New Beta Feature: Protect your payout with non-refundable reservations

AirBnb is now giving me an option to offer a 10% discount for guests who opt for a non-refundable option. Would you use this?

I just saw this today but 7% is really not worth it.

I considered it for a split second but I get good bookings and hardly no one cancels. Iā€™ve had 1 cancellation in 2 years and I really donā€™t like the hassle of those, so Iā€™m gonna keep my strict policy

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I might consider it if I could ā€œaffordā€ to raise my rates 10% to compensate for the discount I would be forced to offer.

Weā€™ve not had any cancellations until this year, but we did have three or four which I think were people exercising their ā€˜48-hour no-penalty cancellationā€™ option.

For those who sign up: let us know if the CS agents call and ask you to refund the guests anyways.

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I cant figure out what they will do with the extenuating circumstances. I bet they will still stick it to the owner.

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Someone posted the screen shot of the policy on one of the other threads on the same topic. EC will still be in effect.

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then it is totally worthless

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Iā€™m with you. I thought about it for a few minutes. Did the math. Decided against it, since we are still their insurance policy as long as AirBnB will give them all their money back for an EC situation.

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Got this too!
Airbnb made it sound like it was something great!
Signed up for it but then did the math, 2 scenarios

  1. If I add 10% more to the listing price and then do the discount, I get fewer bookings as guests who have no intention of cancelling will first see the higher price.
  2. If I just add 10% discount without raising rates, will lose money. And very much possible that Airbnb will anyways cancel penalty free for the guest stating emergency.

Eventually I think I will cave in as other competitive and mindless hosts start accepting non-refundable bookings.
Airbnb is killing profit margins with every new feature it adds.

I considered adding the discount. At first I was interested, then I decided against it. I opened the enrollment page & received a surprise. The DEFAULT when they pushed out the change was to OFFER the discount!!!

Check your listing to be sure your donā€™t have discount selected (unless you want to offer it of course)

You see that when you click ā€œlearn moreā€ but itā€™s not your setting until you click ā€œsaveā€ at the bottom. If you look at it and then close the window itā€™s not set by default.

Looks like Air is testing different things. Instead of offering a 10% discount to those willing to book a non-refundable stay, I was given the chance to add a 7% premium to people who want to book a stay they think they might have to cancel, and keep my regular price for my Strict cancellation policy.

@Chloe - I suspect what they offer depends on your current cancellation policy. Have the strict policy (like we do)? Offer a flexible policy for a higher price. Have the flexible policy (like K9 does, I think)? Offer the non-refundable for a discount.

I suspect they are calculating the value the guests place on the difference between a refundable and a non-refundable rate. Hotels can do that just between their rooms; AirBnB has to have a more complex process to figure it out.

Yes, I have flexible and the option described in the OP is what I was offered.

I have moderate and was offered the 10% for guaranteed payout as well.