I have been very happy with Peerspace so far. But this is a game changer. I can see why this is attractive to Peerspace. Either way, they keep the fees, so of course Peerspace encourages more bookings, whether they are solid or not. This in no way is an advantage to the hosts–only to Peerspace and to guests. Please, Peerspace folks, do reconsider.
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First I’d like to say I have loved working with Peerspace for the nearly 3 years now that I have been on the platform. Everyone at the company has been very helpful and attentive every step of the way and it’s been by far my favorite platform to host on.
That said, this new cancelation policy is a step in the wrong direction in my opinion and is very unfair to hosts. It will probably force me to accept less bookings, especially if they are over 30 days away.
Having the ability to cancel without penalty, along with the 48 hour grace period up to only 24 hours before a booking start time, gives guests the ability to possibly book multiple spaces without actually being serious about keeping the bookings, all while the hosts have the date(s) blocked off their calendar and have to turn down other booking opportunities elsewhere, while also making arrangements and schedule changes in order to accommodate the booking.
What is particularly troubling is the new grace period policy. Giving a 48 hour grace period when a booking is over 7 days away makes sense, but when it is within 7 days is terribly inconvenient to the host. We have many bookings that are made less than 7 days in advance. With this new policy guests can book up our space, even multiple days, having the date(s) blocked to other potential guests for 2 whole days, and then cancel up to basically the last minute 24 hours before. Also when a guest cancels, the date(s) stays blocked for another 48 hours while the guest is given the option of rescheduling regardless of whether the host offers this. So there is essentially no chance to open the date(s) back up to another possible booking. A date, or multiple dates, can be blocked for 4 whole days which is almost the entire work week, and the host receives nothing for it.
We have many guests ask us if we can hold a date for them, and I tell them I can put a soft hold on it, meaning I keep it open to other bookings and let the first guest know if we receive another inquiry, in which case they would need to book asap in order to confirm the date. But now they can just book even if they aren’t confirmed as they have the opportunity to cancel basically anytime, forcing us to turn down the other guest who may have kept the booking. How does this make sense to anyone?
While cancelations have been rare, I feel that this new policy will encourage them to be more frequent. I get that plans can change, but guests should be encouraged to only confirm a booking when their plans are solid. Not to just book freely and be able to cancel at will without any penalty, while inconveniencing hosts, blocking dates on their calendar, and potentially making them miss out on thousands of dollars of revenue they rely on to keep their space active on this platform.
The policies and user experience at Peerspace have been what sets it apart from the numerous other space hosting platforms, but this change really downgrades it in my opinion and it is not standard business practice for renting spaces. Please reconsider. Thank you.
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What other hosting platforms are folks listing their venues with?
What is the cancellation policy of these other hosting platforms?
What is your experience with these other hosting platforms?
What is the fee structure of these other hosting platforms?
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Another note: The old ‘strict’ policy was perfect in my opinion and I don’t understand why that isn’t available anymore. The new ‘strict’ policy is too lenient and the ‘very strict’ option is too strict. Giving guests the option of a 50% refund up to a week before seemed fair to me. But a 50% refund within a week is not fair as it is likely we have missed out on other bookings in that timeframe so guests should be held accountable for the full price if they choose to cancel that close to the booking date.
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Hi hosts,
I really appreciate everyone’s feedback, it’s clear that you all are as passionate about Peerspace as we are here internally!
I want everyone to know that we are listening to your feedback and discussing internally how to address your valid concerns. We will get back to this thread soon.
Best,
Rony
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Agree with most everything here in terms of this policy not being host-friendly. Even the terms “strict” and “very strict” are going to scare people off, even though the terms are MUCH less strict than most agreements and contracts. I fear this will create a race to the bottom, where inexperienced venues will be Flexible and the well-run, more established venues who know their worth and the worth of an event, will choose Strict or Very Strict and be punished for it (unintentionally, of course).
We host a lot of weddings and holiday parties, which means people book months or sometimes a year or so in advance – I’m fine with them being able to cancel within a reasonable time period, but to take a primetime slot from us by cancelling 48 hours before the event, and we only get 50% (that’s the policy I’m going with for now – Strict)? That’s inane. It’s not just the loss of 50% of that booking (and most likely, much more due to the services rendered that we cannot get refunded for), it’s the loss of potential large events that could have been booked on that day, that now will be empty on extreme short notice.
We are the ones who hire staff, provide catering services, etc. and would be left holding the bill for those services, when our normal contract requires these are paid up front in full and are non-refundable upon the terms and conditions of the caterers (most of which are 21-30 days). We’re full-service, and a 24-hour cancellation is brutal. Rare, hopefully, but still brutal if it does happen given all that we provide as a venue.
