Changes to cancellation policies & increase in host fees 😡

Aloha Deborah,
Thanks for the update.
The extra fees do not bother me, but I personally do not like the cancellation policies as stated.
I had posted that even the hotels offer no refund with any cancellation fee waived, if it's for one day in advance or further out than a month.
It's really not fair to hosts for guests to reserve during our 'high seasons' months in advance, and then can change their mind within the 30 day grace period for 'strict'.
Even with 30 days notice, I do not think this qualifies for the 'strict' policy we hosts had in mind.
Why are we expected to accommodate our guests more than the hotels do, when we operate on totally different levels?
Extenuating circumstances we can understand, but it's only available to the guests, once again, if the host cancels within the 30 day grace period, the fault falls back on the host.

I just received another review to respond to, once I did, I was asked to review my stay at my guests house. 

That comment was removed for a week and has returned.

I can't remember what country I'm going to in order to review my stay with the host (actual guest), but now I guess I'm going to Spain also.

Since Airbnb is making all this stuff up, and I'm a free-thinker, I'm going to assume this will be at Airbnb expense as I've never requested a reservation to stay at my guests homes.

There was a post on the FB AirbnbSecrets site that listed many other platforms available.

Due to the length and explanation of the specialties of each site, I did not want to copy and paste, but you might want to have a look.

Thank you for posting about this, All About Airbnb. I am upset by the changes to strict cancellation policy, which I use, and have always used since first listing on Airbnb 3.5 years ago. Like other hosts, I am not so upset by the service fee change, but rather by the actual changes to the policy. Part of the change that isn't clear from your post, is that the 50% refund to the guest holds even if the guest cancels the day before they are due to arrive, and also, even if they cancel during their stay. So they could be on a 3 week stay, and if they cancel it 2 days after arrival, they still get 50% refunded. In that sense, it's accurate to say that the strict policy is being watered down, and in fact it's being collapsed into the moderate policy -- because a 50% refund during the reservation itself was the previous moderate policy.

The closer the cancellation to the arrival date, and particularly if the cancellation is after arrival date, the harder this is on the host, as for many hosts who tend to get bookings further in advance, this makes it less likely that they will be able to make up the income loss.

To be sure, some hosts do mostly last-minute bookings, and those hosts will be less effected by these changes than others. But the more of any particular hosts' business which comes from advance bookings, the more that such hosts will suffer under these changes to strict policy.

Not happy campers


The majority of my Airbnb-rental-days per year, is now actually neither on flexible, moderate or strict policy -- but are on long term cancellation policy, since most of my rental days are long term reservations. The long term cancellation policy is very reasonable for hosts...and I really hope that Airbnb doesn't mess with that one, since by taking a long term reservation, which is MUCH more likely to be booked far in advance than a short one, hosts are much more vulnerable to income loss from cancellations.

I dont' feel it's fair for Airbnb to remove hosts' choices in the cancellation policy department. Airbnb has consistently emphasized in its TOS that hosts and hosts alone are responsible for their listings, and their business, and their contract with guests....but then Airbnb has also continually imposed upon and dictated the terms in these contracts hosts have with guests. I feel all of that is inappropriate and I wish Airbnb would stay out of hosts' private businesses and the choices we make in how we run our businesses. If hosts want to have strict policy, and lose guests as a consequence of that, why is that a concern for AIrbnb, when other hosts make other choices and have flexible or moderate and guests could opt to go with those hosts?

By making these cancellation policy changes, what Airbnb is essentially doing is protecting guests who fail to read the terms of the agreements they enter into. Guests have plenty of choice but are not using those choices responsibly, are entering blindly or carelessly into contracts and then complaining to Airbnb about the results of their failure to make responsible choices. Air is enabling them by forcing hosts to offer terms that are more favorable to guests.


Yet, there are still options left for hosts.
Here's a plan I have that I wanted to offer, something which other hosts could use to protect themselves from financial loss based on these new policies, which I do expect to go worldwide after their first test-out in Italy.

