Partial Payments and refunds

[Rebecca2266]

Does anyone know why I'm seeing that airbnb is reducing my nightly rates and cleaning fee for cancellations without my approval when my listing are listed with a "strict" cancellation policy? It's just really confusing as I like to be the one who decides when to provide a refund.  I usually return the entire cleaning fee and refund the dates that I can rebook but I seems airbnb is determining this for me. For example I will see that I am getting a payout at $35 a night for a cancellation and the property was never listed that low. So it is being adjusted by airbnb and i would like to understand when and how this decision is being made. I looked in the resources and couldnt find this explanation. Thank you. 

[Emilie]

Hi @Rebecca2266, 

Do you by any chance have Smart Pricing on? Here's more on how it works and how to turn it off should you want to: Use Smart Pricing to automatically adjust your prices based on demand

Once you've had a chance to check, do let us know please so other hosts can advise you further. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Joan2709]

@Rebecca2266 

When you contacted Airbnb, were they able to explain what happened?

New Cancellation Policies went into effect 2025. Depending on the circumstances of the cancellation, this can explain what is happening. Hosts in non-US countries have reported the strict cancellation policly no longer available. Looks like Airbnb is not allowing new listings (US) to have a strict cancellation policy either:

Updated Cancellation Policy - 2025

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3735

Please let us know if this new policy turns out to be the reason for your reduced payout. 

[Emilie]

That's much more sensible advice @Joan2709 thank you, I somehow read around the cancellation fee part of Rebecca's post -silly me!