@Dave-and-Deb0, thanks so much! You are such a great resource to keep us fellow hosts on our toes - in a good way that is!
The gist of the overwhelmingly bad news (and harsher penalties) is :
What we were used to and what goes until Jan. 1, was either a flat fee of $50 or a flat fee of $100 leveled against the host, depending on the time frame until the reservation was supposed to start.
But now, after Jan. 1, the penalties get computed as either 50% or 100% OF THE PAYOUT, with some caps on it - which will somewhat protect low rentals better than high priced rentals, as it could be as high as a $500 fine for those!!
O wow! Even now a lot of hosts have no clue about cancellations - imagine the hell that will break loose after Jan 1, when those mistakes will continue to happen! Just today I helped a few hosts with their mistaken ideas about what really counts as a host's cancellation. I won't even touch the threat of possibly losing one's listing....
To be pro-active, this change makes it more mandatory than over for hosts to educate themselves on all the rules!
And this surely is another example where Airbnb could and should be VERY helpful to hosts by making this change VERY clear in a mass notice, or the monthly news release to all hosts, which I suggested in the Host Voice forum a while ago: https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/Suggestion-for-better-relations-between-Airbnb-and-hosts/...
Thanks again for the heads up on this, much appreciated!