certain months.

How have people handle this situation?

[Joan2709]

@David13882 

Yes...many other Hosts feel the same.

Suggest you list on Vrbo (if not already) and use their seasonal cancellation policies which include a non-refundable option for your summer bookings. 

We have asked Airbnb for a long time to add seasonal cancellation policies, but to no avail. Airbnb does have a non-refundable options you could try, but we have found guests making up stuff to get a refund when they realize they can't cancel and get a refund. Be careful with the non-refundable option though...not sure if it will stack on top of a early bird or last minute discount as well.