I planned on using Airbnb once. A few days before our arrival (not Hawaii) they cancelled. The company basically told me “too bad, the owner has that right”. Because I did not stay there I was not able to leave a review. Basically no recourse. Obviously, never did that again.
Our Kauai home is a licensed “non-conforming” vacation rental (non-conforming meaning our neighborhood is not in a designated tourist zone, such as Poipu or Princeville. It is managed entirely by a local real estate brokerage, who advertises their listings on VRBO, and of course on their own web site. Some of our guests do somehow book through Airbnb, and there are extra fees involved, but we don’t pay them. IDK how it works, but we are not controlled in any way by Airbnb. The only time our guest reservations have been canceled is when we were forced to do so by the county for a period of 14 months after the flood, and of course, for the 14 months of “effective” COVID lockdown by Ige then Kawakami. That was a lot of cancelations.
You might want to take another look at your finically statements .
Airbnb takes their commission off so you’re paying fees, also by using their platform you agree to their TOS so they definitely control some aspects of your business
We dropped Air BNB as a vendor to assist with bookings. Their cancellation policies are not beneficial to Hawaiian Owners. They only benefit the guests, and now this policy goes lock step with putting the owners at risk. When a guest cancels 14 days from the stay, how are we supposed to recoup that cost. We lose potential thousands for the booking and now they want to screw owners again by making them pay exorbitant fees for cancelling. Who decides if it was preventable. I do not trust Air BNB to be fair when it comes down to determining. They say that guest will lose confidence in booking with Air BNB, well owners have lost that confidence as well. They are much better options for owners to rent their property than Air BNB.
Another example of AirBnB being focused on the guest rather than the host. Maybe there are hosts out there that are frequent abusers of cancellation policies, but the vast majority of us have an excellent history and bend over backwards to stand by a confirmed reservation. None of that matters, AirBnB is out to punish you. Stuff happens in rare occasions that is nobody’s fault, and as a host you try anything you can to make it right. I have no confidence that the process of “proving” to them that a cancellation is justified will be fair to me as a host. They will always error on the side of the guest because they want them to stay as customers.
These are certainly welcome changes to the rule. While we’ve used AirBnB in Hawaii on several occasions – and have never had a problem-these changes increase confidence in booking thru them!
I think Airbnb should do this on a global scale, not just Hawaii. I used to Only use Airbnb, but never again until that make significant changes.
The biggest problem will be actually booking for the new requirement of 30 days.
I’ve used Airbnb many times in many states and never had a problem.
I planned on using Airbnb once. A few days before our arrival (not Hawaii) they cancelled. The company basically told me “too bad, the owner has that right”. Because I did not stay there I was not able to leave a review. Basically no recourse. Obviously, never did that again.
Our Kauai home is a licensed “non-conforming” vacation rental (non-conforming meaning our neighborhood is not in a designated tourist zone, such as Poipu or Princeville. It is managed entirely by a local real estate brokerage, who advertises their listings on VRBO, and of course on their own web site. Some of our guests do somehow book through Airbnb, and there are extra fees involved, but we don’t pay them. IDK how it works, but we are not controlled in any way by Airbnb. The only time our guest reservations have been canceled is when we were forced to do so by the county for a period of 14 months after the flood, and of course, for the 14 months of “effective” COVID lockdown by Ige then Kawakami. That was a lot of cancelations.
You might want to take another look at your finically statements .
Airbnb takes their commission off so you’re paying fees, also by using their platform you agree to their TOS so they definitely control some aspects of your business
thanks for info on Airbnb
Would the rules apply to VRBO also?
Hi Kent.
Airbnb only. Vrbo is an Expedia company and that is unrelated.
Aloha.
We dropped Air BNB as a vendor to assist with bookings. Their cancellation policies are not beneficial to Hawaiian Owners. They only benefit the guests, and now this policy goes lock step with putting the owners at risk. When a guest cancels 14 days from the stay, how are we supposed to recoup that cost. We lose potential thousands for the booking and now they want to screw owners again by making them pay exorbitant fees for cancelling. Who decides if it was preventable. I do not trust Air BNB to be fair when it comes down to determining. They say that guest will lose confidence in booking with Air BNB, well owners have lost that confidence as well. They are much better options for owners to rent their property than Air BNB.
Another example of AirBnB being focused on the guest rather than the host. Maybe there are hosts out there that are frequent abusers of cancellation policies, but the vast majority of us have an excellent history and bend over backwards to stand by a confirmed reservation. None of that matters, AirBnB is out to punish you. Stuff happens in rare occasions that is nobody’s fault, and as a host you try anything you can to make it right. I have no confidence that the process of “proving” to them that a cancellation is justified will be fair to me as a host. They will always error on the side of the guest because they want them to stay as customers.
Good! It’s about time some laws and restriction be placed on Airbnb.
Aloha
This is not a law or a restriction. It’s simply a new policy Airbnb itself is putting in place.
These are certainly welcome changes to the rule. While we’ve used AirBnB in Hawaii on several occasions – and have never had a problem-these changes increase confidence in booking thru them!