New Strict Cancellation Policy - Boo!

[Ryan63]

This new strict cancellation policy is really lousy for my business, and I'm pretty unhappy about it.  

My vacation home is booked almost every night, and nearly everyone who books it does so months in advance.  For the few reservations that guests have canceled, the rates I could charge for those canceled nights were only about 50-60% of what the canceling guest paid.  

It only stands to reason that a more forgiving cancellation policy will result in more cancellations, and reduced revenue for my business.  

Airbnb evidently sees an upside to this, and maybe it's a good thing for the whole community, but it's only bad news for my business.  Since I've been marketing my properties outside of Airbnb, this decision brings me a step closer to removing my listings and offering my property through other channels, where I can set my own cancellation policies.  

Shouldn't Airbnb have an obligation to poll its hosts before making decisions like this?  If that happened, I certainly saw no such participatory outreach. 

Infuriating!!!

[Ryan63]

I see your point, and it makes sense.  I think Airbnb might have explained this incorrectly on another page, and their copy editors have since corrected things.  I'd swear I saw that the guest had the option to cancel within 48 hours of any booking -or- up to 14 days without penalty.  That's not a detail I would have missed--it means something very different.  

I'm still unhappy about it, but it's much less threatening for sure.  Thanks for calling me out!  

[Lisa723]

It is confusing because they say “within 48 hours of booking” and here “booking” means “making the reservation” not “checking in” so it’s easy to misread.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Ryan63 - yes it absolutely DID say this for a few days.  It has since been changed.  The text on the cancellation page now says "days aways" (nice English Airbnb!).  It absolutely did not say that before because that language fault would have caught me the first time.  

Also, not every host was sent this explanation message.  As a Moderate-policy host, I did not get the email.  This is a giant miss on Airbnb's part.  Even if the policy did not apply to me right now, I might choose to change and not even notice that there is now a 48 hour grace period!  

[いずみ荘--Izumisou-0]

airbnb intervene too much. I hope airbnb just to be a simple marketplace.

[Ryan63]

I'm waiting for someone at Airbnb to explain how this is good for my business, or what measures (if any) I could take to minimize the cancellations and revenue loss. Nothing but crickets. Is anyone listening?

Is this how it works: I list my property, generate heaps of views and revenue for you all--including your second most popular Instagram post last year--then you change my cancellation policies for me without any obligation to consult or explain?

[John1387]

I have read on another forum that young people (possibly oldies too) are booking multiple properties then meeting up with their friends to discuss which property they want to go to and then cancelling all the others.  Sadly, last night, talking about this to our Son (who is a 30 something) he admitted that this is what he and his friends do and he had no qualms about it at all.  All the free cancellation policies not only with Airbnb but the other OTA's are creating big problems for hosts.  None of these sites seem very interested in the actual host and without properties they would not have a site.  There is always a very good chance that once you have accepted a booking you will then have turned away another, perhaps more lucrative booking, in the meantime from another site.  The latest to boast about the "free cancellation" is Ryanair Rooms.  These companies need to look after their hosts too.  

[Yan3]

Sorry for joining this conversation so late, I still "Strict" as an option in addition to "Strict with 48 hour grace period". Is Airbnb going to force the 48 hour cancellation policy onto everyone?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Yan3 - yes, they are eliminating the current strict policy to only be the grace period policy. 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

It's interesting to me @Ryan63 - is that no one is up in arms about how Airbnb protected themselves here against the multiple reservations scenario 

• The Airbnb service fee is refundable, up to 3 times per year, within 48 hours of booking. Separately, if a guest cancels a reservation that overlaps with any part of an existing reservation, we won’t refund the Airbnb service fee if they decide to cancel.

Wait, WHAT?!  Airbnb is going to keep all the fees from, let's just say 3 or 4 reservations, that a booking guest makes but all 3 or 4 hosts are sol?  And based on what @john said, so 4 different people make bookings.... um.... what situation will this be that Airbnb keeps fees or can even TRACK that this behavior is ongoing?  If the guests are added to the reservation, do they retroactively go back and get their fees back?  

