Welcome to another Ask Me Anything (Ask Us Anything?) episode! Each week we’ll answer your questions on STR, real estate, OTAs, and everything in between.

Christine asks:

Does our cancellation policy affect our listing’s visibility on Airbnb?

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Mentioned in this episode:

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My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are--

Thanks for Visiting.

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In the upper right-hand corner, there's a big red button that says Ask TFV.

Ask a question about the short-term rental industry, about business, about design, anything related to short-term rentals.

And we'll answer it here in the pod.

And today we've got a question about cancellations.

Hi, my name is Christine from Southwest Michigan.

My question is about cancellation policies.

We're trying to choose a cancellation policy through Airbnb and wondered, does our listing visibility get affected by the cancellation policy that we choose?

Thank you.

Solid question, Christine.

Yeah, great question and way to think ahead.

Yeah. All right.

So we actually just talked about this inside of Hosting Business Mastery.

Coach Wendy posted a question and I love the way she phrased it, too.

I'm going to give her some accolades here.

She goes, "I've been feeling like we've been getting a lot of cancellations." But instead of then just like panicking chicken, the sky is falling,

whatever, she counted how many cancellations she's been getting over the past six weeks.

And indeed it was very high.

And so she looked at when guests were canceling and her booking window.

And I'm saying all this because it depends on your market.

Why does it depend on your market?

Because when Wendy digged in further and she went to PriceLabs, which is our preferred dynamic pricing software that we use in our business and Wendy uses in

Yes, we'll have a link on show notes.

Tell and we say you.

Yes, please do it. They are truly a wonderful team.

But she looked and noticed that most of her competition had a stricter cancellation policy than she currently had.

I am saying this because Airbnb has always said that they would favor listings that are the most competitive and highest value

for travelers.

Oftentimes, depending on your market with the most flexible cancellation policy, they're going to give you some love because it's most flexible for the guest.

But in Wendy's market, the bar is set at a certain place, the strict cancellation policy in her case, most of her competition's there.

So it's okay for Wendy to set her cancellation policy so she can be amongst the listings that are most like hers.

And we'll give visibility.

Wendy is in the Scottsdale, Phenix area.

And so most of you probably know it's a hotbed of bachelorette parties, bachelor parties, golf trips.

And those people are planning ahead.

They're larger groups planning ahead.

And when you have a larger group, sometimes they will secure multiple houses so they have the dates and then they'll decide as a group which one fits within

So again, it is really important to know your market, know the type of traveler that is attracted to your home.

Obviously, if it's a one-bedroom versus a five or six-bedroom, there's going to have a different plan and the time frame in which people are planning their

And you have to compare apples with apples.

So like in our market, really, you have to be as flexible as possible.

That being said, if you're a property that has some really awesome amenity and you are leaps and bounds, you offer more than your competition does, you're able

cancellation policy.

I also want to offer you this, Christine.

This is what's so amazing about being the owner of your property and your own business.

You can test things.

You can A B test.

Maybe there's different times of the season in your area that maybe the winter-- I think you said you're in Michigan.

I don't know if that's where your property is, but maybe your high season's in the summer and you have a stricter cancellation policy during the summer because

But in the winter you're like, You know what?

I want to try to increase my revenue.

Maybe a lower different cancellation policy would help.

So I do encourage you, these are things that you can test.

Again, data over drama.

Like Sarah just said, do some research there.

Obviously, PriceLabs, you can review that, what the competition's cancellation policy's in your area.

So really encourage you to do the market research, test it and--

Not just test it. But when you say test it, you have to write down what you find and record it so you can go back and look at that so you have something to

That's another thing too, is like if you test it and go off a feeling, in Wendy's case, her feelings were correct.

But there are so many times you and I will dig into a hot seat call instead of Hosting Business Mastery and it's actually not as, I mean, it's in a loving way,

some of our members feel about something.

Right. But excellent question.

And again, we don't know if you've already been hosting or it's something that you're thinking about, but very important because put yourself in your guest

you.

Yes, with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are--

Thanks for Visiting.

We'll talk to you next time. Thanks for listening to the Thanks for Visiting Podcast.

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