Set Custom Cancellation Policy by channel

Right now, our new Custom Cancellation Policy allows you to set up your own custom policy for when guests get refunds and how much. You can also choose to use your custom policy for VRBO guests, if you're using our API connection with them.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/cancellation-policies-overview

However, if you set a custom cancellation policy for a given property, that's what's used for both direct-book guests and VRBO guests. You can't set a custom policy for direct-book guests, and a *different* custom policy for VRBO.

Would it be useful to allow this? It's technically possible to do, but we aren't sure how many folks would use it and whether it's worth the bother.

I would rather see the ability to assign different cancellation policies depending on when a guest books.
For example further out bookings have a stricter policy ie 30 + days. Less than a month out maybe a 7 day policy.

Yes, that makes sense. The trouble is that VRBO doesn't currently support that, so we can't "just do it" the way we could the other. We're talking with them about increased flexibility, so that might be possible at some point.

In the meantime it would be a good feature to be able to set policy by channel. We can then make it more attractive for direct bookers.

I see the need for this.

I have a referral partner that sends me leads to my direct booking website, but my referral partner has specific cancellation policies that I must adhere to. These policies are more lenient that what I have for non-referral direct booking as well as Airbnb/VRBO.

So I'd want a specific cancellation policy based on referral source/code. Otherwise, it'll be a lot of work to orchestrate cancellations based on the referring source.

Thanks!

-Austin

www.smokymountainslodge.com

I would like to be able to have OR automatically update the cancellation policy by channel through the VRBO channel bridge. I don't use the API. I just discovered that the VRBO cancellation policy doesn't transfer through to OR, so I had to go in and individually update the rules on my VRBO reservations imported through the channel bridge. 

I would also like to be able to automatically set a cancellation policy by length of stay. I have a different cancellation and payment policy set up for stays over 3 weeks long. I don't accept long term stays through VRBO because of their restrictive cancellation and payment options. MYVR used to have the ability to automate the cancellation and multiple payment policies. I miss that. I've already taken a booking in which I didn't change the payment and cancellation appropriately. 

I started with VRBO in 2012. At that time they had very flexible cancellation options. The more they got bought out, the more restrictive they became. The VRBO platform is designed for the lowest common denominator user. I wouldn't expect any added "flexibility" from VRBO any time soon.