One of the ways hosts can "fight back" against such policy changes, is to start looking at refunds more collectively rather than individually, and pay attention to the "pot" of money that one has gained or lost through refunds. MEaning, that instead of focusing on any one particular guest's refund situation, the host can consider that what they lose with AIrbnb's policy changes, and what is taken from the hosts' "pot", might be made up in another situation where a guest cancels but the host can rebook.

Up until now, I have been willing to offer to fully refund guests when they cancel, if I am able to rebook the dates to another guest. As I am on strict cancellation policy, this means that sometimes a guest cancels but only gets 50% back. If I can rebook the dates I refund them the additional 50%. However, if Airbnb applies these policy changes and waters down the strict policy, I will no longer offer such refunds to guests even in intances when I am able to rebook the dates. I will consider the income from any rebooked dates, as income to make up for the losses that the watered down policy has caused me, in other situations when a guest cancelled and I was NOT able to rebook the dates. I would plan to explain this to guests as well --- tell them flat out that since Airbnb has chosen to water down its strict cancellation policy and cause more financial risk for hosts, that I am no longer able to provide refunds if I can rebook the dates, because that income now has to also cover the losses I incur in other instances when I am NOT able to rebook dates for a guest who cancels and gets 50% back or even 100% back.

I definitely try to get my repeat guests to book direct and not through Airbnb. Sometimes they want to book via Airbnb for the extra protection it gives them...and with the changed cancellation policy they will have more motivation to do that. So the host can counter that by offering more of a discount to book directly.

For the future, I am looking at moving more of my short term stays to other sites. I still get a good number of "long term" bookings thru Airbnb and that goes well for the most part. But for the short term bookings, eventually I would like to try to "diversify" more and use other sites, preferably ones that have better policies for hosts. I plan to start diversifying more this winter season and see how it goes.

I've just experienced my first imposition of this new policy. I had a reservation for a party of 4 gals to be arriving tomorrow, where my listing only accommodates 3, but they asked for a special exception for the fourth guest, and I accepted.

Just now, Airbnb contacted me by phone saying that the party has sudden "concerns" about my request to not mention Airbnb to my neighbors, in the name of privacy and discretion, as although it is completely legal for me, it is also highly controversial in my city right now. Due to this "concern", the guest would now like to cancel. The customer service agent stated that he felt the "concern" warranted a full refund even though I have a "strict" cancellation policy. The guest just wrote me, mentioning how sorry she is, and that it was her friends' concern not hers and that they should not have left it for the last minute.

I highly suspect that the friends decided last minute that they don't fancy fitting all 4 into one room with a shared bathroom, and opted to look for a different reservation, but chose to use this whole "concern" excuse to get out of the strict cancellation policy, which "Lee" a very young-sounding agent bought, hook, line and sinker, and told me that the concern was valid enough for Airbnb to over-ride my strict cancellation policy, and not even accept my offer for a 50% refund, but do away with it altogether, offering me a $200 compensation for the entire week's cancellation for 4. I have contacted airbnb to oppose this decision, which is being processed through resolution, but we all know how this will turn out. I will post any further updates.

thanks Rhonda for the tips and advise. They are helpful and I will do my best to follow through.  Will keep you apprised. Is apprised spelled right? There is no spellcheck on this.

Aloha Rhonda, you are a hoot!

Really sorry to hear about that, Grace.
This makes me think that whatever "hook" we in advertently offer a guest to hang their excuses for cancelling on, they are likely to find and exploit.
If this is the only time this has ever happened to you, then I suppose count yourself lucky in that respect.
I am in the process of signing up with www.homeescape.com and their cancellation policies are much preferable to those of Airbnb. I dont' know though if I will ever get a single booking through them...they have very few listings on their site.
I have had Airbnb fully refund a guest over and above my objections, but I have also had guests cancel, and was paid 100% of their booking payment, and then I rebooked the space for all the dates they cancelled, and so got paid double for the space for the dates involved. I consider that these "double" booked spaces do outweigh the amounts essentially "stolen" from me by Airbnb so all in all I am still ahead in the game. IF the cancellation policy changes go through and become worldwide, I will cease offering to refund any guests if I can rebook the dates, knowing that I will need that income to make up for other instances where I am not paid what I am owed.