Although my original reaction was that the host cancellation policy was quite severe, upon reflection I recognized that host cancellations can be devastating to guests.
If Airbnb’s strategy is to take business away from hotels, they would naturally severely penalize host cancellations, since host cancellations would rarely happen in hotels. If I were a new guest, and had my accommodations yanked out from under me, I might very well flee back to hotels, and vow to never rent an Airbnb again.
As a host, while I sympathize that “life happens”, and that a guest should intuitively recognize the difference between a hotel and a single host’s Airbnb, emotions likely trump logic when a guest’s vacation plans get turned upside-down.
So, in summary, there are many Airbnb policies that I think are unreasonable to hosts, but this one I can accept when I consider both sides.