Our guest rebooking and refund policy explained

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi everyone, 

We value the feedback about the rebooking and refund policy that we’ve heard from Hosts in workshops, here in the Community Center, and across Host Clubs. 

From your feedback, we understand that many Hosts aren’t familiar with the policy, and our update raised more questions than answers. We also know that you need more details about how this policy works. 

As a result of your comments, we are doing the following: 

1. We’re removing the language about Hosts being responsible for rebooking costs from the policy. 
2. We’ve also answered some of your most frequently asked questions about the policy that we’ve heard over the past week. 

You can read more about these changes here.

We hope this will help give you peace of mind, so you can focus on what you do best—providing amazing hospitality to guests from all over the world. 

Thank you for being a Host. We want you to know that we listen to your feedback. Please continue to tell us what you think so we can make sure we’re helping you meet your hosting needs. 

Best wishes,
Catherine 

[Property2]

@Till-and-Jutta0 Yes, I see the "answers".  I was hoping for the real answers to the specific questions that I and the others asked in this thread...

[MaryPat1]

I'm unclear as to why anyone would wait 72 hours before filing a complaint or contacting the host/manager to fix a problem??  Why does Airbnb feel that 3 days is the magic timeframe??  Why not 24hrs??  If a guest only stays 2 nights and then decides to make a complaint, then I as a host have no time to fix the issue and work with the guest. If there are hosts that aren't responding to their guests, then go after them and not the whole host community.  Most hosts are dedicated to our properties, guest experiences and look at this as a business.

 It's getting harder and harder to stay with Airbnb.  The city I live in, is trying to curtail our short term rentals and Airbnb hasn't offered any help in our host community to stay in businesses.  

[Alba160]

@Catherine-Powell @Linh160  @Laurelle3  @Mary419  @Huma0 

Thanks for all of your comments about this new rules. I don't think i have the energy to deal with them. I'm still financially and emotionally recovering from Airbnb EC and now this??!! It feels like literally im 'opening' the door to scammers. Although i'm not surprise Airbnb coming up with this way of making more money on hosts expenses. I mean, Airbnb is one more time proving that they don't care for hosts. I'm fully aware that i'm sounding mad saying this but i feel Airbnb despises it's hosts. Otherwise why again and again finding creatives (and effective) ways to hurts us? Why making our host lives so hard to the point that we are not enjoying (or financially worth it) doing this? Why do i feel anxious about my welcoming my next guests? The trust is far gone. 

I already have my own website. Since a couple years i  listed  my properties at other booking platforms. 

Airbnb it's not for people like us, the 'regular' hosts. Sonder, Hoyo, Hoteltonight and those MegaHost (Read Airbnb) are the only ones that can take the hit with this Anti-Host policies. Can't believe how appropriate this term really is: Airbnb is Anti-Host.  

[Mel7352]

@Catherine-Powell  I feel strongly that 24hours is plenty of time to report a problem or fault.  You state that your research shows other companies allow 72 hours, which is ludicrous. Please tell us what companies you are following their process and changing the procedure and allowing 72 hours to report a problem?  

As a host who takes this seriously, I state in my T&Cs that the guest has 2 hours to report a problem or I consider they caused the damage.  Can’t you see that this change in policy is going to open the gates to scammers?  

I read about how lousy your CS people are and the number of hosts who are cut off without any communication on what they did wrong so they can explain their side, how can we trust your CS people to not reward scammers wanting a free stay by reporting a non existent problem?  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mel7352 2 hours to report a problem is rather short. If I arrive at a place late evening I may not use the cooker or other amenities until the next day. Anyway the old 24hrs was from finding an issue not from arrival. As a guest I would hope the Airbnb rules override yours.

[Mel7352]

@Mike-And-Jane0 What works for me might not work for you.  Everything in my house is new, maintenance is undertaken constantly as is extensive house inspections.   I’ve never once had any issues, reported problems or bond issues.  I don’t know why you feel the need to comment without seeing  or knowing my house.  If you agree with the 72 hours to report a problem more fool you

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mel7352 The house age and maintenance regime are somewhat irrelevant. To give an example our 1 year old smart TV (in our house not our apartments) recently lost the ability to connect to the internet and has now lost sound as well. Also there is also a thing called infant mortality where items are actually more likely to fail in the first months/year and if they get through this they can last for a very long time.

I stand by my view (which I am allowed to have by the way) that 2 hours is a ridiculously short time to give people  and I hope Airbnb overrule it if it is ever used.

[Mary419]

@Alba160 @Mel7352 glad to see such clear strong comments.

Very curious myself where the 72 hours to report a problem exists in this industry. Nowhere that I have seen. 

I ran reports on my Vrbo vs Airbnb split. I’ve gone from 62% airbnb last July to 16% this March for Airbnb.

All of these anti-host policies depend on us being “fish in a barrel” and at first it did seem like a lot of people who never tried booking elsewhere were scared to go outside the bubble. However I believe more and more hosts have realized they’re not limited to this platform.  

So if Airbnb can survive off the Sonder types, good for them. But individual people who care personally about every single situation are running for the hills. 

