The ONLY STR Cancellation Policy

Everyone wants to panic about cancellation policies. Rest assured, this is not that complicated. Offer a simple cancellation policy, forecast it to guests are clearly as possible, and then enforce it. What gets complicated is when you don’t have a policy. You try and do something different for every guest. This will make your brain explode, ruin your day, and most importantly, be unfair to your guests. Everyone loses.

What do we do?

Across all our listings we employ what AirBnb calls its ‘Firm’ cancellation policy. This policy states that guests will receive

- full refund if they cancel within 30 days of their trip

- partial refund (50%) if they cancel between 30 and 7 days of their trip

- no refund if they cancel within 7 days of their trip

Why do we like this?
Simply put, if you cannot rebook an empty weekend within 30 days, you’re doing something else wrong, don’t penalize your guests for this.

Now what about the guests, is this fair? We think so. In addition, take into account that guests have an option at checkout to upgrade to travel insurance through AirBnb where they can cancel anytime for a full refund.

How to add a touch of class?

We want to keep our brand, Berkshire Vacation Rental Co., at the top of people’s minds when they travel to The Berkshires. If a guest has to cancel last minute, even though we don’t budge on our cancellation policy, we do provide a discount to them if they want to book again in the future across any of the properties in our portfolio. At the time of this writing, our records show that about 65% of our guests that have cancelled last minte take us up on this offer and rebook in the future.

That’s another BnB Bulletin for ya ! If you’re interested in our services for your own Short Term Rental, we’re taking on new clients through April 1, 2026. Hit the link below to set up an intro call.

Happy hosting,

- Jaryn