WARNING: New Cancellation Policy Sneaked In

While checking through a couple of property listings today, I spotted a new cancellation policy has been sneaked in by BDC .....

• The guest can cancel free of charge until 18:00 on the day of arrival. The guest will be charged the cost of the first night if they cancel after 18:00 on the day of arrival.
• We facilitate prepayment of the full amount from your guests before arrival, thanks to Payments by Booking.com. For more information on how we facilitate payments for you, click here.

I actually laughed - it looks like an April Fools joke - it's the type of policy that only benefits guests and will hurt every host/partner. But then I realised it's not April 1st and this is Booking.com. It's not an April Fools joke, it's genuine.

I don't remember ever seeing a host/partner saying "hey, I want to give guests the right to book and cancel at such short notice that my calendar will be constantly blocked and I won't earn any money because they'll all cancel".

Probably the worst thing is that instead of fixing the numerous bugs and problems in the Booking.com systems, they've created yet another p1ss-poor ridiculous policy. That's just plain insulting to hosts / partners. Disgraceful.