Understanding cancellation policy

[Beth243]

Hi, I'm trying to understand a strict-flexible cancellation policy which states:

"For a full refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made within 48 hours of booking and at least 14 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in."

Does this mean that if I book today to reserve a place five months from now, the only way to get a full refund is to cancel within 48 hours of today? Or would I get a full refund as long as I cancel prior to 14 days of my reservation?

Just a little confused because it seems odd to be penalised for reserving so far ahead of time.

Thanks.

[Beverley62]

 a Michael - Please help me. I have booked a holiday for next Year on 1st August 2019 to 21 August 2019.I had a phone call and email with Airbnb support who confirmed the policy wording you have above. I have not used Airbnb before and thought that's good I have until 18th July 2019 to cancel as this is 14 days before checkin date as that we are going on holiday on the 1st August 2019. I want to cancel and get my full deposit back around £1658.00 but when I go to do this, I can only get 50% refund and all the support email quote the wording below: 

I am at a loss to understand why I cant get a full refund because if I was asked when a 1 4days checkin would mean it would be 1 4 days before you fly and go on holiday. Perhaps you can explain why this is as you seem to have come accross this confusion regarding the policy wording. I don't know why there cant be a date put in an Owner's reservation the last date to get a full refund, surely this is not rocket science. I am also really concerned and I don't have much faith in any of the responses which seem to contradict each other and not one of the team will contact me by phone. 

YOUR HELP WOULD BE REALLY APPRECIATED MY CONTACT NUMBER IS ** THANKS

Airbnb Support

5:58 PM

Hi Beverly, I tried calling you but could not get a hold of you. I was able to review your account, and found out about the reason why you contacted us. I'm sorry to let you know as per the host cancellations, for a full refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made within 48 hours of booking and at least 14 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in.

You booked this reservation back on September 28, and want to cancel today, that makes it more than 48h of booking date, thus if you choose to cancel, you will get 50% as stated here:For a 50% refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made 7 full days prior to listing’s local check in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check in, otherwise no refund. For example, if check-in is on Friday, cancel by Friday of the previous week before check in time. If you would like any refund beyond the host's cancellation policy, you can request it through our resolution centre by following steps in the link below:https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/767/what-is-the-resolution-center. Should you have any question, feel free to reach out to us at +44 2033181111, and we will be glad to assist you with this.

**[Phone number hidden as per the community guidelines]

[Letti0]

Matthew I have this happen already after the grace period was started. I had a guest book for mid July and cancel. She was refunded all of her money minus service fees. She did rebook for mid June she will be staying starting June 14th and AirBnB gave her her service fee's back after she called and rebooked for June. So I know both can happen. 

You are confusing booking and service fee's with actual policy. Full refund includes service fee's, after 48 hours the service fees are not refundable, just the rental fees are. I do not have a Super Strict just a Strict with Grace Period. If you book with me for say September 1-5 and cancel August 13th you will get a full refund from me of all costs related to the rental. You will not get the service fee's back unless you call AirBnB and b*tch and you still may not get them back, but you may. You are completely misunderstanding the Strict with Grace Period Policy. There is a two week window where you  are allowed to keep money, period. A guest cancels on me 2 1/2 weeks out. I get nothing and hope to book again with someone else in the limited time avaiable from their cancellation. Please call AirBnB for an explaination as you are avoiding strict rentals for all the wrong reasons. 

[Steve143]

Hello Letitia,

I tend to be of the legal eagle type when reading policies 🙂

What matters in the end though, to hosts and guests, is how Airbnb operates the policy.

Even on your listing Airbnb puts the text below "Strict" in the "Cancellations" section saying:

"Cancel within 48 hours of booking and 14 days before check-in to get a full refund. Cancel up to 7 days before check in and get a 50% refund (minus service fees). Cancel within 7 days of your trip and the reservation is non-refundable."

According to that, cancelling a September 1-5 booking on August the 13th should result in the guest getting only a 50% refund of the accommodation fees and no service fee refund.

Thank you for taking the time to call Airbnb and posting the response here saying how they interpret the policy in practice. From this, it looks like all guests would be well advised to contact Airbnb before cancelling a reservation with this policy as they may get a representative who will give them a full refund of all fees.

 Steve.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

My understanding of the strict w/ grace period is as Steven explains.... and as I've selected the strict (w/ grace) policy this is how I would expect it to be enforced if I were to ever have a guest cancel. 

[Letti0]

Jessica & Henry,

For the most part you do long term rentals, so that falls under a different policy. If you do a short term rental and the guest cancels 2 and 1/2 weeks before his stay you are going to be very disappointed when your guest is refunded ALL of your rental fees. The Strict with Grace Policy only comes into play the last 2 weeks/14days of the reservation, prior to that time frame you recieve nothing if the guest cancels.