For those of us on IB, we get to see how many cancellations a guest has had - well, do these "grace period" cancellations count?  Will I get to see exactly how many times a guest has booked a space for a few days while they sleep on it? Will cancellations of this kind be seen as reasons for a legit host cancellation ("sorry ABNB, I don't want this reservation because they cancel 50% of the time").  There are so many unanswered questions and this is the problem with a startup/capital seeking organization - keep making the people who give you money happy, the rest can gth.  

[Huma0]

I wonder if the new policy also creates a potential confusion amongst guests. I had an experience today that made me wonder about that. I got a last minute Instant Booking from two girls wanting to stay two nights.

Their initial contact put me slightly off ease because they firstly mentioned that the location was out of the way and they were worried about spending a lot of money on taxis (very odd, as I'm a five minute walk to an underground station and then minutes from Central London - all very clear on the listing). They also wanted to check in at 9 am, even though my check in time starts from 3pm. I responded, explaining, and then... silence.

The night before their stay, I messaged again chasing their time of arrival, only to wake on the day with an message saying they were going to cancel because one of them is severely allergic to cats (also made abundantly clear on the listing and reviews that I have cats and mentioned again in my booking message).

They said they realised they may not get a full refund. I have a strict cancellation policy and they are cancelling on the day, so they're not entitled to a refund at all. Still, I am pretty sure they had booked more than one property and then decided to opt out of mine because I wouldn't let them check in at 9am (they went silent as soon as I mentioned that wasn't possible and only gave the cat reason when I chased them).

Now, why would you do this, unless you were under the impression that you were going to get refunded? Given that the 'cancellation' was taking place within the 48 hours after booking, perhaps they thought they would get refunded for any bookings they made and cancelled within that period. They were travelling from the US, so it already seemed odd that they would book accommodation only two days before.

Of course, I am just speculating here, but what is more likely, that the guests totally missed the numerous mentions of cats and the photo of my cat on the listing, OR that they multiple booked, didn't respond to messages and basically treated the booking like an enqiry, because they were under the assumption that they would be automatically refunded if they cancelled within 48 hours of booking?

[David126]

@Huma0

That thought had occurred to me, yet to come across a situation quite like that.

One of those where I would acknowledge and do no more.

Makes you wonder where they stay that does 9am check ins, if they are on the red eye they could get to your place for 9am but it would be a push.

[Huma0]

@David126

It does seem strange, but I do get quite a lot of requests for early check ins, even from guests arriving from the US. I think some totally underestimate the time it takes from landing to get to Central London. Many, many guests do not consider that checking in in the morning might be an issue (they rarely consider there might be guests staying before and not even checked out yet).

What I found more odd was how last minute the booking was from two young girls coming all the way from the US (very unusual), the tone of their message after booking, e.g. it was like an enquiry, fishing for basic info that is already abundantly clear on the listing/reviews, their lack of response after that, and then their assumption that they would still get some kind of refund even after cancelling on the day (they asked me to issue them a full refund if I got another booking).

Maybe they just have no clue what they are doing as they have not actually cancelled the booking at all. I don't know how they were expecting a refund or for me to get another booking in that case. However, the booking guest has seven reviews, so is not a newbie Airbnb user.

Perhaps it's all a coincidence, but it just occured to me that the 48 hour grace period (especially if it is being pushed in marketing to guests) might have given them the wrong impression...

[David126]

I also get a few bookings that sound like inquiries, have one coming in Friday. So when the booked some time back I pointed out they had and not inquired and as they say Crickets, so sent out my standard pre stay message this morning.

Only a night so no biggie, we will see....

[Louise0]

It's interesting that of all the 'weird **bleep**' Airbnb has done, the mandatory 48 hour grace period applying to Strict Cancellation policies is attracting the most heated responses,  when in reality it is possibly the one policy change that is most equally waited between guest, host and Airnbnb in terms of financial outcomes.  Yes, it may cost hosts, but it may also benefit us in terms of attracting vacillating users to the platform.

Ideally, I'd like to see the grace period reduced to 24 hours snd the days out date extended to 28 days.  But really, is it that big a deal?  Surely, the more pressing issue is the lack of flexibility in the platform to allow hosts to set prices relative to the cancellation risk?

[Fred13]

^^ "Surely, the more pressing issue is the lack of flexibility in the platform to allow hosts to set prices relative to the cancellation risk?"

   Isn't that something you can do now?