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Relocating to another state and unable to manage my Airbnbs remotely. Don’t want to hire 3rd party property management companies. How to cancel all future Airbnb/Vrbo reservations without penalty so I can convert to long term rentals?
Will Welcome your 2 cents.
Thanks!
I don’t think you can. But if you never plan to run an Airbnb again and don’t have any upcoming reservations you will be around for, that Airbnb can deduct cancellation penalties from, then any penalties are a moot point. However, if you want to keep your account in good standing, to use as a traveler, that might not work.
As as alternative, you could contact all the booked guests whose bookings you won’t be able to honor, explain the situation, and see if they would cancel from their end if you agree to refund all they paid, including the Airbnb service fee. If you did the work to find another host of a comparable property that they could book at instead, they may be okay with it. I’m not crazy about that approach though, as if the host isn’t able to host, it’s their responsibility to cancel and take the penalties. And hosts continuing to accept bookings into the future when they know they might be moving, or when they have listed their home for sale, is bad hosting protocol and gives Airbnb, and all hosts by extension, a bad name.
I have never had my calendar opened past three months in the future, as I never want to inconvenience guests like this or end up with a bad scenario.
You could also look for a well-rated host who lives near you and see if they would manage the listings for the booked guests so you don’t have to cancel. A responsible individual, as opposed to a property management company.
You could also talk to Airbnb, explain that you are moving, and see if they just might cancel for you without penalties, but that’s a long shot.
I don’t see how you can be assured that cancellation penalties will not apply.
TL;DR: Cancellation fees can be applied per the Terns of Service, but did you agree to the 2023 changes yet? Contact Airbnb now, explain your moving out of state without a co-Host or property management firm and ask how to handle so that guests are taken care of and no one (Host or guest) pays a cancellation fee. Assumed you’re a non-European user.
Moving out of state or even selling a listing is neither a valid reason nor an extenuating circumstance that would justify a Host cancellation free of cancellation fees, per the Terms of Service (the ‘letter’ of your agreement with Airbnb; its application in practice I do not know). If you have not yet accepted the 2023 Terms of Service (TOS) then the previous 2022 TOS should apply, and the 2022 TOS might be better for you because they’re less specific. [It might well be that you’ve already accepted the new terms of service.]
Under the 2022 TOS Section 9.3: “. . . Further, Airbnb may publish an automated review on the Listing cancelled by the Host indicating that a booking was cancelled. In addition, Airbnb may (i) keep the calendar for the Listing unavailable or blocked for the dates of the cancelled booking, and/or (ii) impose a cancellation fee, unless the Host has a valid reason for cancelling the booking pursuant to Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances Policy or has legitimate concerns about the Guest’s behavior.”
Under the 2023 TOS section 7 you’ll see a far more complicated and explicit reference to cancellation fees, referencing the 2022 changes.: Look here to see. You could have accepted the new TOS after 3/30/23.
In each the 2022 and 2023 TOS Airbnb IS entitled to impose a cancellation fee.
However, in the 2023 TOS the amount of the Host’s cancellation fee is explicitly provided, ranging from 10% of a reservation amount for a Host cancellation more than 30 days before check-in, to 50% if made within 48 hours of check-in or afterwards; with the cancellation fee amount ranging from a $50 minimum to a $1,000 per reservation maximum.
So, while Airbnb may impose a cancellation fee on the Host in each situation it seems to me that Airbnb is in a far better position to do so with the very detailed Host cancellation fees stated or referenced in the 2023 TOS. In the 2023 TOS the Host is specifically aware of the fees and other consequences that can be imposed.
Regardless of which TOS you’re under the sooner you address this the better.
Addressing it now with Airbnb, with a focus on guest care might get Airbnb’s cooperation, especially if the cancellations are not last minute (Airbnb in part justifies the cancellation fee for the ‘cost and other impacts’ on the guest, Airbnb and the community – so expect more costs and impacts the later the cancellation is).
It’s possible (but I don’t know) that Airbnb likely wouldn’t want to impose a cancellation fee on you that they’re going to have to collect through a legal process (presumably you’re not managing any more Airbnb properties and the tone of your correspondence, while civil, is so persistent that no reasonable person would believe that you’d volunteer payment).
Depending on what Airbnb says you can decide your next step. You can contact each of your guests, explain that you’re relocating and suggest that they cancel the reservation without any cancellation under your cancellation policy but, you’ll explain, Airbnb often does not waive its service fee to the guest. So the guest might ask that Airbnb waive its fee or credit the guest’s full reservation amount for the guest’s next booking (no one loses anything).
If Airbnb does pursue a dollar fee against you, you can try to challenge it in small claims court; I think your defense would likely fail under the 2023 TOS but maybe you’d win under the 2022 TOS on the theory of vagueness: no real agreement because TOS says Airbnb ‘may’ impose a cancellation fee, without any even a hint of what the amount could be ($1,000,000? Your first-born son? Who knows? Very vague). Maybe you could muster other arguments that the judge would find acceptable.
I would call Airbnb, it might be classified as extenuating circumstances. You’re moving, that’s a valid reason.
I agree with you that the OP should call Airbnb and try to work something out. But the OP should know that a move (or a sale) is not an extenuating circumstance, that Airbnb has a right to impose a cancellation fee (maybe other consequences) under the terms of service.
Hopefully, Airbnb and the OP could work together so that guests become aware of the situation and can make other reservations well ahead of their check-in (like 30 days+ in advance). My hope, as OP, would be that if the guests can easily make new reservations if check-in is far off that Airbnb would not impose a cancellation fee, or – by the terms of the TOS – impose a smaller one since the fee is to reflect the ‘costs’ incurred.