What are the main reasons guests cancel their reservations?

[Paula]

Hello everyone 👋

Unexpected situations are a part of life, and this is also true in the hosting journey. We’ve noticed conversations in our community that revolve around guests needing to cancel their reservations for different reasons.

Have you faced particular situations where a guest canceled a reservation? Do you have a communication strategy to respond to these requests? Are there any tips you would like to share for new Hosts when facing these situations?

Please share your tips , recommendations and guidance in the comment section, so our Host community can learn from your experiences.

Regards 🌻

[Hans797]

Accidentally made a booking. 

[Karen114]

@Paula  This automatic message goes out to every reservation made whether it's 3 days or 30 days long.  Nobody wants to be out $300 or $3000 and this is the best defense against protecting their investment as well as my own. 

20 years ago when I traveled to Mexico every April vacation,  I always purchased the airline insurance as well as the hotel insurance.  When you are booking 6-8 months in advance, anything can happen during that time frame.  Luckily I never needed it however it was there in the event I did.  

Once again, any cancelation outside of the cancelation period  was typically within days of arrival due to death or sudden illness.  We also have hurricane season in Florida and Mexico from June to November.  These are known perils and if you can't travel becuase of this whether it be happening in your own place of residence of our destination, trip insurance will cover you for this.  

Honestly it befuddles me that someone will spend $3000 on their vacation and won't spring for $300 for cancel for any reason insurance.🤷‍♀️

[Debra300]

@Paula,

The primary reason for cancellations is change of plans, and that includes sickness, transportation, and  weather.  We have a tagged photo of travel insurance in our listing gallery, and we encourage guests to purchase a policy because we don't give refunds for reasons that don't fall under the extenuating circumstances or major disruptive events policies.  The exception is that we will refund any dates that are rebooked, because we don't double-dip.  However, unless the reservation is for a high demand period, e.g., Carnival, Jazz Festival, year-end holiday season, it's unlikely that we will get a last minute booking because most guests have to pre-arrange travel to the island.  

According to  NerdWallet, the average cost of travel insurance is 6-7% of the total travel investment: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/how-much-is-travel-insurance.   Many guests prefer to gamble and not buy a policy, but then want the host to eat the loss if they have a travel disruption or cancellation.

[Paula]

This is a great strategy, @Debra300. Thank you so much for sharing it 🌟

[Emily2037]

We've only been a host for a very short time, and had to install an additional agreement for people to agree to the house rules and acknowledge violation fees for breaking certain house rules. Since that time, we had a few cancellation of people who does not agree with the rules in place, which is exactly what we wanted to avoid those people. 

Our Airbnb is in the country and it's very spacious and comfortable home. However,  we had to lower the rate to a ridiculous amount, to attract bookings,  thus comes with the lower quality of bookers. 

People has the notion that they can rent a house, and then do whatever they like. We had people book the house just to have parties, which is against the rule. We now have a separate policy and fees for people wanted to have parties and no one wants to pay more than the rent. 

When people cancel, sometimes it's a good thing. Currently, we have the strict refund policy. When we're too flexible and accommodating to the booker, it creates a lot of issues.