I hope some others with this policy that have had cancellations prior to the 14 days chime in here. I think there are more than a few who have a completely wrong idea on how this cancellation policy works. 

Letti

[Matthew285]

Letitia,

Yes, of course there are stories of guests who get a full refund, even with strict cancellation (and outside the 48-hour grace period).

But that isn't the way Strict cancellation is supposed to work.

This discussion board has many stories about guests who are complaining that they will only get 50% back if they cancel well in advance (you even contributed to a recent one here):

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Cancellation-Policies/m-p/722046

And it has many stories of hosts who are disappinted when the Strict Cancellation policy is not enforced as designed, such as this one: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Host-Refund/m-p/631000

I imagine in your situation, it helped the guest that 

1. the guest was re-booking with you
2. the host feels the guest should be getting a full refund.

Honestly, all it takes is the host telling Airbnb support that the guest should get a full refund, and the guest will get a full refund.

If we are living in a world where your Strict Cancellation gives a full refund to people, and other hosts' Strict Cancellation gives their guests a 50% refund, I am fine with that.

I just want people to be happy with how the policy is working.

[Lisa723]

What Matthew said.  Also: I have a strict policy on my vacation rentals, but if a guest cancels I always offer a refund up to the maximum of their forfeited payment and whatever I can recoup from re-booking. Effectively this means that guests who cancel far in advance are not going to lose their payment, but guests who cancel last-minute probably will. Any guest contemplating cancelling should always contact the host to find out what their discretionary policy is-- and any guest to whom the ability to cancel penalty-free is important should probably not book a place with a strict cancellation policy.

[Letti0]

Lisa have you actually had a Strict or Strict with Grace cancellation that was more than two weeks out? If they did take the money like on the thread Matthew posted that I replied to, they were wrong and the guest was due a full refund. One call to AirBnB and this would have been corrected and full refund would have been issued. 

[Lisa723]

Sorry Letitia like others I think you are wrong about the policy. 

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

And yes, I have (but I refunded the guest when I rebooked the dates).

[Letti0]

Matthew on that thread I stated he was due a full refund. They should not have taken 50% on a Strict with Grace policy which it clearly was. A Super Strict policy is different 50% is always taken up to the 30 or 60 day mark when it's then no refund at all, but not on the Strict with Grace. 

[Lauren3892]

But what is strange is that I had a guest book in June for December, she cancelled in July and Airbnb was still going to pay me out the 50%
I ended up calling and asking them to refund it all as it is a long way away. 
but then the other day a guest cancelled( after the 48hr grace period) a booking for October and got the full refund. 
support is trying to tell me it’s the way the guest selects to pay🙈 

but surely a policy is a policy no matter how the guest is paying. Also if you read the form policy it would then be more strict than the strict policy, as they can only get 50% if cancelling within the 30 days.  So confusing! And I really don’t want someone cancelling a high season 3 week booking 14 days before arrival! 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Lauren3892 As always Airbnb support is getting confused. The only time it matters how the guest pays is when they pay 50% of the cost at the point of booking and 50% later. This then confuses guests when they think they are charged 100% of the cost to cancel but actually it is 100% of 50% which is correct.

Your October cancellation is inexplicable. I can only think that they claimed Extenuating Circumstances or Customer Support made a mistake. Perhaps its worth another call to Airbnb to ask which it was?

[Jeff158]

I've had strict with grace period since before xmas.

Guest booked on the 25th Feb with a checkin of 13th April.

Guest cancelled on the 2nd March and I got 50%.

 For some reason it won't let me post a screen shot or @ Letitia

[Letti0]

@Jeff0 I have talked to 3 different case managers and they have all said this is not the way it works. So I just don't understand how hosts are getting to keep 50% before the 14 day period is up. I even got it in writting as posted from the one case worker. If the guests call I'm sure they will be refunded, as the policy reads refund of accomadation fee's until 14 days before. 

Also the tagging and inserting of screen shots has not been working for about a week now. 

[Matthew285]

This is a very cool discussion!

I am glad everyone has been willing to contribute their experiences and to be open to hearing the information people have been posting.

Often these things devolve into arguments that become attacks on other people, but this has been refreshingly just centered on the topic.

I think we are all just trying to figure out what the reality of the policy is. It will help everyone if we can learn what Airbnb intends.

Clearly Airbnb has been inconsistent both in the information given out, and the actions taken.

I have sent a question to Airbnb support to try to get more information.

I have a funny feeling it's going to be a little while before we really fully understand what is going on.