Update to Strict Cancellation Policy

You are misunderstanding me. I’m saying the 48 hour thing is only the beginning. Very soon we are going to see the Book and look policy that is already being rolled out in some markets. In other words. Book it and feel free to look around. Cancel with no penalty. Even after you have already checked in!

I’m not a typical Airbnb user. I don’t understand what you are trying to say but it doesn’t sound like a compliment. I guess you are the type of person who doesn’t worry about losing $2000 on a cancellation.? Must be nice.

Christmas is my most lucrative two weeks of the year. A guest booked in October, taking it off the market for months and cancelling 10 days before. You can’t fly into Hawaii ten days before, especially at high season.

I was super lucky to get the second half of the cancellation booked.

Very soon we are going to see the utter relaxation of all cancellation policies, if indeed, they let you have one at all.

They don’t care about hosts. Period.

1 Like

Which market has this “book and look” policy in airbnb? I never heard of it…

Sounds like your concern is this “book and look” policy that may or may not happen in the future?

Because even with the new strict 48 hours policy, if guest booked months ago and cancel you 10 days before, they still need to pay you 50%.

This is already been rolled out in some markets. Someone posted about it here recently.
Again, I think people are misunderstanding me. 48 hours is only the beginning. They will soon begin to make more changes to the Strict policy, which is hardly strict to begin with.

Hello @blahlalalala

What brings you to this forum?

1 Like

@konacoconutz - do you get any business from Tripadvisor? We don’t. Their fees are outrageously high and appear to have scared people away.

1 Like

So this happened this morning…
Received the email and went ballistic, and on impulse posted my rage on a so-called Airbnb professional hosts forum.
And what an eye-opener that was! Turns out its populated by Airbnb trolls, trying to convince other hosts about what a wonderful thing this 48 h policy is! I was copiously insulted and mocked for trying to make my point which is very simply: can someone truthfully say that this is in any way an improvement for hosts.
Needless to say all anyone had to say was to attack me ad libitum, but obviously no one could give an answer. These are people who are the “karma” crowd, constantly advising other hosts to refund cancellations, “eat” damages, etc…Now I understand why, and I can very well see them sitting in their open space office at ABB’s headquarters!
Anyhow, I also wrote ABB’s “customer” service and tweeted, without the slightest hope of being heard.
Personally, this was the last straw. I hear you konacoconutz when you say you hate them more and more. I fell exactly the same way, to the point that just seeing the Airbnb logo makes me sick.
I’m so over them!
This policy simply means this: Mrs. is going to book on Friday this lovely little place she saw, and on Sunday, Mr. will put his foot down and cancel. Mr. will book a nice cottage near the lake where he can go fishing, Mrs. will yip at him until he cancels. Mr and Mrs. Idiot guets will book a place without bothering to read the description and cancel the next day because there is no …(fill the gap). And the disgusting little mail we received this morning will be true: yayyy! More bookings. And sooooooo many more cancelations, that will never come back.
One thing I’ve noticed in 5 years of hosting, is that bookings come in “bunches”. And that cancelations are almost never recovered by other bookings. Which is why I have a strict policy.
It’s alright to have this policy, and it anyway makes no difference. Because as a host you could always chose to waive fees if the guest canceled, so this policy makes NO difference at all, let alone that it already existed as an option. The only thing it does is brutalize hosts into accepting a policy that ONLY benefits ABB. IT makes no difference for guests, as they were always able to chose places which had flexible policies.
This make me draw the following conclusions:

  1. ABB is going down the drain, at full speed, and taking the hosts with it. They are so fricking desperate to get new customers, that they are ready to do anything (as long as the hosts pay!) to get them. They have absolutely NO idea what they are doing.
  2. I am so glad I diversified, and looking forward to get rid of ABB to a large extent, as they are losing market share daily to Booking and even (surprisingly) to old timers like Tripadvisor and Homeaway.
    Every time I get a notification from Booking I’m curious to know what they will do next: and they never disappoint. They’ve taken every good idea form ABB and the others and implemented it. They actually listen to their hosts, and implement their ideas. They get better by the day, while being discreet about it. Most of all, they know the business and respect the people they work with. They don’t try to tell you how to run your place, they don’t give a fig about ratings, as they consider it’s your problem not theirs (but do send you nice awards to stick on your door :slight_smile:
  3. Airbb today is like a headless chicken and it’s really sad to see. I enjoyed the first couple of years, and even their lack of professionalism was touching. Five years down the road I just hate them and can’t wait for them to become a thin blue line on my bookings pie chart.
  4. Trolls are everywhere: I had never thought about it, but now it’s obvious…
    Sorry about the long rant, but I had to get it off my chest!
5 Likes

Awesome post and thank you.

