I don't recognise my cancellation policy!

[Victoria1216]

I've had a number of guests cancel their bookings for my property due to Covid 19 (which is fine, we had already made the decision that we would allow people to cancel and were going to give full refunds despite our strict cancellation and zero refund policy).  I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Airbnb were offering a 25% contribution, as we are going to be out of pocket by several thousands of pounds over the next couple of months.

I was a bit perturbed to get an email this morning telling me I was going to receive a far smaller payment than expected so went to check my cancellation policy and it is, apparently, 'strict' - guests can cancel more than 7 days in advance and get as 50% refund. I simply don't recognise this policy, or the 'strict or non-refundable for a 10% discount' - we would never have set the strict policy this for the whole house booking, I don't and wouldn't allow cancellations outside of this situation. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a new cancellation option that I have somehow missed?!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Victoria1216 Strict (which allows 50% to be refunded outside of the 7 day window) is the best policy mere mortals get on Airbnb. Some listings have super strict which seem to only be available to the many companies advertising properties on the site.

It would be interesting to know how these were dealt with by Airbnb.

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Victoria1216 

Yes, that would be correct for the Strict policy. Guests cancelling more than 7 days before get 50% back. That is how it's been for some time as far as I am aware so I can't see anything new here.

There are two Super Strict policies (30 day and 60), but those are by invitation only. You can't just choose them. Even those do not prevent guests getting a 50% refund as long as they cancel either 30 or 60 days in advance.

I don't know of any cancellation policy on Airbnb that is totally non-refundable. It has always confused me when hosts keep referring to their 'no refund' policy on the CC.

[Victoria1216]

It is so strange - I've been an Airbnb host for three years and always been entirely under the impression that my whole house booking was non-refundable. 

[Sarah977]

@Victoria1216  What's strange is that it seems you never fully read the conditions of the Strict policy. I believe it used to be longer than 7 days before check-in to cancel and receive 50% refund (10?), but it's been 7 for a long time, and has never been fully non-refundable. And the 10% discount/non-refundable policy has only been available for about a year, so you couldn't have set that policy when you started hosting 3 years ago.