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AirBNB replied to the Italian hosts’ petition and confirmed that the roll-out in Italy was a run-through before introducing it in all other countries. It’s a bit difficult to understand because of translation issues but there are a few other interesting hints that indicate other changes in the future.
OCT 27, 2016 — A few days ago we spoke with the Airbnb italian team and we discovered that:
Airbnb will not launch the new conditions in new countries until the Airbnb Open
The cancellation policy is one of the oldest conditions in Airbnb and it has never changed since 2008, so according to them need updating, because the cancellation terms are also the second reason, in order of frequency, for which the hosts and guests call Customer Service.
The current policies look unfair to many travellers who once deleted with strict terms no longer book on Airbnb, instead who delete with flexible policies is more inclined to book again on Airbnb.
Airbnb is currently losing money because to mitigate the discontent of travelers who cancel with strict terms refund the guests.
Italian Airbnb team assures us that they will take further actions if the test fails or if the new policies will makes the cancellation number rises.
Airbnb italian team agreed that the new policies have been presented badly and they promised to produce slides with data or graphic info to “educate” hosts on the changes introduced.
Hosts that receive a cancellation are highlighted to provide them a new reservation.
The new cancellation policy will not affect the visibility of your listing.
The security controls will be increased to prevent that transactions are brought outside of Airbnb, if fact after a cancellation the host and the guest involved have their direct contacts.
Oh, yes…because we hosts are so stupid we need to watch a PowerPoint presentation in order to understand Air is screwing over the hosts! No amount of data and graphs is going to convince me their cancellation policies are in my best interest.
Yes, what’s your guess for the most common reason they’re contacted? I would think damages are too infrequent to be their #1 reason.
I’m also unclear about what the last sentence means – trying to ramp up security measures to prevent guests and hosts from booking off the site? It’s unclear to me how that’s related to cancellation.
I try to explain what I understand:
first reason of contact for Customer Service is " how airbnb works?" but they didn’t tell how to fix this issue.
Second point, new cancellation policy will not affect visibility means that the algorithm doesn’t care if you choose flexible, moderate or strict terms at the beginning but after a cancellation they highlight your listing whatever is the policy you chose.
A cancellation comes after a reservation and after reservation guests and hosts have their direct contacts (email, telephone number, etc) . so a guest can cancel a reservation but note the telephone number and contact directly the host.
