I don’t know why they decided Italy first, probably we were just unlucky.
I received an answer from Airbnb and they are still trying these new policies, that are mandatory for new hosts in some american cities and for all the italian hosts.
I don’t know how it will end but they told me if the test result will be good for them they will apply to all so , if I can , I suggest you and all the other hosts to sign this petition the receive attention from Airbnb and to block these new crazy cancellation policies.
HomeShare, can you please let us know how SF hosts are getting word of this "experiment?"
Distressing!!!
This is the first I have heard about them rolling out their crap policy to the US. Did they send you an email?
Rotten news all the way around.
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@konacoconutz, the Home Sharers Democratic Club had a meeting a couple of months ago where an Airbnb representative who worked on this issue confirmed this experiment in SF and explained the policy reasoning behind it. One of our members were selected as one of the experimental hosts and he also confirmed it. We hope to have Airbnb out again to give us an update.
Peter.
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I’d like to know Airbnb’s reasoning behind this new policy (besides the obvious two that pop into my head). If the experiment in Italy has indeed caused a significant rate in cancellations, I’m curious as to how they are selling this change to hosts. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment you can provide @HomeSharersSF.
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Is this the next step forward to make hosts abandon the Strict policy?
The refund policy search filter lets you select only cancellation policies that offer you the full refund which means:
- More than 5 days left for the trip to start > Moderate and Flexible listings are shown up
- Less than 5 days left for the trip to start > Only Flexible listings are shown up.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Moderate & Flexible get an extra boost in the search ranking
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Wow, no good at all.
Please post this on the host forum on the Abnb website…they need to know.
Oh dear, this is really bad news
And do you know what I will do since I have a strict policy and I will have to pay an extra 2%? I will simply raise my price 2% to cover it. If I lose business so what I don’t really care I want to be compensated for my hard work
It’s somewhat more complicated than raising your price by 2%. It’s about the fact that guests can now search more favourable cancellation policies. Add that to your 2% price increase and it might be enough to reduce your bookings.
I’m actually considering going back to a moderate cancellation policy. I’ll have to see if my bookings or search results go down at all. I guess I’m just thinking about my own travels. I am one that might actually filter by cancellation policy. I’d probably search both ways actually, but the cancellation policy might tip me one way or the other. Mostly because we have both elderly parents and pets, and I worry that something might happen where I would have to cancel.
What´s going on with this extorsive strategy to impose things?
IB
You better have it or we will assure that people won´t find you.
Lower prices
We will make a hard effort convincing your neighboring listings to drop their prices so that you will have no other choice than doing it as well.
Full refund
You better opt for a full refund cancellation policy or we will let know guests how risky is booking with you
Aren´t they so charming?
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I don’t think it’s happening quite yet in Hawaii. I just got a same day request that I could not take because the place was not clean. I’m on strict.
I’m on strict but I state that we will give a full refund if the house is rebooked. I don’t understand why Air doesn’t make this an option. Only twice in 28 years I’ve had guests cancel, but both times they were rebooked within a day and fully refunded.
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Yes I would love a policy that stated we’d refund if we rebooked. After all, that is the way LTRs work if someone breaks a lease. If we rerent we refund.
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Hey, I am not seeing the “Refund Policy” filter any longer, nor the Fully Refundable label, nor the Piggy bank inside our listing’s page that highlights the benefits of Moderate and Flexible cancellations. Are you seeing this reverted change or is it just me?
I believe if they have decided to remove this feature it surely was because it was leading to very low conversions to the ones that have chosen Strict, which is the great majority.
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Please tell me how you managed to have an Airbnb booking 28 years ago. 
Oh, did I say it was on Air? My bad (if I did).
I’ve been renting/hosting since 1989. On air for a much lesser time, of course.
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Which would make CH by far the most experienced host here!!!
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Hey guys,
I just joined this thread having been burned by my first guest cancellation under this policy - the guest waited until the last hour for the 48 hour grace period was up, and it was exactly 14 days out. This may not give me enough time to secure the same booking again. Further, I can’t see that the policy serves any useful purpose: it doesn’t seem to be increasing the number of bookings made. I’ve just called Airbnb to put in the form to apply for super strict cancellation as a superhost, but wish I had been made aware earlier that this was an option.
I also left a formal complaint about the manager, Jason, who dealt with my enquiry but was completely unempathetic and rude in the process. His conversation was like a case study in how to provide bad customer service! It was super upsetting and not how I would prefer to be treated as an experienced Superhost who is bringing several thousands of dollars of revenue to Airbnb annually - the fact that the managers seem to have been told to simply reassert the “terms of use” that we signed up for (ie. that the terms of our use can change, without our consent, irrevocably), doesn’t solve any problems and is, frankly, terrible PR for Airbnb. Not cool, Jason. Not cool, Airbnb.
If anyone wants to ask me about the transition to Super Strict Cancellation policy I’m currently in the process of waiting for my approval on this and am happy to answer any questions.
The worst part? I posted this exact message on the ‘official’ Airbnb thread and within 30 seconds it had been rejected - this kind of host censorship is unacceptable.