I can’t even imagine outdoor venues where weather is a factor…people will see rain on the forecast the day before, cancel, and the host will be hung out to dry.
Peerspace has been excellent thus far in terms of communications, bookings, responsiveness, etc. This is my literal first complaint, but it is a substantial one to those of us who’ve been in the events game for years.
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Great questions. By early next week, I’m going to try to put together a competitive analysis of other booking platforms in a Google Sheet. As @Ben_I noted, this proposed policy is not at all in line with proven venue practices that are in no need of disruption.
My first impression is that Peerspace’s proposed new policy looks and sounds very similar to Airbnb’s. Great if Peerspace is looking at a leader in the hospitality space, not great that lodging bookings are quite different from event/production/off-site bookings. Here’s one quick difference: many airbnb guests have also arranged vacation time, airline tickets, etc. for just themselves or a small group (usually family members) so are less likely to change their lodging plans.
https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#super-strict-30
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I agree with all the passionate responses from hosts that this new policy is weighted heavily toward guests and puts hosts in an awkward position. Hosts have had the flexibility up to now within the cancellation policy to make exceptions, but now the power shifts to the guests to have their cake and eat it too.
There’s a big difference between guests canceling with just 24 hours’ notice (almost no chance to re-book the space for tomorrow) and even 72 hours, which gives at least little time for a last minute booking. But let’s face it, few bookings pop up within days of a production, unless it’s a true emergency on their part.
We book many/most productions roughly a week or more out – we also benefit from being a fairly specific type of property and I imagine more generic production facilities might suffer more often from guests being able to play different venues against one another. I am definitely concerned about potentially increasing numbers of “false positives” where frantic lower level production crew members/assistants may “book” multiple spaces so their superiors can eventually choose whichever they like, then cancelling the rest of their “bookings” just a day before the shoot at no charge, leaving hosts with no recourse or compensation unless they’re “strict”.
By the way these terms could be a little more neutral than “strict” or “very strict” - why not “draconian”? (that’s a joke). How about “fair/super fair/exceedingly fair/you’re getting away with murder”? (also mostly a joke).
I felt the original policy was nicely balanced between guest and host interests and would love to hear why the change was deemed necessary. Thoughts, @Rony_C?
I can see that “moderate” might be okay for Production, with a stricter approach necessary for events which often require more concierge services. If we can reschedule for legitimate emergencies, we’d often be inclined to do so because we strive to provide excellent service for all our guests.
Thank you for taking time to hear our concerns and keep a balanced policy in place.
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Also - I just noticed that we are NOT able to set a different cancellation policy for production vs. events. This seems to be an important oversight, since events are very different timelines than productions under almost every circumstance. A stricter cancellation policy for events with vendors, longer lead times, etc. seems warranted vs. production which operate differently.
Please advise. Thanks!
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Many good points so far and I agree with all of them. I mainly book productions, but it is equally important to me that bookings stick.
In the event of a cancellation, I could not take a last minute production booking even in the unlikely event that one came my way since the party booking would have to get a permit which takes 3 days. I have lost bookings because of this before. That one more reason that I must know people making bookings are committed. I have used the VERY STRICT option, but I agree with everyone who suggests the label is off-putting. Unless, of course, we all use it.
Just to rubber stamp what everyone else is saying, the old policy is perfect in every way. Keep it. And may I remind the Peerspace people that told us that an advantage of booking through them is their protection in the event of a cancellation. Please remain giving us that guarantee.
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If you don’t set it to very strict, your folding to the policy and sucking up. I say we have pride in our properties and our business and refuse to be treated cheap.
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Surely, the guests are NOT going to see that we chose “strict”… if that is the case… You have got to be kidding me?! Broadcasting to the guest that we are “strict” in our policies is the worst idea I can imagine. Is the guest actually going to see that the host selected the “strict” policy?
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Hi Gina-
I have tried all sorts of things to try to deal with advance scout requests. From prohibiting then to saying “only in case of a multiple day booking” …But it’s always been problematic.
I’ve found that maybe 25% of those scout requests actually end up in a booking. And that’s a bad return considering It’s way too much work to clear out all my working art materials, and clean to present the space in “guest ready” condition and then have them not book.
I recently decided to add to my description the following:
“Advance scout visits must be a paid hour and must be scheduled through the Peerspace app. If you decide to book the space, the 1 hour scout fee will be credited towards your booking.”
