Vrbo sent me an email today about changes to their host cancellation policy, and they've upped the penalties, as of October 15th. And they are increasing the suspension times. Bolded sections below are mine:

"What is not allowed -

At Vrbo, we expect hosts to accept booking requests and honor confirmed bookings. If a host cancels a confirmed booking, they may be subject to the enforcement actions set out below.

Examples of host cancellations which may be subject to enforcement include the following: 

• The host double-books the listing, causing a cancellation. 

• The host switches the guest to a different property than the one booked. 

• The host denies entry to a confirmed guest, or the guest is unable to access the property at or after check-in time, leading to an agent having to cancel the booking (also known as a ‘denied entry event’).

• The host doesn’t provide the guest with all required critical stay information in violation of our .  

If a host cannot honor a booking, the host must cancel it. If a host encourages or pressures a guest to cancel a booking, this will be treated as a host cancellation. Any attempt to shift responsibility for a cancellation to a guest, or to act dishonestly to avoid this policy, is strictly prohibited.

Enforcement

Fees: We may charge a fee for host cancellations. These fees offset the anticipated costs and negative impact of cancellations on our guests, other hosts, and Vrbo.

We will charge the following fees: 

• equal to 100% of the reservation amount for host cancellations that occur within 48 hours of check-in time or at or after check-in time, including for denied entry events. 

• equal to 50% of the reservation amount for host cancellations that occur more than 48 hours before check-in but within 30 days of check-in. 

• equal to 25% of the reservation amount for host cancellations more than 30 days before check-in...

• The reservation amount is the total reservation amount for all nights, including the base rate, plus any mandatory fees, such as cleaning fees. Applicable taxes will be added to any cancellation fees that are charged.

  For hosts that have selected payouts in USD, the minimum cancellation fee is $50 USD, plus applicable taxes... There is no maximum fee. "

It is disgraceful that they are now charging hosts taxes etc. as part of a penalty.

So this means that if your guest can't get in because of a lock malfunction, and you can't be reached within 1 hour, Vrbo will cancel the reservation. Your penalty will be the entire amount of the reservation with all fees and taxes included. And you will be suspended for 14 days.

For comparison, Airbnb's cancellation penalties are half the above amounts, 50%, 25%, and 10%.

Now don't come at me, because I've never cancelled on a guest. I believe there should be penalties. But this is ridiculous.

Many of you in another thread about double booking said you got the guest to cancel themselves or you moved them to another property. Neither of those was allowed before this, but now the penalty is really going to be high.