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I’m not seeing any small print so I’ll assume that extenuating circumstances will still override. I’ve had plenty of cancellations and used to always refund without even being asked but am leaning against that now as I realize that helps encourage the “entitled guest” behavior that impacts other hosts with different policies than mine. I also believe Airbnb is going to move in the direction of forcing more lenient policies on everyone so to maintain my margin I need to quit refunding those cancellations.
I may raise my prices 5% and enable it just for the boost. It would have to be a very small advantage since I seem to always be at the top of search anyway.
Considering airbnb give guests refunds for any stupid reason, I won’t be using it
( Airbnb will mediate when necessary, and has the final say in all disputes}
Thanks for locating the small print! I’ve upped my prices 5% and enabled it. Like @JohnF has observed, it’s not showing on the listing yet.
In doing an incognito search I’ve also realized why I never get bookings more than a month in advance. When I did a search for my town the map is on the center of downtown. That makes perfect sense for most places. I would argue that it doesn’t make perfect sense for my town but that’s a different thread. Luckily it works perfectly for the way I run my business but I can imagine that in most places it doesn’t favor lots of hosts.
Our place is in the Caribbean and we are in the US, and we got the “add flexible for 7%”. I think it has to do with your current policy (we are strict) than your location
Ok, it finally kicked in and I’ve now disabled it.
What it did was replace our Moderate cancellation policy with a Non-refundable policy and knocked 10% off the prices. That’s it. I tried a selection of dates (using Epic privacy browser) and it appears that the Non-refundable rate appeared 6-8 weeks before the booking date, further ahead than that, our Moderate policy applied with no option to book any other way.
No notification to potential guests that they were making a saving and, more importantly, no way for the guest to make a choice between Moderate and Non-refundable.
Oh well, it sounded like a good idea - actually it is a good idea, just a pity about the front end implementation, or rather lack of implementation!
Thanks for the followup. Since I have flexible policy and get most my bookings 6-8 weeks in advance I would think this would work for me. The notification of the option to choose NR but show up in the payment queue? That is, you’d have to be logged in and click book to see it. But meanwhile it just shows my higher price and is probably going to reduce bookings.
My challenge is that discount equals discount. As in the discount mentality. If you are offering a discount up front, what kind of people are you attracting?
Can they push it futher, i.e., we don’t really need the other bedroom, can we get a further discount?
We listed our home last month, and soon after enabled the beta 10% non-cancelable discount offer. Since then we’ve had (2) requests to cancel reservations where the guests chose the non-refundable option:
Guest requested to change reservation that was starting 48 hours later, to a weekend 6 weeks later, as someone in their party was sick. I declined the change request, and they decided to make the trip without their ill family member. Still waiting to see if we get a subpar review for this. I think it’s a cr@p policy that Airbnb allows a guest to request a change like this, which makes us look like the bad guy.
Tonight, another guest requested to cancel their 3 night weeknd stay, after the event they were coming for was cancelled. As it’s about 2.5 weeks away, I’ve offered to refund 2 of the 3 nights as a gesture of good faith, which I think is more than generous based on their decision to choose the lower rate when booking.
I compare the guests booking choice to that when booking a Southwest Airlines ticket, and choosing the Wanna Get Away price is less expensive, but doesn’t allow you to cancel like their more expensive Anytime or Business Select option.
No way would I have refunded this, particularly since they opted to save money by choosing the non-refundable option. In any event, I don’t refund unless I rebook (and they’ve asked for a refund), but if the guest had gotten a deal for a non refundable reservation, I don’t think I’d refund at all. Also, if I am refunding, I don’t do it until the reservation date passes and we’ve actually received the money.
The fact that Airbnb even ENTERTAINS the idea of refunding the non-refundable
10% discount option is rediculous. The fact that they put the onus on the Host is just almost criminal. Thanx for the info, because now I have made my decision that I won’t be opting in to this scheme.
They are a first time Airbnb user, and I’d rather not scare them away from the platform. I also Turo a few of my cars, and many of the hosts there are all about the short term gain and gouging guests for small things, which will ultimately lead people to go back traditional rental car agencies.
Secondly, we have openings before and after this renters stay. At worst I think we’ll rent it for the 2 days I refunded (we have no unbooked weekends until the 2nd week of June), and at best, we’ll pick up a reservation that wants the house for a day or 2 more before and after this early February weekend.
That’s not a good analogy because you can cancel a SW wanna get away reservation and the funds can be applied to a future booking but expires within a year.
That’s nice of you and I hope it pays off for you. I’ve read so many posts from new Airbnb hosts who have been taken advantage of by “first time users” who seem to know more about the platform than the host, that I’ve become a bit cynical.
Letting people get away with choosing non-refundable and then you acting as their travel insurance will get old fast. Two such cancellations in a month seems like a lot to me but I know nothing about your listing or market.
Welcome to the forum, luckily you’ve found us before the major problems start, not afterwards.
Thanks KKC. After speaking to the wife, we think we’ll stick with the 10% off option a little longer, but put something in the listing to the effect of “If you choose the non-cancel-able option, please do not ask for a change or cancellation with refund”.
