Hi, I am new to this website. I have three listings and find it impossible to get the superstrict 30 or 60 policy on any of them. After hours and hours on the phone they still can’t tell me why you have to be “invited” to have these. A strict policy is no good for me on a villa in Spain where if they cancel more than 14 days from moving in, I have to give guests 50% refund which absolutely no chance of re-letting the villa.
Airbnb are terrified of policies being abused by hosts, it is the guest who needs to be happy, not the host. They don’t want to be harassed by guests over lost money due to what ever happened under a super strict policy and they want the host to provide the travel insurance.
It used to be easier to obtain, but now not so much. Airbnb has become stricter in their desire for leniency in cancellation policies. I think you will continue to have difficulty getting a super strict designation. That seems to be reserved for corporate hosts or (perhaps) hosts who have a particularly special property. I also think you need to be a well-established host, but I don’t know for certain if that is the case.
There are many hosts who would like to have one of the Super-Strict policies but they’re exceedingly rare to see (think Castles and ultra-luxury accomodations). You may have better luck asking after you’ve been hosting for a while.
If you need a non-refundable payment Airbnb may not be the right booking site, as they continue to push for more flexible cancellation policies. They’ve also talked about raising the host fees for those of us on less flexible policies
It’s the Extenuating Circumstances cancellations that will really wreak havoc on your calendar and income. These are fully refunded reservations that ought to be covered by travel insurance but are subsidized out of hosts’ pockets. Guests cancel for legitimate (severe illness, death in family) or less legitimate reasons (I got my doctor to write a note that says I can’t travel…cough…cough…can you send my 100% refund now?) and all review of documentation is done by an Airbnb rep. They can be capricious and generous since it’s not their money at stake.
I get 1-2 EC cancellations per year and feel fortunate that they’ve never been for more than a 3-night booking.
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Hi,
I’ve spent about 3 hours ringing them and getting nowhere so finally I unlisted the villa and will use HomeAway who charge huge fees but at least have reasonable cancellation policies. This will only impact the traveller in the end as rates go up and up to compensate. We are only trying to charge a fair rent but thwarted time and time again by these big, greedy companies.
Sue
Sue Harvey-Jones
We have a large vacation home in the Caribbean and list on both Air and HomeAway(VRBO). I’m not following your “huge fees” comment about HomeAway. Yes, there is a $500US annual subscription fee. Yes, they charge 3% to us for processing the credit card (so does Air and PayPal when we get a direct booking). But HA’s guest fee is capped at $399 and Air’s has no cap. So the guest pays more for booking on Air when they book a long vacation or the nightly price is very high.
We get 75-85% of our bookings through HomeAway/VRBO. Our Air guests tend to be last-minute bookers, or looking for short stays, or looking for cheaper places than ours, or are just couples looking for a private home.
We are growing faster on Air than VRBO, and getting more large groups that are less price sensitive. But VRBO is still the leader, by far, for us, so we were happy (ok, not unhappy) to pay the subscription fee.
I get charged higher fee’s on VRBO, between 7-12%. Even more so for a guest out of country as the CC fee’s are higher for out of country credit cards. If you don’t pay the annual subscription fee the charges are higher comapared to Airbnb. Maybe it is 3% if you pay $500 annually.
Yes, you pay less “commission” if you pay the subscription fee. That is a good point about the international card fees - I don’t get many of those.
But I can usually get a higher price on VRBO because the guests seem to be less price-sensitive. So I set a high price for the future, Air tells me to lower it, I don’t listen to Air, we get booked on VRBO for those dates, and then I lower my prices on Air for short stays or last-minute bookings and get the rest of the nights filled that way.
Hi All,
Who are VRBO? Anyway, we are getting bogged down on fees. I really only have a problem with AirBnB Cancellation Policies and cannot continue with Strict, giving guests option to cancel 14 days before the booking and receiving a refund of 50% of the rent! So, regretfully, I am out as they refuse to offer me Super Strict 30 or 60.
VRBO and HomeAway are actually the same company now. VRBO stands for Vacation Rental by Owner.