Dealing With A Barrage of Short-Term Rental Booking Cancellations

With Airbnb voiding its cancellation policies and being very guest centric, hosts are not very happy at the moment with the company. Sensing the vibe, the company very recently went into damage control mode and offered to pay 25% of the amount that hosts would have received from their cancellation policies. However, there are thousands of hosts who rely on Airbnb for an income and they don’t feel that the company has done enough to help them during this crisis especially considering how vague this offer was left.

If you have been operating as a business, you didn’t just post your listing on Airbnb and used multiple channels to get more short-term rental guests. If this is the case, then you must have been probably getting a lot of cancellation requests that you have to deal with personally. So, what should you do to ensure that these guests get back to you right after the pandemic ends? Handling the cancellation process cleverly holds the key to this. Read on to know more: 

• Encourage them to postpone instead of canceling the trip altogether. This allows you to hold on to funds for cash flow. Also gift cards and future credits have a 20%+ likelihood of not being availed at all.
• If the guests did not book your short-term rental home through a third-party website, then your rules and guidelines are paramount. You can stand by your cancellation policies. 
• Allow guests the opportunity to cancel rather than waiting for them to do the inevitable, especially if they booked your short term rental for the month of May-June. This simple gesture shows that you care for their health, thus earning you their respect and goodwill. This would make it more likely for them to rebook with you or change to future dates.
• Once the epidemic shows signs of waning, mail previous guests credit coupons to entice them to book your short-term rental home, especially those who are a drive away

It’s important to remember that hosts are handling cancellations in their own manner. Paying attention to one’s financial situation is paramount at such a difficult time, so make sure that you think about your approach seriously before dealing with these cancellations. In the meantime, use this lean season to expand your knowledge about the short term rental world designed especially for STR hosts and owners. 

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