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Yes, this has changed and my guest canceled when my computer was down! They called AIRBNB because I had not responded. They then contacted me and I said I would be willing to cancel but I did not want to be dinged for doing so. Amber assured me that we would not be dinged.
Then…get this… Airbnb contacted me and said they would send me a gift because I so willingly let the guest cancel. I get a new yoga mat.
Judy Helm Wright–Author/Blogger/Intuitive Wise Woman
Lucky you @judyhwright I have voluntarily let the guest cancel without penalty four times and not got a bean.
Did you and the guest work it out or had they involved Airbnb? Maybe this is a new policy. The policies change so darn fast, it is hard to keep up.
Judy Helm Wright–Author/Blogger/Intuitive Wise Woman
Not like all hotels. There are very many different policies.
I am using Booking and have a zero refund policy. I am taking all payment at booking.
Way better than Airbnb.
No in all cases I had to spend time contacting Airbnb because the guest messed up - booked wrong weekend, booked and wanted a 5 a.m. check in, booked and want to have children and a hamster stay etc.
I kindly called Airbnb sorted it out and agree to a full refund even though I am on a strict policy and could have kept half.
Neither the guest nor Airbnb bothered to thank me, nor was I offered a gift as a thank you. It seems mainly if you are a North American or Australian host you get gifts. In Europe we are given sweet FA.
Never again.
N.B. we don’t normally promote what we do outside of Airbnb on our posts. You can of course add this into your profile.
Aww, and I was just getting ready to start signing my posts
Dusty–Forum moderator/Dog charmer/Charwoman/Jokeslinger
Halloween costume winner. 
I did love me some “dress up” days.
I think it’s also in the forum guidelines. I didn’t add it tho.
The kids must have loved the Sex Pistols one.
Yeah I got a email saying there would an announcement
Eh, not so much because of Sex Pistols, they just liked the punk look. V for Vendetta, Evil Queen from Snow White, Woody from Toy Story were probably popular favorites.
I was in a similar position, and I was also entitled to keep half (the guest decided I wasn’t in the town where I know I have lived for 26 years and wanted to cancel) Well agreed to refund and not only did I not receive a thank you, the guest opened a case to force me to refund early so that it would be taken out of my next payout. I even got a phone call from Air asking me to kindly refund early! Both of which were answered with a no and a hell no. Well I thought about saying hell no. 
The nerve!!! When I was under no obligation to refund anything! And no, agreed…never again.
I also don’t call on their behalf. That is on them. They are no longer my customer. They need to be the ones to call and do the legwork.
They started these changes in Italy, without inform us in advance, one year ago.
The worst part is that to have the strict policy , that allows guests to cancel 30 days or more before a booking and get a full refund, now you have to pay a 5% fee instead of a normal 3% Airbnb fee.
After this, the number of cancellations has raised fast. I normally had 1 or 2 cancellations per year, now I’m receiving up to 20 cancellations per year.
We tried to do something during this year and started a petition.
We could join worldwide in the same petition and then link it to Brian or others on twitter.
What do you think about?
Here is the petition : https://www.change.org/p/airbnb-s-new-cancellation-policies-are-absolutely-wrong
Petition signed.
I run a travel company and it’s amazing how many people suddenly find a way around their “insurmountable” problem when they realise they won’t get a refund for their requested cancellation. Customers get more and more inventive with excuses but almost 4 in 5 back down and continue with their holiday once they realise their commitment is indeed a commitment.
AirBnB are simply encouraging the timewasters by changing this policy.
Every 3 cancellations you may aspect 1 rebooked period, but it depends if cancellation comes near the arrival day of the guests or 1 month in advance.
And it also depends if you are agree to do a last minute discount from 10 to 30 percent as suggested by Airbnb. If you are agree with the discount, Airbnb push your listing up in the results page.
It also depends if we are speaking about high season that is easy to be rebooked or low season, and it depends if the listing is in a main city as Rome or Florence or Venice or if the listing is in the countryside or not in a trending destination.
Is this an Airbnb feature where you can accept or decline the discount offer? Or is it just the regular suggestions to lower your rate. I have read that Homeaway will soon be implementing something similar. The larger the discount, the higher you will rank…
It is a suggestion that appears in the calendar page of your listing just after a cancellation that you can accept or decline. They tell you that accepting you will have many more possibilities to rebook your space.
It isn’t the regular suggestion…
Wow that’s terrible!!! I wonder with this if people book multiple places like friend A books one place, then friend B books another; or husband and wife book different places. They can decide at the last minute which they prefer. They have the addresses, etc. once they book so they can do more research on location, that type of thing. I dread this change. Cancellations are horrible. Even worse when you are paying more for the policy and getting less.