Another cancellation with my strict cancellation policy. How lenient would you be?

21

I like non refundable rates. We have them on BDC and, given the higher cancellation rate over there, they have been working well for us. OK, it’s a ten percent discount, but it is money in the bank.

Unlike Airbnb, BDC non refundable is non refundable. Totally. There is no EC get out clause; which is why, I suspect, there has been such a poor take up of the Airbnb non refundable payment option.

JF

2 Likes
22

That’s exactly why I haven’t been interested in using the non-refundable option and they have been pushing very hard to me.

I lost money from a bogus EC claim that was 100% inappropriate and not within the EC TOS. I have overwhelmingly received excellent support from Airbnb except for in that EC case. It was handled so poorly and so unprofessionally that I have absolutely no faith that a non-refundable reservation is going to be upheld by them, even without an EC.

1 Like
23

EC is BS

2020202020

RR

2 Likes
24

Exactly. We all know that there is no such word as “non-refundable” in Airbnb’s vocabulary.

2 Likes
25

Just another way that I know I’m very, very lucky. I’ve had even same day re-books due to my market. (I would never say hosts should have flexible policy, I’m just saying what works for me with my listing.)

26

I agree that with Airbnb EC still will give refunds when they shouldn’t but wouldn’t that be out of the ordinary so long as you RAISED your prices by at least the 10% to partake of the “non refundable” option? Then like @JohnF says…it (usually) money in the bank.

27

Nah, with Airbnb it’s not. EC can always rear it’s ugly something. BDC a have a far stricter policy.

JF

2 Likes
28

I don’t think so. I’m not convinced that guests are enamored with the non-refundable option. There’s already some concerns with airbnbs because of the bad press and the way they present the non-refundable option seems tricky or unattractive or even a little bait or switch or something. There are hosts in my neighborhood who are using it.

When scrolling through the listings, their price might come up as $134/night and maybe that looks like a good deal next to other listings that are $149/night but when you click on their listing, that $139 is only for the non-refundable option. The regular price for any refund option at all is much higher, maybe $189. That would really irk me if I was looking for a place to stay. From my very non-scientific but daily observation, it does not seem to be helping out other listings in my neighborhood. They end up dropping their prices in the last week and are even, now that it’s slower here, remaining unbooked.

I’d rather just keep my prices as they are and book up my listings with my moderate cancellation policy. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that it is worthwhile to do the non-refundable, e.g. it won’t increase my bookings, it won’t keep airbnb from giving refunds against my wishes and it won’t make me more money. I can see it causing me a lot of extra grief though - reddit has been full of guests caught off-guard by this non-refundable option who feel entitled to a refund anyways. I don’t want the extra battle.

1 Like
29

That’s the only option with me! I am not convinced flexible or moderate would result in more heads in beds.

I just had a inquiry on VRBO asking what the cancellation policy would be if they booked for New Years Eve and cancelled later… I copied and pasted the strict cancellation policy which would result in no refund and have not heard back, I wonder why? lol I am glad I do not get the type of guests that want to use host insurance vs travel insurance. I may get fewer bookings, but I do get my fair share so I am sticking with STRICT!

RR

2 Likes
30

I booked 2 hotel suite rooms for my daughters graduation in Marquette Michigan next weekend a year in advance and pre-paid. Some parents when it was bachelor graduation who had not pre-paid had their rooms given to others who showed up first. I was okay at the Hampton, but the Holiday Inn really screwed over some people. For her masters graduation I pre-paid at the Holiday Inn now under new management that my in laws booked first without asking me and I hope it works out okay.

I lost over $3,000 on a 10 day booking the day of for EC on AirBnB. A few weeks later I got a call from their travel insurance company they put a claim into with my Rental Agreement that states no refunds to verify this fact. Oops, they did not get to double dip on this one. I told the insurance company AirBnB refunded them in full for EC and sent my proof. I got a very nasty text for the no show guests about it. I think this was Travelers, they have issues with people getting refunds from them and AirBnB it seems, so they always call.

2 Likes
31

Wow, what a scammer. At least they did not stay and then try and scam you out of payment… EC is BS So far, knock on wood, I have not had any EC cancellations, or really any cancellations that I can think of. I had someone ask to cancel same day once and I said no and ended up with my first and only 4 star review, hmmm.

RR

1 Like
32

But if the refundable is $189 and the non refundable is $139 then that is not 10%…what’s going on?

33

I understand it’s not with Airbnb and that was why I said if You raise all your rates by that 10% you would be better off in just the same number of cases at least but possibly more if more people choose that one.

34

Is the benefit of moderate over strict only that you are included in workplace collection now that that has been done away with? What are my benefits if staying with moderate over strict nowadays?

