Airbnb penalties for cancelling?

[Anonymous]

We are doing an annual trip to europe this summer for a few weeks. Our favorite airbnb was booked early. I was closely tracking listings through December, and prices were a lot higher than we'd been paying the last couple years for a similar place. But there wasn't a lot of new stuff getting listed, so we decided to book, despite the high prices. Listing is very clear that you can cancel, fully refundable, up to 4 weeks before (June 2026).

I am keeping my eye on the market, and a couple additional ones came on the market that look good and are more aligned with what we paid last year. My guess is that the closer we get to summer, more options will come online, and at better prices. (the one we booked the last few summers, we found about 3 weeks before our scheduled trip). So i am thinking about cancelling my current booking and booking the new one for the same dates. The price differential is substantial - $4000 difference for 3 weeks.

I know there's no financial penalty for cancelling. And the host can't give me a bad rating, because they aren't allowed to rate guests who don't actually stay there.

Are there any other downsides to this strategy, ie will airbnb prevent me from cancelling and immediately rebooking? is there a limit to how many times i can do this? Could i do it again on this trip (ie cancel today, and then in May find an even better listing, and cancel/book for that one)? Can i do it again in the future? I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt, but these are all corporate airbnb hosts with 50+ properties and they presumably know how to play the pricing game and will have tons of time to relist.

[Anonymous]

A few years ago we had a trip with 3 refundable bookings. Around 2 months before, some stuff happened family -wise, so we needed to cancel. All 3 were still in the window, so we cancelled them no issue.

The next time we booked I got a message saying because we had cancelled 3 bookings in a year, we didn't have anymore "free" cancellations. I'd check that, not sure of the current policy.