 Poster: A snowHead
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Context: been looking for 3 Jan-10 Feb in grand Massif, and sweating hard about everything closing and the insurers doing us over! Made me think about shortening the dates and with them my financial exposure. Hence noting 'cancellation dates'. We look at Vrbo more due to their more generous cancellation terms, but noticed the change on Airbnb today.
I've become accustomed to seeing the cancellation terms on Airbnb usually as, 'free cancellation for 48 hours'. Today I'm now seeing loads (17th-31st Jan) of cancellation dates up to the day before. Was it always thus, or are my dates maybe the graveyard weeks?
Over thinking it; or is this a real change? Cheers.
CG
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Charliegolf there are usually a variety of cancellation terms available across AirBnB set by the host. During Covid, ABB did impose some on us for a while due to extenuating circumstances, but as far as I know it is up to each of us to set our own, within limits defined by ABB.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I'd expect any single property host to be setting cancellation at at least 3-4 weeks as they can't afford to be used to hold as a last minute option with intent to cancel. Perhaps bigger corporate owners with data on filling last minute can afford to be more generous.
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@Hells Bells, Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, and for a long time I was only looking at the longer dates. Certainly one or two are offering me the late cancellation for 2 weeks, but when I go to 3 or 4, it reverts to 48hrs. Thanks.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Charliegolf, yes I think it must have always been varied. Weirdly we've had the reverse experience. Over the last few years we've been lucky enough to get apartments with late cancellation policies - if fact we've had so many I assumed that it was the case for the majority.
However our last few have just had the 'free cancellation for 48 hours' - I assumed they'd been a change due to covid but on reading your post I guess it's luck of the draw (or luck of the calendar!).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, I agree, I most certainly can't afford to act as the insurer. If you catch Covid and can't travel, why should it be the accommodation provider that takes the financial risk? If the border closes and accommodation is also closed, there may be a different set of rules applied, possibly set out by the government. In March 2020, anyone booked to stay could not come, but I was not obliged to refund. There was a law passed by the French gov. Instead we were allowed to offer a change of dates, and allow guests to decide on a suitable date within 18 months of their original booking. At the end of the 18 months, if they could not rebook, we were then obliged to refund anything already paid. We were also allowed to charge at a different price to the original booking.
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| Charliegolf wrote: |
Context: been looking for 3 Jan-10 Feb in grand Massif, and sweating hard about everything closing and the insurers doing us over! Made me think about shortening the dates and with them my financial exposure. Hence noting 'cancellation dates'. We look at Vrbo more due to their more generous cancellation terms, but noticed the change on Airbnb today.
I've become accustomed to seeing the cancellation terms on Airbnb usually as, 'free cancellation for 48 hours'. Today I'm now seeing loads (17th-31st Jan) of cancellation dates up to the day before. Was it always thus, or are my dates maybe the graveyard weeks?
Over thinking it; or is this a real change? Cheers.
CG |
We booked an AirBnB for Easter and it has cancellation date of the day before. My experience is that it depends and is largely the prevail of the owner. More generous cancellation can lead to more bookings or more time wasters. I got the impression that 48 hours was the default.
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@FrediKanoute, free cancellation within 48 hours of booking is the default, and then the cancellation terms chosen by the owner come into effect. There are several options. Strict, Firm, Relaxed etc.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I think you'll find that the cancellation terms are different for long stays -i.e anything for 4 weeks or more has the stricter booking conditions.
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Reasonably sure that our booking terms are the same no matter how long you plan to stay, and are as strict as we can make them.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@under a new name, as are ours.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Hells Bells, @under a new name, as providers of accommodation are you able to cancel quite close to arrival?
I saw a couple of posts on our local Next Door last week saying that AirB&B providers had cancelled accommodation for the dates of Goodwood Revival which was last weekend and could anyone locally help. I think the problems were sorted quickly with people offering rooms etc.
I can hardly get into our spare rooms for bags and ‘stuff’ at the moment so couldn’t offer.
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@Pamski, no we aren't as far as I know. There has to be extenuating circumstances. I know if I cancel a booking dot com, I have to find alternative accommodation and pay the difference in price if it is more expensive. I don't get many ABB bookings and have never even felt the need to cancel those I have had. I think there is a cancellation fee charged if you do, and if you cancel several bookings, penalties with be harsher and your property removed. There is also an automatic review applied to your listing if you cancel a guest without good reason.
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You know it makes sense.
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I always thought individual establishment chooses their own cancellation policies.
there maybe a "norm" due to competition. But I always see the odd same day cancellation, or the other end of spectrum no cancellation at all. I always check and make a note of the cancellation deadline and ask myself "will that make a difference?"
The reverse also applies. When I'm in need of a last minute booking, I pay attention to cancellation deadlines too. If all establishment have 48hr cancellation and I'm already within 48 hours, I know I'll be quite unlikely to find any new opening due to cancellation. But if a lot of them have 24 hr cancellation, I'd check back the next day. Chances are good there's last minute cancellation that I could snap up.
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Tue 21-09-21 17:20; edited 1 time in total
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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We used AirB&B the other week going to Scotland when we stayed in Kendal. I had to fill in so many forms and send my passport details and then a photo as well. I almost gave up but persevered. Ended up sending one of the two of us and the dog on the beach in Devon so they had the whole lot.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Pamski, you only need to do that once and then you’re verified. As a host i can choose not to accept people who arent verified. I can cancel whenever i like (or could not sure what happens now) but you pay a financial penalty and your rating takes a hit.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| under a new name wrote: |
| Reasonably sure that our booking terms are the same no matter how long you plan to stay, and are as strict as we can make them. |
On this... On some of the properties we are interested in, if we extended the dates, there was a reversion to 48 hours. Obviously owners balancing things up.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I have been looking at AirBnB for a four week booking today, and most seem to just have a 48hour cancellation window, but as I am looking at "very cheap" I can self-insure for the amounts concerned. Did encounter a very unscrupulous host though - having got the quoted price I enquired about parking - she replied, invited me to book, but removed the long stay discount, increasing the price by over 50%! Sod that for a lark.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Nadenoodlee, thank you! I suppose David did our bookings previously, we haven’t used much. Last time was when he was doing a ski tuning day with Jon.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Charliegolf, ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Charliegolf, Thank you for highlighting this. I went and looked at our listings and realised that I had left our "Full COVID Refund" policy in place. As others have said, I simply cannot afford to suck up the cost of COVID cancellations for another season, especially as there are good Insurance Policies in place for travellers. Essentially this transfers the "COVID" risk onto the guest and not me. As I have the same issues travelling elsewhere, I think this is fair. It is also worth noting (for my fellow Airbnb Hosts) that they have introduced more catacgories of cancellation for hosts. Worth a look if you haven't done so already.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @Charliegolf, ? |
If we were looking at a property, and shifted the dates about- week longer/shorter- the cancellation terms changed with them. I was highlighting that that your booking terms being the same isn't universal, that's all.
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@Charliegolf, ah, OK, so you weren't suggesting people gave more flexible cancellations to encourage longer stays, or anything like that?
The AirBnB management pages can be quite tricky, the background logic hasn't always worked as you might expect. (Usually pretty good at addressing it though).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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If your dates are for 30+ days then the cancellation policy is automatically set to the strictest one and the property owner is not able to change this. If you choose the same property for 27days (instead of 2 then you will get whatever the property owner decided (which is usually a lot more generous). Downside is you will lose any monthly discount.
I don't think ABB do a good job of conveying this but here ya go: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/home/cancellation_policies#long-term
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@under a new name, No, just bumping around the seeming inconsistencies really. Right now they favour me 
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FAQ