Will have to see how this goes! I’ll let you know
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Thank you Peerspace for listening to our concerns. I am very happy to see that you have reconsidered and made adjustments to the new cancellation policy. The new structure and terminology is much better in my opinion.
However, I still have some strong concerns over the changes to the grace period. While I can agree with having a 48 hour grace period for bookings made over 7 days in advance, having this for bookings within 7 days is a big problem for us. We receive many requests and bookings within a week, so giving people the ability to reserve dates for two whole days and then cancel with a full refund still only 48 hours before could definitely make us miss out on many other possible bookings. And only rarely do we receive bookings 48 hours or less before the start date, so it’s very likely we won’t end up rebooking the canceled date. Especially, and obviously, if the dates stay blocked for an additional 48 hours while the guest is given the option to reschedule as currently happens. And regardless, 48 hours is just not enough notice for a cancellation. In that time we have most likely already made arrangements and changes to our schedule in order to accommodate the booking which can’t then be changed. The 7 day cutoff before a booking to receive a refund is the only thing that is fair to us, and this should apply to all bookings regardless of when they are made.
Something I can foresee happening is guests changing their plans/minds based on things that our outside of our control, like weather for instance. We have a natural light studio and while we can always guarantee natural light, we of course can’t always guarantee there will be direct sunlight. Weather forecasts in NYC can change from one moment to the next, especially within a week. So someone can book, and then a day or two later see the forecast change from a sunny day to a cloudy one and cancel. And in that time we could have missed out on another booking that did not require a sunny day. But there are a myriad of other reasons that are beyond our control that could cause someone to cancel within those 48 hours so close to the start date, and I don’t think it is fair that we should lose business because of it.
Something I think would be more fair would be to give bookings within 7 days something like a 2 hour grace period. Otherwise, another option would be having the calendar remain open during the grace period and giving hosts the ability to still receive requests since technically during this time it is more like we have a hold on the date and not necessarily a confirmed booking. Then we can tell other potential guests that we currently have a hold on the date and can let them know in 48 hours or less if it will be available or not. I actually think this should apply to all bookings even before 7 days. Or, creating an option where guests can instead put a hold on a space and have 48 hours to book after which it is final. And in the 48 hour grace period the calendar remains open but maybe shows there is a hold and the host is still able to receive other requests and possibly second and third holds but not confirm other bookings.
Just throwing ideas out there, but to reiterate and summarize, I most definitely still take issue with the 48 hour grace period applying to bookings within 7 days. Since many of our bookings are made within this timeframe, it is basically like the policy of having cancelations made within 7 days be non-refundable doesn’t even apply.
Curious to hear other hosts thoughts regarding this.
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Did anyone on this discussion receive an odd request from a potential renter requesting that you take the discussion offline and go around Peerspace? See attached… I received this and I thought it was odd. 
This is probably more suited to another thread … but yes, I am always suspicious of guests who immediately want to jump on the phone, or switch to email. Sometimes it is harmless, and sometimes they are trying to work an angle, and some just like to talk on the phone (I don’t). Like you, I let them know that we will be booking via email, and that it really helps to keep conversations in one place, documenting any agreements we make about fees, services and amenities.
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I do not think it hurts to call them as I always say “Any questions about the studio call me, pricing and booking through Peerspace”
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Funny you should mention this Robert. Just yesterday, I received two suspicious inquiries that came across as ‘testing’ me after I mentioned above that I would not be accepting rentals more than 30-days out.
I answered both of them explaining that even though the dates that they are requesting are available, that I would not be able to accept their bookings and that they would have to contact me 30-days out before their event if they were still interested in booking my studio and if the studio was still available at that time.
Soon after I received a call from a lady claiming to be an event planner asking me all manner of prepared and what seemed scripted questions. It almost felt as though I was on speaker phone talking to a room full of people. She was shopping around for an event space for her client and needed twelve (12) consecutive days. Yes, twelve! She asked me if I would accept an off PS rental request. I said no.
She had no company name, no phone number, no last name and no previous rental reviews or history.
Then a couple hours later, the second odd inquiry came in. Also from a “Guest” with no reviews or previous PS rental history. Claiming to be from a major technology company and also wanting to rent my studio more than 30-days out. Again, asking me questions that I don’t normally get from your average office manager. I also told him he would have to request his booking 30-days before his event date.
Anyone else on this thread experiencing suspicious inquiries?
We turn down other bookings to accomodate the booking and then it cancels and we LOOSE money when this happens due to this new cancellation policy.
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John, what new structure and terminology are you referring to? What adjustments has PS made to the new cancellation policy?