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Comment by hawkice | Hacker News Reader

It would be good if they expanded their COVID-19 response to more trips booked in advance of the pandemic. I had something booked way in advance, starting April 15, and they still want me to be on the hook for a stay in a country no one can legally enter.

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Airbnb's initial allowing for cancellations for any reasons was started on March 14th and lasts one month, currently ending on April 14th. Based on their existing communications to owners, I believe they will most likely move to a location dependent version of this policy as we move closer to that date.

Also, as an owner with two short-term rentals, it has been very challenging for us as well. We are getting cancellation requests for bookings into May and June that are outside of our 90 day cancellation window. Vrbo is pressuring us to allow those guests to cancel, but this isn't easy for people depending on that income. We have been trying to allow cancellations if travel isn't allowed (our units are in Hawaii so incoming travel isn't really allowed right now), but many of the travel bans currently in place are for 30 days.

Income loss for you is also income loss for the traveller who has to rebook the trip and pay double if they can't cancel. I have a booking I made in June in California. It was for my grandparents to stay at while they visited me (unfortunately my apartment is too small). Even though June is outside the travel ban time, I don't want two 80 year old people traveling during that time since we know Covid-19 will be active during that period.

If you don't refund guests I expect they'll file chargebacks with their payment processors and you'll lose, and with any luck VRBO will ban you for spreading pressuring people to spread pandemic

In fairness, I doubt Booking or any hotel would either.

Unless booking at a special rate, almost every hotel I've ever been at allows no-fee cancellations (typically up to 24 hours before). I typically stick to one or two hotel brands so maybe that's why?

I once accidentally entered the wrong checkout day when booking a hotel (one day too many); I immediately emailed and phoned them within minutes: they could not change the date, and had to pay one day extra.

Work was paying, but don't really like spending other people's money, and what a terrible service.

What country? I've never seen that in the US unless you booked through an SEO scam third-party drop-ship web site.

Ireland, using the hotel's own website. Jurys Inn in Cork, in case you want to avoid it :-)

Pretty standard in all hotels I’ve stayed. That’s a major factor in me deciding to stick with hotels.

Definitely not common.

Every single major hotel brand (Hilton/Marriott/Hyatt/IHG/choice/Wyndham/Accor) and online travel agent (Priceline/Expedia) has waived cancellation penalties and non refundable deposits.

Delta waves them for recent reservations. Our April plans were done in late January and they still want $150/ticket to modify something done on points...

Really? Their own website[1] lists that any domestic or international flights in March, April or May are eligible for cancel or change without fees (it does appear that you can only cancel to get credit but it might be worth giving them a call to see if you can get an exception made). I say that because I have flights with them in early May that I'm increasingly thinking isn't going to happen and I've been assuming that I'll get to change it for free.

[1] https://www.delta.com/us/en/advisories/coronavirus-travel/ca...

Yah... When you try to use the on line form, $150 today if it was booked in January or earlier. I've not had much success getting through on the phone yet. Still have a few weeks to sort it.

The communications I've received from IHG, Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton have all indicated very flexible cancellation policies due to COVID through the end of April (24 hrs notice), even for new reservations made during this time period.

Can't speak to Booking or Hotels.com, I always book directly to not get hosed when changes are necessary.

Booking did in February, no questions asked (although I did mention it was due to Corona fears). They had to call the hotel, but the hotel was fine with it, and so was Booking.

I heard of someone being successful by calling up the hotel a week before and saying they’ve been to Italy/Wuhan/wherever they have a high number of cases and asking to extend their stay because they need to self quarantine. Apparently that worked and the hotel canceled with full refund.

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