MAJOR Updates to Host Cancellation Penalties

[Dave-and-Deb0]

It looks like Airbnb has updated there host cancellation penalties help page which has some major changes including removal of the 3 Instant Book penalty free cancellations per year, your account will be suspended or deactivated after 3 cancellations per year, and larger fines for cancellations.  Good or bad?  What are your thoughts.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work

[Annette33]

@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!

[George-And-Marianne0]

I just signed up to host and had some dates blocked in September. I received a message from AirBnb that people were looking to book those dates. I inadvertantly hit the button to unblock them and received 3 reservations. I had to cancel them because I will be out of town. AirBnb assessed a $ 100 penalty and I haven't even hosted once yet. Is there any way I could get them to reconsider. I am thinking about withdrawing my listing rather than pay the penalty. What do you advise?

Thank you in advance for your help.

George Bauer

[Louise0]

Thanks Dave.  As usual, Airbnb haven't deigned to pass on this interesting little snippet to us, the disposable and apparently infinitely replaceable hosts.

On the Instant Book FAQ it's states "House Rules: Guests will need to agree to your House Rules before booking. If you feel like you are ever uncomfortable with your guests’ behaviour, you can cancel penalty-free."  What does this even mean?  Comfort levels are entirely subjective and this policy statement would allow any host to cancel any booking penalty-free simply by claiming they no longer felt comfortable accepting the booking.  

Airbnb needs to pay much greater attention to their use of language, particularly in the FAQs that reference their own internal policies.  It could be credibly argued that the policy statement above is misleading, and that Airbnb have engaged in deceptive conduct by electing to word it this way in order to encourage hosts who wouldn't otherwise be comfortable with Instant Book to switch on Instant Book and therefore increase Airbnb's revenue.     Of course, I'm not saying that Airbnb have actually done that, but only that it could probably be construed that way, and for that reason ambiguities introduced by a careless use of language should be removed.

[Clare0]

@Dave-and-Deb0 Do you think they have the right dates? Should they not be 2017?  My peanut brain is spinning!

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Yes @Clare and @David126,

I believe they have made an error in the dates and have probably set it to begin January 2017.

[David126]

My first thought is how they can backdate this, should it not apply to bookings going forward?

And then they announced some time back that they wanted to make cancellations easier and this does the opposite. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander?

I assume most Hosts will not know about the change until there is an issue.

Most of the cancellations I see mentioned on here the Hosts who have made them had no clue what the penalties are or that there are any, plus of course the somewhat misleading message asking a host to cancel...

[James1]

Sigh 😞

[Coln0]

Airbnb should just remove the Instant Booking feature once and for all.

[Robert78]

IB ain't going nowhere; it's a huge revenue driver. Hosts are being actively encouraged to adopt it.

And if you look at other aggregators, like HomeAway/VRBO, IB is becoming an industry standard.

[Zandra0]

IB is the only reason I have anywhere to stay in Berlin.  Of 8 different hosts (yes 8!) all had excuses as to why they couldn't host me. 

[Dave-and-Deb0]

That is because in Berlin, Airbnb is illegal for whole home listings and they can only rent out rooms.  I hope they don't cancel on you @Zandra0!

[Zandra0]

Hi @Dave-and-Deb0

you assumed I was looking at whole property listings 😉 (pretty telling in itself ... clearly that's what's the majority go for I guess !) 

actually all 8 were live in hosts and I was looking for a room 🙂 absolutely nothing to do with illegal listings or any regulation in Berlin.  I wanted to keep my answer brief whch was why I didnt mention it before but reasons  were: oh we're already hosting someone, oh the price is incorrect and I will need to change it, or no reply at all.

Since I'm already here and have been the last three weeks, not especially worried theyre going to cancel either 😄

[Enrique21]

Terrible experience there Zandra. 

Thats exactly why airbnb is doing the IB.  

I guess for a lot of people IB will be just what they needed.  

I have have IB and i really dont see people using it a lot.  

People will inquire most of the time before booking.   

But i do have that option in place.  I like it actually.  

I just hope i dont get a really bad guest , but eve so, i can cancel on them if they break my rules. 

[JohnandLana0]

IB is not a good idea..I makes you an employee of Airbnb..a cog in a abusive corporate machine...