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it is now ‘50% refund up to 1 week prior to arrival’. I could have sworn it was ‘30 days prior to arrival’ very recently.
I have never called AirBnB about anything, but will on this; I am dying to know how/why this changed occurred and how exactly one gets invited to higher levels of ‘Strict’.
If you click on your cancellation policy you can see them all. I’ve always had the flexible cancellation fee, so I don’t know what the strict cancellation fee was previously. Currently, you are correct it is seven days. There is a Super Strict 30 Days and a Super Strict 60 days. You might want to ask Airbnb if you are eligible. As you have to take them to your island in a boat, I would assume that you’d qualify.
I will. Not only the logistics of the boat, but also it’s in a foreign country, where people must make reservations and plans months in advance, making it impossible to re-book the island a mere week in advance. The 60-day option would make more sense and glad you mentioned that possibility. I will post a follow up to what they say.
Yes, it changed, I do not know when, but it seems they changed it because a lot of hosts moved their setting to strict.
Interesting. Good to know.
Please report back. If they did make this change I don’t think it was recently. Your circumstance could very well qualify for super strict. This is something you have to apply for.
Hey @Mearns,
That’s interesting. I bet you don’t get a sensible reply. Airbnb customer service seems to be populated with morons whose job is to justify whatever the company does by any means necessary. How are you planning to contact them?
Oh, and I’m not sure about the details of Strict, because I don’t use it. But there are many people here who do, so should be able to tell you if and when it changed.
Good catch - I was on Strict before, and I want to keep it 30 days so I’ll switch over to Super Strict now.
I don’t think you can do super strict without their special approval.
My first question is that ‘of course’ this new 7 days does not apply to people that already booked. Now that would be a game changer. I doubt is the case, but worth checking.
I know one thing, I will call and instantly insist to talk to a higher up, leapfrogging the ‘gopher’, or write directly to a supervisor, if that doesn’t make sense to him that the new 7-day/50% cancellation ~surprise~ change is absurd in my case, then we do have a problem. Last resort, I will contact my personal friends at AirBnB to take the message directly. Super last resort, I will give emphasis to other booking services. Airbnb I have found are quick minded, it wouldn’t get past stage #1.
Wow, @Mearns,
You have friends in high places. Airbnb mostly ignore me. Sometimes they tell me what a great job I’m doing.
I think you and your island could go it alone, anyway. Do you find Airbnb provides a value-add for you?
Am I the only one who thinks that it is problematic that all the agreements, listings and booking related information with hosts is located solely on Airbnb servers, where they are free to change it without informing anyone? And with none of this information located anywhere else, it’s difficult to prove what existed before. It’s Nineteen Eighty Four’s memory hole, except with an electronic twist. No scissors and glue necessary.
Honestly though it’s always been one week out for the strict. I don’t recall anything different.
kona, I may be mistaken but I distinctly remember it was at 30 days, and it may be that I was given the ‘Super Strict’ option originally, that is possible.
Maybe they gave you Super strict and took it away! You should demand it back. Well, nicely demand… 
Play that tv star glam. 
Mearns can I have your autograph? You are a rock star host!
At this point AirBnB doesn’t do much for me, in fact when their advertising of the island happened, I was booked already for this year (2016); what they did do is get it booked well in advance, a double edge sword; in one hand one can plan ahead, but in another ‘Airbnb has hogged it all to themselves’, and my long waiting list, banking on cancellations have almost zero chance to be able to ever see Bird Island for at least two years. As are the friends that past guests are now recruiting among their social circle.
I have given Airbnb all my bookings really, because I do believe in their program and like them, and if they are cool with me, they can stay my exclusive booking agency.
kona I will give you my autograph when I catch up to your outrigger with my ~motorized~ kayak. 
Hi @Mearns,
Well, they’re taking a lot of money for the privilege of being your exclusive booking agency. Most of us use Airbnb to connect us to possible clients. But if you already have a lot of demand, that particular function isn’t so useful to you. So what remains? I suppose what protection Airbnb offers to hosts.
The strict has always been 50% refund up to 1 week prior. If you did get invited to super strict then that prob. is where you are getting confused.
Every time I have called about how to get invited the reps. cannot give me any logical response.
Your island can definitely go it alone. And you can command any kind of payment you want:
Check
Bank Transfer, etc.
No paying them 3%. And then you can raise your rates too since the traveler would be booking direct with no service fee. No guests who can upload fake obituaries and leave you hanging dry…