Hosting

[Angie647]

Hello all,

I have been super hosting for a few years now, since day 1.

Why is the host the only person who gets penalise when the guest contracts Covid?

The guest gets a full refund under Covid extenuating circumstance.

They cancel the day before their stay, leaving me no time to get another guest in.

This policy favours totally the guest.

Why does this policy only penalise the host?

If the host contracts covid, they could get their co host to help them out, they have cleaners, they have nil contact with the guest,  & the guest can still have their stay.

How do I prevent another incident? I have a big booking coming up & I am so worried they may contract covid & cancel & I loose out again?

This is my only income.

Any suggestions?

I have sent my feedback to Airbnb & hope someone will take notice.

Regards,

Angie 

[Anonymous]

@Angie647   I totally agree that it's time for Airbnb to update its Covid cancellation policy. But the policy that was in place at the time the booking was made is the one that applies to it, so no change there would alleviate your concern about refunds. It might help you out, though, if they stop suspending listings where an infection was reported during the stay. That one is really over the top.

In the meantime, the best way to minimize risks associated with cancellations is to keep a short minimum stay, so that no single booking has an outsized effect on your income. If you have availability, offering guests a date change instead of cancelling might help, although refund-seekers don't tend to be ideal guests.

[Angie647]

Hello Andrew,''

Thank you for your reply.

RE- which policy applies in the case if your guests catch Covid, it is NOT your policy at the time they booked.

Air bnb  over ride my strict cancellation policy & refunded the guest & did not even bother to contact me prior to doing that.

It just happened to me.

The guest cancelled & Air bnb rewarded them with the full refund the day before the stay.

I was gutted.

From the yrs I have been loyal to Air bnb, they took the guest side

why are the host who cops it 100%.

Why not even perhaps go 50/50. It has really upset me the last few days!  

Why cant Air bnb say sell them the travel insurance?

I have put in my feed back but I guess it would that would have made no difference what so ever.

Thanks for listening to my rant, so annoyed!

[Anonymous]

@Angie647 anything listed in the Extenuating Circumstances automatically overrides the host's chosen cancellation policy. But those Extenuating Circumstances comprise part of the contract at the time of booking.

I'm not a fan of this, but that's how it is. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Angie647  it is about time Airbnb removes covid from extenuating circumstances. Guests should purchase travel insurance if they want to be refunded. Hosts should not be everyone's travel insurers

[Laurelle3]

@Angie647 @Anonymous and @Branka-and-Silvia0 today they are say Covid has become part of our life and we have to live with it and except it and in NSW we still have to isolate for 7 days. As @Branka-and-Silvia0  has mentioned travel insurance. Airbnb could be offering travel insurance when people make a booking like the airlines do. Then it up to the guest and they have the option to take insurance to cover any mishaps rather than the host losing out. AS @Anonymous   has suggested maybe have shorter bookings during this time. @Angie647 I understand that it is the school holidays and possible longer bookings during this time. I had 21 cancellations when we had our strict Covid rules in NSW last year and I communicated with guests when they communicated with me before cancelling and we worked out another booking date sometimes changing two to three times. What I used to say that that I understand but if you cancel you will still get your payout but Airbnb keep their commission .

Angela sorry that this has happened to you as we all thought we were on the way to recovery. we all have been affected with the rains, flooding and cancellations. I think we are being hit with a double whammy if you live on the east coast.  

[Debra300]

I agree that under most situations that COVID should be removed from the EC cancelation policy.  Many countries have ended their pre-arrival test requirement, and some have it in place only for non-vaccinated travelers. The testing window is generally 1 to 3 days before scheduled arrival.  This tight period leaves almost no time to provide cancelation notices to hosts and hospitality/tourism service providers.  Everyone should purchase travel insurance, or accept the consequences if they choose to forego it.  None of the other platforms where I list still allow COVID as a valid exception to a host's chosen cancelation policy.

[Fred13]

@Angie647 All the points you raised were raised incessantly with Airbnb here all of 2020, so we feel your pain. In 2021 the guests kept right on using Covid  to 1. alleviate their fears, 2. delaying for their convenience, 3. kept delaying so more friends to make their stays cheaper (fixed that real quick), 4. or didn't feel like traveling, etc, etc. and Airbnb played right along with all the hustles.

    The one booking that really got me in 2021 was the 2 persons that booked with us and then told us they were now 6 people and had added 4 more just before coming, but because 1 of them tested Covid (supposedly) as they are going to the airport (!!), no one came, (immediately getting a full refund of course) burning us for 6 days plus 2 days before and after (for "Covid' super cleaning); killed 10 days/a 3rd of the whole month.

