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New ‘option’ for cancellation that you must opt OUT of starting June 3rd:
Introducing extended cancellation
Starting June 3, we’re testing a new policy option called extended cancellation, where guests can add more flexibility and your earnings will be protected. This allows guests to pay Airbnb for free cancellation up to 24 hours before check-in.
This doesn’t change your cancellation policy. If a guest cancels during the extended window, you’ll still be paid according to your existing policy.
Hosts who offer flexibility typically earn more, and many guests say it’s a key factor when choosing a place to stay.
Gee, cancelled dates will immediately open on your calendar, how awesome. I’m sure almost all hosts have no problem rebooking reservations cancelled 24 hrs. before check-in. And I so look forward to spending 2 hours cleaning and resetting the guest room and bathroom for a no-show.
Okay, this is confusing. There is a thread on the Airbnb CC dating from early April where hosts are discussing this, and one host posted a screenshot of the cancellation policy settings page which shows this “extended cancellation” option that you can turn off. But there is no such policy option on my edit cancellation policy page.
They’re probably rolling it out in different places at different times:
“ The extended cancellation option is currently available for eligible hosts and listings in: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ireland, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Türkiye, US, and Vietnam”
I’m confused. Airbnb will charge guests a fee that enables them to cancel whenever. But assuming the host has a stricter policy in place, the payout will remain as expected even if the guest cancels? Why would Airbnb do this if it might end up costing them significantly? Or is it really the case that relatively few guests cancel at the last minute, even if they pay for flexibility just in case, so this is a way to make money.
But if it doesn’t change the host’s existing cancellation policy or payout, why it is being made a deal of? I’m wondering if this is an evidence building mission by Airbnb to support a future plan to remove all the less flexible cancellation policies…
So let’s imagine for a mo… my friend books our room for say, five nights. Then cancels 24 hours before kick off.
And we get a 50% payout.
No mess, no fuss.
Sounds kinda dreamy.
We should all start a syndicate to support each other.
Anyone for a week in the Shropshire hills?
I fancy 10 days in Mexico for starters.
Okay, so we get paid 50%. If we aren’t in a last minute booking market, and/or don’t like last mimute bookings, those cancelled dates don’t get rebooked. We end up with 50% of what we would have made. This starts to happen with alarming frequency. How is this no big deal?
Meantime, Airbnb has made money off the guest’s opting to go for “extended cancellation”. And is Airbnb going to refund their service fee portion of the booking, or just the nightly fee?
And I’d like to see the data on “Hosts who offer flexibility typically earn more.”
I suspect that the majority of hosts who have a flexible cancellation policy are those who have no issue with last-minute and same day bookings, which we know can be problematic, (bad guests, payment fails after guest is in residence, host has to scramble to prepare space, etc.) and are in a market where last minute bookings are their bread and butter, i.e. if they live near an airport or interstate, where road trippers may decide spontaneously they don’t want to drive anymore that day.
I don’t see how AirBnB doesn’t lose money on this. They are refunding the guest, and paying the host…and all for this whatever fee they are charging the guest to have the flexible cancelation? I bet this program doesn’t last long.
Turo (Airbnb for cars) has this policy. So do most, or perhaps, all airlines. And many resorts.
It is just insurance against risk, and the premium is steep … more than enough for Airbnb to make money.
I can’t help wondering whether this new option is being offered as a way to encourage hosts with Strict cancellation policies to migrate away from them, making it easier for Airbnb to eventually phase out the Strict policy entirely. My concern is that once a host opts in, there may be no way to return to the previous policy.
Airlines and car rental agencies and resorts aren’t making policies which affect others, though. They own their own inventory. Their policies affect only themselves and their customers, not millions of independent contractors who provide the product they sell.
This is why unions exist, so billion dollar companies can’t institute policies to which their employees object. While Airbnb considers hosts to be independent contractors, they violate their own TOS, which states that hosts are fully in charge of how they run their listings, but then impose policies which affect how we run our listings, which means they treat hosts like employees.
Uber drivers are in the same position. Uber drivers in Victoria, British Columbia just unionized.
At this point, no. The option doesn’t even appear in my settings. As Rolf pointed out, they don’t roll new policies out everywhere at the same time, so I’m assuming that’s the reason I don’t have that setting showing yet. But they are “testing” this, which means they could make it non-optional in the future.
And while the host supposedly gets paid out in accordance with their cancellation policy, if it leads to more last minute cancellations, with not enough time to rebook the dates, hosts will be losing money.
I kind of suspect this policy “test” will be a bust for Airbnb, because guests have to pay for extended cancellation. I have no idea how much they are charging for this, but most guests tend not to opt for extra charges, including the trip insurance Airbnb offers.
Airbnb would have to charge enough for this coverage to offset the $ they are going to have to pay out from their own coffers to cover the host payouts, which at this point they don’t have any real data on. Maybe they’ve done some surveys asking guests if they would like this option, but I doubt they coupled it with an exact price, and surveys are not always an accurate prediction of reality.
"Airbnb and its insurance underwriters do not publicly release specific data regarding the exact percentage of guests who purchase travel insurance during checkout.
However, travel insurance industry data indicates that fewer than 30% of all leisure travelers generally purchase standalone or add-on trip insurance for domestic or regional trips. For international travel, this rate spikes closer to 40% to 50%."
I wonder if Airbnb came up with this because they’ve been getting complaints from irate guests who opted for the Airbnb Generali travel insurance, didn’t read the fine print, and found out it wouldn’t reimburse them for their cancellation.
I have read several posts from guests complaining about this.
The fine print for all insurance that I’ve ever come across always requires very limited and specific reasons for cancellation with third party supporting evidence (medical, police etc). General cancellation just because plans change or a child is being sick are rarely grounds for a claim to be supported.
Even if it starts out as being a cancel for any reason policy, I am sure that element will quite quickly be quietly dropped if too many guests cancel and it starts costing. Or hosts will be pushed into having more flexible policies.
I totally agree last minute bookings are usually problematic. I had guest booked my place 5 days before check in date. That was very rare for me. But on the day of their check-in, Airbnb cancelled their reservation due to suspicious account. I called in and was told, the guests filed a charge-back on their account. Then the booker of the guests messaged me that they didn’t file chargeback. Not sure what really happened, anyway,
How is that encouraging hosts with Strict cancellation policies to migrate away from them? So I have a Super Strict policy. Guest bought this Extended Cancellation and cancelled last-minute. According to this new policy, I would still be paid in full by Airbnb; and guests would get full refund by Airbnb. There is no impact to me, why would I change my Super Strict policy to anything more flexible? Actually, I guess more hosts would want to change to their flexible cancellation policy to more strict one. Am I missing something here? I am so confused.
