OMG Airbnb have changed strict cancellation policy guests get full refund if cancel 30 days or more before

This would deter me from reducing prices for last minute bookings. It wouldn’t take long before guests start checking prices and realising that that super-dupe apartment they initially had their eye on has come right down in price. They then cancel their second or third choice and change.
Call me a cynic…

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Join the club! I think cynicism belongs to Brits…

My rental is probably very different than yours but I stopped reducing prices as open dates approached. I get the same number of bookings but I get a lot of last minute (day before or same day) bookings. And if the room doesn’t get booked that’s a good time to take down the curtains and wash them or re-silicone the base of the toilet or go out to see the Black Panther movie with no worries the guest will need something in the middle of it.

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If you are still interested in this topic, the next 27th of February there will be a Q&A Session with Brian Chesky, we can now submit questions in advance and the most voted question in the english questions section, at the moment is :

“Why did you change the cancellation policy without asking hosts? It unfairly penalizes hosts when our calendars are blocked, the guest cancels last minute, and then it’s too late to get a relisting.”

We can try to have an answer, voting it here : https://pigeonhole.at/AIRBNB/q/103824

What do you think about?

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Its all one way with ABNB, we pay they take. I’m assuming that they are still adding a 3% to their charges if you have a strict policy!

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Sorry I’m a bit late… but yes we used the EC option as guests to cancel a stay, as we had to fly across the world to tend to a very sudden health issue of my MIL. We were informed she was hospitalized and were on a flight within 12 hours for my husband and 24 hours for me. Trust me the $500 stay was a drop in the bucket compared to the last minute tickets to Europe in the peak summer season.

I promptly informed my host and cancelled so they could maybe get rebooked. I was so overwhelmed with the very real medical emergency that I did not even start the paper work submittal to Air BNB for atleast 5-7 days.

I was required to submit detailed account of what happened and ‘proof’. I sent last minute airline tickets and hotel reservations, showing them books within 12 hours of flight (I know not proof within itself). I was also asked for a note/hospital record from my MIL. Well, Sweden is not so keen to give out health info, even to immediate family, and MIL was deemed not fit to give permission, so I was unable to get Drs notes/hospital admittance records. Please don’t debate me on if or if not this happened and how I should have tried harder, it was a very difficult situation and non of us were thinking clearly enough to hunt down the info Air BnB was requesting.

The host was gracious enough to grant a refund but according to ABB I had not provided substantial proof for ABB to force the refund.

I know everyone thinks EC is a joke, but from a long time host let me tell you the requirements that I had to meet under the EC policy were very stringent and hard to meet unless you actually had a health emergency. Sure people will work the system and get fake notes etc, but there will always be fraudsters and to think everyone is out to get youis just too much energy for me. I would rather trust the system, and know that it works the majority of time.

Now don’t get me started on the BS Host Guarentee :rage::rage::rage::rage:

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It’s worse than that! I just got a cancellation 10 days from Super Bowl and they got full refund. I had it set to Moderate and have just changed it but even with strict they get 50% refund 2 weeks out. I cut and pasted new policy for strict and moderate below. Moderate is full refund 5 days out!

Strict
UPDATED
Full refund for cancellations made within 48 hours of booking, if the check-in date is at least 14 days away. 50% refund for cancellations made at least 7 days before check-in. No refunds for cancellations made within 7 days of check-in.

Moderate
Full refund 5 days prior to arrival

This post is talking about the strict cancellation policy.

Your guests got a full refund in your case because you had chosen the moderate cancellation policy.

I don’t think the policies you have posted are new. They have been that way for at least a year.

Hopefully you’ll get a replacement booking.

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This appears fake as no matter how many times I open it (whether signing or not) it opens at the same number of votes and starts climbing immediately.

The petitions didn’t have any effect. Airbnb has continued to implement host-hostile policies. They only care about what will make them money and that’s the guest, not the host. We argue that they would have no business without hosts, true of course, but they can get enough hosts to do it the way they want now. When hosts actually start leaving the platform and they have a shortage of viable listings then we might see a change. I don’t see that happening. As AmyB said on another thread. They get hosts dependent on the money and then we can’t leave.

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Lucky you @judyhwright I have voluntarily let the guest cancel without penalty four times and not got a bean.

I got a bnb keyring I stare lovingly at it everyday

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The 30 day refund is only for Italy and S. Korean

Per Airbnb: The following policies only apply to reservations in Italy, or reservations made by South Korean guests with a Strict cancellation policy. The applicable cancellation policies for all other reservations can be found here.

Hi, I am having a similar problem. I had a guest book two weeks beginning July 3rd at my mountain cabin in upstate NY. She booked on June 2nd, well after the March 14 COVID refund date. We communicated constantly about COVID in the area of my cabin we are averaging less than one new positive in the county per day. Then 7 days before she was to arrive, she cancels because she is afraid of COVID in other parts of the country. I have strict cancellation policy. AirBnB gave her a 100% refund and despite numerous messages they will not reply to me with an explanation. I try calling and am told the wait will be one and one half hours. Then after about an hour on hold, the call drops.