   So I immediately we made the stays shorter by changing minimum days and then booked every single day back-to-back (forget luxurious extra buffer   days) and seriously raised prices for extra guests so whenever another CS-cancelled/Covid cancellation happened and the guest got Airbnb to snake out of coming, by then we needed a break anyway so we welcomed a cancellation. We also did a couple of additional moves that served us very well.

   With Airbnb one has to adjust and not take anything personally, and always keep right on going.  😉

[Ryan2594]

I don’t really see what your complaining about? 

I mean it must suck ass for the guest making arrangements and then bang they get covid. That’s their holiday ruined but hey you want to dip into their pockets and keep the booking money too🤔

Why on earth is it your only source of income too? If you want reliable income perhaps rent the place. 

[Anonymous]

@Ryan2594 Anytime we make travel plans, we know there's the possibility they could be thwarted by fate - getting sick, breaking a leg, getting stuck in traffic and missing the flight, and so on. If we're afraid to lose money when things don't go to plan, we can choose to book accommodations with flexible cancellation and/or buy travel insurance. But as long as a Covid infection is considered an "extenuating circumstance," hosts are in the position of being the guests' de facto insurer, absorbing a loss that the guest could have easily mitigated. 

For most illnesses and injuries and other misfortunes, the guests aren't exempt from the cancellation policy that they voluntarily agreed to when they booked. But Airbnb currently treats Covid very differently from other conditions. This made sense when reducing the spread of the virus was the top priority of public health policy, but if you're in countries like ours where most of the prevention policies have expired, it seems outdated.

[Robin4]

@Anonymous  @Fred13 

Andrew, I don't, and never have had Covid, I have never had a PCR test, I have never had a RAT test. I mix in my community every day, and I travel between states. What with my Airbnb commitments and having to single handedly run a household, you might say I am lucky.....but I am not. I don't leave this to luck. Here is my current vaccination status.......

I do not go out in public without wearing a mask, despite the fact it is not mandatory. I carry antiseptic wipes with me at all times, and both Ade and I are as fully vaccinated as it is possible to be. We don't leave anything to chance, or luck.....I work on the philosophy that 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

It's not fickle @Fred13,  it attacks those who don't think it is necessary to protect themselves. I am 78 and my wife is on immuno suppressant drugs to control her MS symptoms......we are high risk!

Covid prevention measures might have stopped in our country, but they haven't stopped in my circle of influence........and that is why none of us have had Covid! Bleedin obvious when you think about it, I just wish a few more of us would adopt the same strategy!

Cheers.........Rob

[Anonymous]

@Robin4   Are you sure it's wise to post your personal medical documents on a public website like this? That's some pretty sensitive ID info, and there's no reason anyone here needs to see your vaccination records. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you've been able to avoid catching Covid thus far, and hopefully when it finally does happen, your vaccinations will protect you from getting seriously ill. Of course, it's possible that you've had an asymptomatic case without even knowing it.

The overwhelming majority of people I know in Berlin have had Covid at least once, a few twice, despite being fully vaccinated and taking an abundance of precautions.   The currently dominant variant is the most contagious virus in human history, rivalled only by measles, and the "strategy" it would take to completely avoid it is not realistically available to most people. So while you can take pride in your success thus far, it's certainly won't be any failure on your part when the virus inevitably evades your defenses. 

There are still many reasons for people to keep taking prevention measures, and of course people with an infection should continue to isolate until they've recovered. But is it absolutely necessary for them to get full refunds on the non-refundable holiday plans that they booked during a pandemic, knowing full well how plausible it is that catching Covid could thwart their plans?  

[Fred13]

Moreover, getting Covid is very fickle and can happen unpredictably at a moment's notice. So a host that reserved a time for people for 1 full year+  could have that cancelled by a CS Airbnb person that never even bothered giving the host the choice of postponing the reservation. How long is this escape clause going to go on, whose integrity (and effect) is questionable, even after promising numerous times it wasn't going to be applied any longer after a certain date?

[Jenny]

Hi everyone!

I know that some of you might already be aware of this, but I thought it was worth mentioning that we've announced some changes to the Covid Extenuating Circumstances policy recently, and I thought it might be relevant to post the link here for you:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Update-to-our-approach-for-guests-sick-with-COVID....

Hope this helps!  Let me know if you've any questions or concerns.

Jenny