They appear to be rolling out this new policy in Italy first. Rumors are that after this open LA stuff, these new policies will be rolled out it everywhere. But that is just a rumor. They could pull the whole thing back since it hasn’t been announced officially.
This is what each listing says (it varies depending on the cancellation period, but in all cases, service fee is refunded on the same basis as the host money):
"100% refundable
Cancel up to 24 hours before your trip and get a full refund, including service fees."
As a matter of fact I am only looking at listings in Italy.
From Air website after clicking thru an Italy listing, to the explanation of cancellation:
"Up to 5 fully refundable bookings
Guests are eligible for up to 5 fully refundable cancellations per calendar year. Once a guest has received five fully refunded cancellations, the Airbnb guest service fees will be non-refundable for subsequent bookings in that calendar year; and the Airbnb guest service fees will be non-refundable if at the time of booking the sum of the guest’s fully refunded cancellations and outstanding bookings is equal to or greater than five."
As a guest I think it’s awesome. Although I wouldn’t mind paying 5 or 10 bucks as a reasonable fee to cancel. I think the reason they normally make it non-cancellable is to prevent guests and hosts from communicating and then making a side deal without Air.