The final nail in the coffin may be coming if they also try to arbitrarily limit or eliminate our posted cleaning fee which I can see is coming from various posts and press releases. 

[Property2]

@Mary419 I would be very curious to know what you are referring to when it comes to Airbnb's elimination of our posted cleaning fees. I hope they are not that dumb, that will be a total insanity if the hosts can't charge any of the cleaning fees. Also, I think it would be in violation of their own TOS...

[Mary419]

@Property2 

Lots of social media stuff about how customers hate the cleaning fee. Lots of Chesky responses validating this and saying he will fix it.

This community center had a survey “do you charge a cleaning fee?” Which seemed to pursue the narrative that this fee isn’t even a necessity

Ironically in Europe they were forced to advertise the actual full rate with tax and fees ages ago, which should cut out any public outrage about this “add on fee” and could have voluntarily done the same method of advertising in the USA but have chosen not to. Yet yesterday I noticed Vrbo was showing the Grand total on the main listing result page in addition to the nightly price when I checked it as a regular public customer which I rarely have time to do. 

There has been loads of Wall Street commentary about this topic also showing total lack of understanding for the business https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/13/airbnb-retains-strong-customer-loyalty-despite-its/

Years ago airbnb published the “living wage” pledge etc going the other direction and giving a benchmark of $25 per hour for your self employed cleaner.

Yet now with inflation and labor shortages that didn’t exist when they published that stuff they clearly are pandering to the social media press against cleaning fees and now they want us all to somehow get these homes spotless for free or for third world country wages. 

[Property2]

@Mary419 Thank you for the information, very helpful!

For $25/hour my cleaning crew would not even enter the unit. With the current gas prices. my cleaning fees rose by 20% this year.  It's totally beyond any possible rationale and against their own TOS:  "Airbnb does not direct or control your Host Service, and you agree that you have complete discretion whether and when to provide Host Services, and at what price and on what terms to offer them.”   In all honesty, I can't understand why they would treat the hosts like this and make it more and more challenging for us to remain with Airbnb, but I know that I am done with them...

[Eve6140]

So I'm looking to list an STR with Airbnb and this all scares me.  I've heard plenty of horror stories (now seeing this thread) of false claims by guests and Airbnb always sides with the guest regardless of how ridiculous the claim.   My daughter Airbnb's her place and a neighbor complained (he's not even the owner but rents the house and a college student at that) that there was a party and that their pool lights were shining in his bedroom window (which it's impossible for that to happen due to how the pool is situated). They have proven the claims to be false.  Airbnb is saying they're shutting down their property on airbnb.  Even other neighbors are saying this didn't happen.  The guy's family has Airbnb's and he KNEW exactly how to manipulate this issue and that Airbnb would side with him.  He was caught in lies, too, and contradictory when daughter spoke to him personally on the phone.  So I hesitate to even use Airbnb as a platform knowing they always side with the guest no matter the situation.  Ridiculous.  

[Cherie71]

I see VRBO is doing a national advertising campaign emphasizing Hosts having control over their property.  Airbnb might not be listening to hosts but it appears VRBO is.

I've had three calls from my support person at VRBO in the last couple of months, with emails, asking what they can do to help me with my listings, and offering advice.  No one has done that from Airbnb. 🙂

[Mary419]

@Cherie71 

Agreed in fact I think they are failing to take advantage of this windfall of hosts who were eased into this business by Airbnb and now enjoy hosting but do not enjoy the risks, and the customer service agent correspondence that can nearly send someone to the rubber room. There is a literal floodgate opening of people who want to keep up doing short term rental but do it on their own terms as logical adults.

I freaked out 2 weeks ago after simply getting a phone call from VRBO instead of from the guest saying some guest could not park in her parking space because someone was parked there. I totally freaked out worrying VRBO was going to start acting like Airbnb. I have such PTSD from all the Airbnb experiences I immediately demanded to know why the guest had not contacted me first, etc etc. and the phone agent just said she could patch me through to the guest if I wanted. 

Of course that ended fine, VRBO did not take a dime from me nor did I receive a scolding but I realized how completely burned I am at this point. 

I went through this listing after that phone call and edited the parking space details to say you may use it for $15 as an optional add on. Because I want to hedge myself in case some random person in the city does park there  for a bit and it takes me hours to get it towed, I do not want a guest getting a free stay or refund and instead want to limit the value of the parking spot to what it really is which is a small part of the value of the residence. Not 100% of the value. The ever changing rules and ever changing strategies to protect ourselves are almost too much for anyone to handle. No wonder so many posts about hosts shutting down for good. 

[Z-And-G15]

I cannot get VRBO to even respond to multiple requests to list online. I spent nearly four hours on Chat and phone trying to reach Sales today but they do not answer the phone, says the office is closed (Friday noon). Support cannot even find them. Incredibly frustrating, and they have closed their Community Forum and there is apparently no other forum to ask other hosts.  I cannot see myself doing business with a company that cannot tolerate open discourse. Airbnb has nothing to worry about with this kind of management.