Too bad you couldn’t have received the insurance due to your guest frauding them…:slightly_frowning_face:

35

I’m not sure where the 10% is coming from. It’s definitely more than a 10% difference that I am seeing. And also it’s not always the same % difference. I haven’t done the non-refundable so am not sure of the details.

Also, I notice that the listings that are using it, have it on some dates but not on others. When I look at my settings, I have the option to do non-refundable but it seems to be an “all of the time” setting - I don’t see that I could use it on some dates but not others. :woman_shrugging:

36

Depends if your market can take that increase though, for some I suspect it may be the difference between getting a booking or losing out to someone sightly cheaper.

JF

37

This is where I got the 10%. And it looks like the increased prices are self imposed. Not sure why the huge price difference you are seeing. Sounds like something is wrong.

Also reading this apparently strict CAN now opt for this option.

image
image750×1334 210 KB

1 Like
38

Yes. I am considering doing it because everyone here says my prices are too low (and the quality of a lot of my guests indicated this may be true), even though I regularly increase them bit by bit. If I do this refundable non refundable option and increase my prices by 10% I can get my non refundable bookings at my regular price and test the tolerance for higher prices at my listings at the same time.

1 Like
39

Oh! Thanks! I hadn’t looked at that. But this helps me understand what I’m seeing.

The same people using the non-refundable also do the “special discount” thing “to promote your listing” discount a lot. In the info you posted, it mentions that the 10% will combine with any other discounts, so it must be that they are adding an additional discount to those dates as well.

And when it looks like to me that they don’t have it on all their dates, but just some of their dates, it must be I’m seeing the dates within their normal policy and those don’t have the non-refundable.

Thanks! At least I understand what they’re doing now. I do have to mention that it doesn’t look to be benefitting them (they are not booking more, in fact it seems they’re booking less) but maybe in some markets it would be beneficial.

It’s not for me for these reasons:

  • I think the guest will get a refund if they want one anyways as I don’t trust Airbnb to uphold it.
  • The majority of people coming here, come several times a year and I wouldn’t want to alienate anyone over such an extreme cancelation policy. It wouldn’t be an overall ‘win’ for me.
  • Airbnb is not doing enough to help guests understand this policy and I believe some guests are agreeing to it without really being aware of what they are agreeing to, which equals unhappy guests.
  • I don’t have a lot of cancelations and when I have had cancelations, they have usually worked in my favor so am not actively trying to manage any cancelation issues.
  • The guests that come here for a couple of days (weekends) are not likely to be so motivated for a 10% discount, whether it’s real or imaginary (your plan to raise prices and then discount). Guests who come here and stay longer (a different demographic), closer to a week, would be motivated by a discount but already get one because I do ‘long stay discounts’ for multiple-day stays.
  • I don’t personally like a non-refundable option but I also don’t like the idea that I have to pay 10% more to book the same listing to have a cancelation option so would probably just book a different listing that has a moderate or flexible policy or even strict. Life is so uncertain. I’m not flakey but :poop: happens and non-refundable reservations will probably conjur up some :poop: (in my life anyways, lol).
  • The guests that we primarily get this time of year will more likely book something straight-forward then deal with the navigating the option of the non-refundable: I don’t think the 10% discount matters to them as much as having a nice place that they feel comfortable with using Airbnb for. It is weird to see an advertised price and then click on the listing and have to make the choice of that price or going up in price and then having to read and decide about the differences.

I can imagine this is a good option in some markets, probably vacation destinations, like weekly cabin rentals, beach houses and such where stricter policies are typical anyways.

40

I’m not sure what you are thinking is actually what is happening. When you do the non refundable I don’t think you can choose the days it applies, other than via your alternate cancellation policy which now seems to include strict.

I totally agree with your first reason!

I don’t look at the refundable option costing 10% more but look at the non refundable as being 10% less, and if I raise my base prices 10% since they already seem low sometimes, then I see no change except if someone is wanting to pay 10% more to get the refundable option (which is not as great 5 days out anyways because I’m moderate). If they already think my rate is great and they think there might be a chance of canceling then I make out better. If they don’t, I make out the same…except if like you think that people will just not book at all when seeing the choices. I don’t worry about that so much right now because there are not really any true comparable competitors close by. And when you broaden the radius to include some they are not the budget (My whole house listings are in a 1995 double wide in a country neighborhood with half to one acre lots) listings like I am and are going to have to pay the much higher prices to go with that.

I give discounts for weekly (5-10%), 2 weeks (10-15%) and monthly (15-20%) and get a lot of long bookings, especially this year.

All this to say that I have not yet bitten the bullet on the option as I just raised my prices a little bit and haven’t gotten any bookings yet. Perhaps come summer and I have some data at my current price without it (and maybe the rules for it will have changed again) I will probably re-evaluate and implement.

2 Likes