2 Likes

I do, more and more. My next four bookings are with them.

Well, looks like I get to set up a private Airbnb-only set of contact info now and add that to my listings. I already called Airbnb and had them change my address to street name only, no house number. This is a completely onerous and dangerous violation of privacy for the hosts and should be optional.

Yes, more and more. Their clients are higher end, a bit older than the average ABB, and usually absolutely lovely and appreciative guests. It’s alway a pleasure to read their reviews (not so with ABB when you never know what to expect and have to fight tooth and nail to keep your bs Superhost status!).

Can you explain how this only benefits ABB? Airbnb gets paid via bookings, hosts get paid via bookings. Revenue is correlated between hosts and Airbnb, it will either help or hurt both.

Let me give you an example: Mr. A wants to book your place, and Ms. B is considering it. It’s Friday night. Mr. A says “I’ll book, just in case”. He books: when Ms. B goes back to your listing, the days are now closed, she looks at another property and books it. ABB now has two bookings, and there are two happy hosts. Sunday after lunch Mr. A has a fight with his wife, who preferred another listing on ABB, because it was cheaper, nearer to the shopping district…whatever. He cancels your booking and books his wife’s favorite. ABB still makes it’s money. You don’t. You are basically being used as a cancellation insurance policy by ABB. Not by choice, which would be OK. But because they force you to.
What I’m saying is that ABB now has a huge pool of hosts, which are going to get less and less bookings from them. Which ABB doesn’t mind, because what they want s to keep their guests happy: hosts are just a commodity, of which there is a seemingly endless supply…

3 Likes

Possible, but you make the assumption that Ms. B is the only possible guest that could take these dates. Which very easily could be 4 months in advance. Hopefully your pool of possible guests is larger than 1.

Another very likely story is Mr. Green is looking at places, also trying to coordinate flights, other traveling companions, theater tickets ect… and will ONLY book a place that allows him some flexibility to cancel. Mr Green does book through Airbnb and figures out flights and ends up staying at the place. Also need to consider that the lodging market offers many options for this that you may be competing against.

The point is not whether this policy is good or bad for hosts. The point is that it should be an option. Which is was, and if you like to operate this way with this level of risk, fair enough. But every listing is different, and what is OK for you is definitely NOT ok for me, and I want to be able to make this choice.
I don’t wan’t to have to deal with people who are not committed to booking and make me lose my time. A strict booking policy makes people read more carefully your listing and in general is less of a hassle.
It’s my business if I chose to get less bookings from people who prefer flexible policies.
How do you rationalise forcing people to do something which is detrimental to them?

3 Likes

Airbnb is doing what is best for them. They don’t care about any individual host. They aren’t forcing you to do anything, you can leave the platform at any time. Take it or leave it, they don’t care. You can be replaced; there is already a comparable listing waiting to take your spot in the search rank in most cases. Some people are posting like listing on Airbnb is a constitutional right.

It’s difficult to leave when you have bookings until next year, but I’m certainly looking forward to have less bookings from them and more from host oriented platforms. Once the other platforms fill the gap, it will be a pleasure to kiss ABB goodbye, which IS my constitutional right.
And I’m not the only apparently: in my market at least, they are losing market shares daily. Much less new listings and lots of the old ones disappearing. I had a long list of places I liked in my city, which I kept because I wanted to get decorating ideas from them: I looked at it yesterday and two thirds of these listing are gone. So ABB might not care for the moment…in fact, they certainly don’t, since their strategy is entirely guest oriented, but I bet they will regret it in the long run. Smarter and older companies are quietly taking in new hosts.
Oh, and as for another listing taking my spot? Somehow, I doubt it…If you saw my main listings, you’d understand why. It will be ABB’s loss, not mine.

1 Like

I’ll take your word for it. Best of luck to you.

How do hosts get paid when guests cancel after 48 hours and prevent your place from getting booked? You are not making any sense.

1 Like

YES, agree…why is this so hard to understand???

3 Likes

Bookings that result in stays.