Post by High Priestess on Nov 21, 2019 16:23:02 GMT
I didn't realize this, but apparently Airbnb changed their policy on Reservation Alterations at some point, such that if a guest requests a reservation alteration, and you grant it, this effectively becomes a "new booking" in the system, and the guest can now cancel and get a full refund within a grace period of 48 hrs.
I have not confirmed that this is true, but a couple hosts in host community said this so I believe that it's likely to be true.
In this case, this makes it particularly problematic or risky for the host to grant any reservation alteration, unless the start date of the reservation is less than 14 days away, because only in such instances is there no 48 hr grace period for a full refund on cancelling.
So for instance, say someone books a reservation with you for a 9 day stay that begins 2 or 3 months from now. Then, that guest requests to alter the stay either to make it shorter or possibly to make it longer. Particularly if they want to extend the stay to make it longer, you may be quite oriented to accept the alteration. But then, presto-whammo, immediately after you click "accept" to allow them to extend the stay from 9 days to 11 days, they cancel the stay, and get a FULL REFUND because the "new" booking comes with a 48 hr grace period for a full refund.
If it really is the case that alterations are treated as completely new bookings, then I suggest you NEVER allow a guest to alter a reservation (except maybe if the start date is less than 14 days away), but instead, tell the guest to either book a 2nd reservation to extend the stay, or to cancel the reservation on their desired check out date to shorten it....at which point you MIGHT refund them for any days you're able to rebook.
I have not confirmed that this is true, but a couple hosts in host community said this so I believe that it's likely to be true.
In this case, this makes it particularly problematic or risky for the host to grant any reservation alteration, unless the start date of the reservation is less than 14 days away, because only in such instances is there no 48 hr grace period for a full refund on cancelling.
So for instance, say someone books a reservation with you for a 9 day stay that begins 2 or 3 months from now. Then, that guest requests to alter the stay either to make it shorter or possibly to make it longer. Particularly if they want to extend the stay to make it longer, you may be quite oriented to accept the alteration. But then, presto-whammo, immediately after you click "accept" to allow them to extend the stay from 9 days to 11 days, they cancel the stay, and get a FULL REFUND because the "new" booking comes with a 48 hr grace period for a full refund.
If it really is the case that alterations are treated as completely new bookings, then I suggest you NEVER allow a guest to alter a reservation (except maybe if the start date is less than 14 days away), but instead, tell the guest to either book a 2nd reservation to extend the stay, or to cancel the reservation on their desired check out date to shorten it....at which point you MIGHT refund them for any days you're able to rebook.