Great example with the 100 rooms. But just a hypothetical question: We hosts are much much more than 100…what about building a “coverage group”…so we cover each other (could work for several risks)…that would be the cheapest way of “insuring”. Cheers Simon
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You get a gold star for suggesting this!!! Something like this is lonnng overdue. I say that as someone who just lost $1,000 on a Christmas & New Years booking that the guest canceled 10 days before. Still reeling. Why should hosts take on the fallback position. I became her insurance policy. I wrote a check so her trip was saved. Totally resent it.
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That is so unfair!!
I think the strict policy is still too lenient.
It needs to be something like non-refundable after 30 days or 14 days before the stay. And we should be able to choose. And if the stay is within the 30/set days then non-refundable at booking.
If Airbnb wants to work like hotels than that’s how it works!
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I’m confused by this statement. When I stay at hotels it’s usually fully refundable up to 24 hours before arrival. Many hotels are now offering a non refundable rate but the fully refundable is the industry standard. I also don’t have to pay until I get to the hotel in most cases. Airbnb is now offering an option to just pay half at time of booking if it’s over $250 and 14 days or more in advance.
They are going to continue to adopt more and more guest friendly policies and for every host that leaves the platform there is another to take their place. The new hosts will accept these guest friendly terms when they sign up and having never known anything different they will be cool with it.
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I could be wrong, but I think in the old days the strict policy was 30 days out. It wouldn’t have mattered here because it was an EC, so she got the whole thing back and I could never rebook as it was too close to Christmas and I am a fly in destination.
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Recent hotel stays I’ve booked have ALL been non refundable.
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What Kona said. Most of the hotels I have been at lately are non refundable.
They may be slightly cheaper to lock in the non refundable rate
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If you book through a place like booking dot com, they can be refundable if you pay more.
Hotels are sick of being raked over the coals by these platforms as well. There’s an ongoing campaign to “book direct” and save the most!
I’m going to disagree with both of you. Here are the policies from hotels I stayed at this summer:
Mine from this summer at the budget hotel in San Juan Costa Rica
For refunds:
We will make an 80% refund if the cancellation is made at least three (3) days before the date of arrival (20% are the taxes payed to the Costa Rican government and are not refundable).
For the Hyatt Regency DFW for my stay on 19 July
Cancellation Policy
This booking will be 100% refundable if cancelled before 11:59pm local time July 15. After this time, the booking is completely non-refundable. Changes without penalty are also not guaranteed.
So cancellations 3/4 days out get mostly refunded. Many chain hotels will refund if you cancel at least 24 hours in advance. Aggregators like Expedia allow free cancellation in the first 48 hours even for special deals.
I’m not interested in arguing about who doesn’t allow cancellation. What I’m saying is that Airbnb is going to continue to become more guest friendly. Even if hotels become stricter Airbnb will move to less strict to distinguish from them. Hosts like myself with liberal cancellation policies and IB will be at the top of the search results and hosts with stricter policies will move down. We already know this.
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Well of course we can only speak about the hotels we each stayed at.
My guest inn in Kyoto in March was non refundable. Small place that I booked direct.
My hotel Ibis in Prague 10 in January was also non refundable. Chain hotel that I booked direct.
Before that, hotels in Tokyo that I stayed at are booked and you pay upon arrival. Only the booking dot com one was refundable 24 hours prior. Have never figured out how they would charge you if you were a no show at the capsule hotel because you pay on arrival. Much of Japan is on the honor system! Plus it is a cash economy, especially at the local level. I paid for my guest inn in cash on arrival.
I can’t ever be forced to be on IB or flex policies. I’m a fly in destination and am on other platforms as well. Guests usually plan their trips several weeks in advance and bookings are often driven and dependent on what airlines are doing. Pierre’s data usually shows me in good standing as far as search but I’ve also got very little competition.
I stay at IHG, Hilton and Marriot properties for the most part (recently in Oct.) and as of last year, their non-refundable policy is in effect the day prior to arrival, something around 4-6 pm local time the day prior. It used to be you had up to 48 hrs. prior to arrival to cancel penalty-free but it’s different now.
A lot of things can go skewed within 24 hrs. of a stay so I always start sweating about then over the possibility.
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I hope they will be able to adapt or at least grandfather long standing hosts like yourself who helped them get started. And its easy for me to be sanguine about it all since my style naturally conforms to what they favor. But I think if everyone expects the worst then they won’t be disappointed. LOL.
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True dat!! But they won’t ever give their first hosts any recognition!!!