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We turned off non-refundable during COVID after one too many “but-that’s-not-fair” protests from guests whose travel plans were disrupted during the pandemic. This week we turned it back on, and I have two questions I have not been able to resolve searching google and Airbnb support for reliably up-to-date information:
1. Grace period My refund policy is “moderate with optional no-cancel discount” It is not clear to me whether or not guests taking the no-cancel option for short-term (less than 28 days) have a 48-hour grace period, or 24 hours or none under this month’s version of Airbnb’s constantly changing rules?
2. Default refund option presented to guests When the Airbnb interface presents both cancellation options to the guest (moderate & discount/no-refund), it always defaults to the “no cancel.” Is there any way to toggle the default to the “moderate” option. (Default display shown in screengrab below). If there is any subsequent dispute I do not want the guest to be able to say (perhaps quite legitimately) “I didn’t realize…”)
What if your policy is Moderate/Optional-no-cancel and the guest chooses “no cancel” ? Do they have grace for a day or two to reconsider/back out without penalty? Air support makes it clear that they do if your policy is "stricty/Optional-no-cancel and the guest chooses “no cancel,” but policy seems to be silent on grace when guest chooses “no cancel” at a moderate property like mine.
As JJD said, they can cancel with no penalty up to 5 days before check-in. What non-refundable means for moderate is that they would not be refunded anything if they cancelled after that, whereas normally they would be charged for one night and be refunded half of the remaining nights.
No, I don’t. It just seems to me to be what is meant. I agree that Airbnb could be a lot clearer, but ambiguity seems to be their M.O.
Non-refundable just means that any refund that would normally apply to any given policy doesn’t apply. It doesn’t change the grace period for any policy.
@Spark Can I ask why you are wanting to use the non-refundable? Have you been getting a lot of cancellations, or desperate for bookings and think it will help?
Like you and JJD, I also use moderate and have never gotten hardly any post-5 day cancellations, so taking a 10% loss seems pointless.
And there are guests who will try to demand a refund regardless of what a host’s cancellation policy is. I’ve also read, several times, of guests making up some issue in order to get their $ back on non-refundable, and Airbnb refunding them, so it’s no guarantee you’ll be paid in full.
I don’t see anything in these rules that clarifies exactly when the reservation becomes “non-refundable” – the rules are silent, and that creates an ambiguity:
When Airbnb writes (to hosts) describing the “no refund” option they say:
If [guests] cancel, you keep your entire payout for all nights booked, minus the cleaning fee if they cancel before check-in
It is absolutely not the same as saying:
If [guests] cancel within five days of scheduled check-in, you keep your entire payout for all nights booked, minus the cleaning fee if they cancel before check-in
The rule simply does not address the question – and in he face of the ambiguity some hosts have filled in the blank with a “five-day clause.” I understand the logic in doing so, but – unless there is additional written clarification elsewhere – there is equally compelling logic to fill in the blank with “from the moment the reservation is confirmed.”
The same ambiguity exists when reading the guest (written) version of that policy.
We are not desperate, but reservations are certainly slower. We have already have confirmed 2023 bookings that meet 60% of our revenue goals for the year – and most of that is 28 – 31 day stays. However – this is the first time since we came back online after our five-month COVID shutdown that we weren’t booked back-to-back for six months ahead, so we want to chase the market a bit more actively.
We decided to activate the 10% no-cancellation option because this enables us to offer the marketplace another price point. We’re willing to take the hit in exchange for the certainty of a “bird in hand” from the moment of booking, but if that bird only arrives a few days before check-in, I’m not sure it is worth giving up 10%
That was my original understanding, but when I went looking for a rule that provides dispute-proof clarity, I could not find one (and still can’t).
If the reservation is non-refundable, it seems out-of-step with 2023 consumer expectations and consumer law that Air doesn’t provide the customer with a day or two grace. I think consumers have come to expect “second thoughts” wiggle room, and I worry that Airbnb (and its hosts) will be criticized for being unfair if the company doesn’t offer this.
Once again, the Airbnb rules are totally silent on this specific point – and that is, for a situation that by its nature is prone to disputes, business malpractice
I can already report this: We got more new (future) bookings in the first ten days after we turned “instant booking” back on than we did in the previous 10 weeks.
I have seen too many times that the extenuating circumstances policies kick in when the guest proffers some reason to cancel and refund on a non refundable booking and the CSR give it to them, to the extent that they don’t even inform the host or ask if it is ok…… this is why I don’t offer it.
I have no Airbnb booked at all for the rest of the year, 4 on B.con and everything else is direct.
While there are many things which enter into the search algorirhm, and impossible to know what weight each factor is given, I think it’s fairly well-known that offering IB is pretty much at the top of the list. It’s how Airbnb tries to bully hosts into using IB.
We’re willing to take the hit in exchange for the certainty of a “bird in hand” from the moment of booking, but if that bird only arrives a few days before check-in, I’m not sure it is worth giving up 10%
My cancellation rate is probably less than 5% and for me to justify giving a 10% discount to guests, I would need the cancellation rate to be higher, as a cancellation creates a hole in my calendar that usually requires me to drop my price quite a bit, more if its a last minute cancellation.
For me offering the discount just isn’t worth it as my cancellations are not much. Then again I almost NEVER get bookings for more than 10 days. I would probably think about my business model in a different way if my bookings were month long stays.
