Rate Manipulation By Guest

I am in Austria.
Seems they copied the Italian condition to (part of?) the US.

They will not change soon here, they already have a hard time competing to BDC. AirBnB is still a very small player here, and has a bad image with hosts.

If they would introduce this policy here, they would lose almost all business. Since this country runs on Holliday business booked months even a year ahead.

@Lynick4442 , Can you provide a link to that wording on Airbnb’s website? I could only find that specific wording on other websites (e.g., igms)

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1338/how-is-my-refund-calculated-if-i-cancel-my-reservation

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

If you scroll down you’ll see this wording: it’s the and at least 14 full days that’s new. Really bothers me. Guest can have held their spot for months and then poof, 2 weeks before.

For a full refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made within 48 hours of booking and at least 14 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check-in.

@Lynick4442, I think you’re missing the 48-hours after booking AND 14 full days before check-in. This wording is specifically targeting bookings made less than 2 weeks before check-in.

Actually I believe you are missing the destinction. It used to be that we would get 100% less cleaning fee after the 48 hour window but then I had a guest cancel at about day 20 and I didn’t get anything. When I contacted Airbnb I was told that the policy changed. Then I asked this group about it and they said it changed about 2 years ago.

FYI - I would love to be proven wrong and learn that the Customer Service Rep was wrong.

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No, I don’t. Why would I lower my price when supply is down?

In summer this is true. In winter this is not true, at least in my location.

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No. Nobody has done this to me. I setup the min price that is not low and the prices dont fluctuate that much in my case. I ignore Airbnb “suggestions” that I should lower the price. No matter how much I lower the price Airbnb keeps sending me these messages, so I ignore them. Consequently, if they cancel like a couple of weeks before the trip they lose the Airbnb fee. In other words the airbnb fee + price of booking now is probably higher than the price booked way in advance.

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This particular guest knew what she was doing. She cancelled and rebooked 17 days before. Wheelhouse does a great job with auto pricing to keep me fully booked with optimal profit. But they dropped the ball on this one due to the system glitching out.

well, if you use third party software keep in mind that there is no software that is bug free. You just stumbled upon a bug and the guest took advantage. In my case the one doing the pricing is me. Change your cancellation policy to firm, so people would lose money if they cancel. problem solved!

Change your cancel policy. I raise rates as the dates get closer- not lower them. “ he who books last wins”. But I do understand that every market differs. I also don’t use any pricing automation. But I am whole houses and you may be a room or a share and our demographic differs.

I would be “uncomfortable “ with these guests and I would not allow them to stay FYI

I interpreted this the same way @Brian_R170 did.

If the stay is more than 14 days away they get a grace period. (cancel within 48 hours of booking for a full refund)
If the stay is less than 14 days away, no grace period.

I had a cancellation earlier in the summer that was more than 2 weeks out and I still got paid the 50%. So the system seems to be auto-calculating accurately.

I wonder if your guest called Air and got a particularly eager to please agent. Many of them seem to think guests are paupers and we’re big bad landlords with deep pockets. You were contractually due the 50% payout.

I currently use a flexible cancellation policy. Sometimes I get burned, but overall it seems to make guests feel more secure. I’m not going to lie, this last one had me rattled. I lost quite a lot of money from the under-booking error. I will probably take the recommendation of people here and switch to Strict. 95% of guests never cancel. I can always refund them if they have a good reason.

Yeah, I switched to Strict after a lady hard-core quizzed me on the specifics of my (at the time) moderate policy.

“So I can cancel 5 days before arrival for a full refund?”

“Um, yeah, but you’ll lose the Airbnb booking fee.”

Then I thought to myself “there’s no way I can rebook it that last minute” :expressionless:
and then
“if Airbnb gets their money, why should I not get mine?”.
Flexible & moderate is for suckers in my market.

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@Lynick4442 The 14 days just means that the 48 hour grace period needs to fall more than 2 weeks away from the check-in time. In other words, if I book a place for 10 days from now (less than 14 days), then cancel tomorrow (less than 48 hrs), I’m out 50 %.

If I book a place for 20 days from now, then cancel 4 days from now, I’m also out 50%.