Strict cancellation 30 days before stay

Not too long ago, Airbnb made changes to its cancellation policies.

I do not understand how strict works. I cannot find info in the Airbnb community

So free cancellation if made within 48 hours of initial booking AND 14 days of the stay.

If the guest booked 8/1 to stay 12/1-12/7
Then wants to cancel on 9/1, full refund?

My example is after the 48 hours expired but meets the greater than 14 days prior requirement.

Is this policy just poorly worded?

Yes, that is the new cancellation policy for strict. It’s been like this for a while.

Airbnb is really good at convoluted wording, aren’t they? Yes, I think it’s just poorly worded. The second section is stated so weirdly. It makes it sound like there’s some 7-14 day window before check-in where they get 50% back, as if they get 100% back before that, which isn’t true with strict.

They’ve jumbled up the fact of only being eligible for a 50% refund if cancelled at least 7 days before check-in, with the fact of only being eligible for a 50% refund if it’s within 48 hrs of booking and 14 days before check-in.

Some of their most contorted wording is on the prep day setting. It says “Block one night before and after each booking”, which makes it sound like there would be 2 nights blocked, one after booking A ends and one before the next available date.

But it actually only blocks one night, because the “night after” Booking A doubles as the “night before” Booking B.

Nowhere is that explained, and many hosts who don’t understand how it actually works think it will block 2 nights in a row, which is a natural assumption- that’s basically what it says.

Why do they not just say “Block one night between bookings”, which is exactly what it does?

They need to spend more money on copywriters. They must hire the ones who graduated at the bottom of their class.

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@Lynick4442

I guess my question wasn’t clear. The policy doesn’t say what happens if the cancellation is after the 48 hours but before 14 days.

I use moderate but I’ve had new hosts ask me “what if” about strict. I can’t answer them

@muddy has it right. To be eligible for a full refund The guest has to cancel within 48 hours of making the booking AND at least 14 days before arrival date

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Almost everything they write is as if their first language is not English. Lots of things I read, reread and wonder why I still don’t understand.

I think a lot of this is intentional, especially for cancellations, keep people guessing what they mean.

Regarding the prep days, I’m pretty sure that I had two blocked before and after. Just looked and it was down to one, I changed back to two.

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Don’t they still have that graphic timeline web page that shows when guests get full/half/no refund?

Edit: I guess not. I couldn’t find it.

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That graphic made it easy to understand the various policies. I’m not sure whether it’s buried somewhere now, or deleted.
Someone must have deemed it too transparent. :laughing:

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Kind of. It’s better now because it’s on the listing page and conforms to the exact dates that you put in. It’s not theoretical, it gives you exact deadlines.

Here is a place with a strict policy if I book right now for Oct 11.

You’ll notice @Annet3176 that they don’t even give a date for the first cut-off (the 14-days + 48 hours after booking) because it’s dependent on it being 48 hours so the date is not really relevant unless it’s less than 14 days.

The next cut-off is 7 days prior, so Oct 7 for 50%.

It’s on the website page if you click on “show more” (but only after entering actual dates):

you get this:

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That first screenshot is quite clear and useful. The problem is that a guest would have to enter dates for a specific property to see that.

Whereas the graph they used to have made it clear to guests how each cancellation policy worked. Which was, I think, an important thing for guests to be able to access.

But it only matters for a specific property for specific dates. Anything less is only theoretical anyway. That graph seemed useful for hosts maybe but I think too cumbersome to be useful for guests. As a guest, I have no interest in the general cancelation policy information. I am only interested in the exact dates of the cancelation policy for my exact stay.

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Well, it used to be that the cancellation policy was stated on the listing, without having to click through for dates. It was easier and quicker for a guest to be able to peruse different listings and eliminate listings which had a cancellation policy they weren’t comfortable with, assuming they understood how the various policies worked, which was clear from the old graph.

You often seem to assume that the way you look for a place as a guest, or what features work fine for you, is the way all guests look and prefer. Which isn’t true at all.

It seems very good for guests to get that box with the exact dates that they would be refunded and what percentage, as they can’t then claim that they were confused by the policy. But that doesn’t mean the old way couldn’t also be offered.

@Bosty64 -
This (with the right dates) is what your guest that wanted to cancel saw when he booked (this thread Guest cancelled -requesting 100% refund). Guests (and hosts) remember what they want to remember, but he was told the terms under which he was booking.

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Of course not. I was a guest long before I was a host so I’m offering my personal perspective as a guest.

Alas, I am only one point of reference as is everyone, lol. I cannot offer everyone’s perspective, only my own.

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But just because I haven’t used Airbnb as a guest myself doesn’t mean I am unaware of how guests use the platform and what features work well for them and which don’t. My guests and family and friends who book Airbnbs tell me.

??? They are lying? Gimme a break.

It might still be there for hosts. I saw this similar graphics when searching for cancellation policies, but you can only get to it when updating the cancellation policy of your listing (and I no longer have a listing)

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I suppose it could be. Maybe on the app, I don’t usually use it as a host.

I can’t find it digging around anywhere. Here is all I have in my listing settings:

It could be in one of those resource article things but I didn’t come across it. I could see it maybe being in the app. The rest of the help stuff seems somewhat devoid of graphics whereas I remember there being more in the past.

I know what my cancellation policy is (or think I do), but as a guest, I have to say I don’t pay that much attention because I don’t think I’ll cancel. But, that’s not true, when trying to navigate a place or two in New England last year that would work for me and 2 friends, I cancelled quite a few places, most within a day.

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I came across that page with the graphic you posted but nothing else except for this, which is only for Italy and S.Korea:

https://www.airbnb.com/home/updated_cancellation_policies?guest_fee_policy=full_refund#flexible

Reading the additional terms for these policies here it’s interesting that cut-off time is 12pm regardless of the check-in time. It’s probably due to some sort of consumer protection law but it makes sense. I’ve had a couple of guests be very confused about what time they had to cancel by on the date (5 days before for me on moderate). Some uniformity would be helpful.

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