November lockdown calendar block

Marcus21
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

November lockdown calendar block

As per their recent email it now seems air bnb have taken it upon themselves to block November supposedly due to the lock down. It hasn’t happened like last time, the dates appear available but I see in my inbox now enquiries for dates that are available have been altered to “not possible” and the statement is “some or all of these dates aren’t available” so I can only presume this is what’s going on. I’m very very unhappy about this, the initial lockdown cost me thousands in lost bookings but I could understand that, we weren’t allowed to host under government guidelines but this is different, we ARE allowed to host work trips and people moving home so why has this been done? Supposedly for the safety of our community? Well I’ve had lots of requests over the past couple of months for people who freely admit they are travelling to the uk and will not be quarantining as they should, I raised this with air bnb expecting them to put a stop to it or  at very least contact the guest and educate them, they wouldn’t intervene at all..so how was that looking out for the community? Almost all my stays since lockdown have been people working or moving/between flats, rates are terrible but I’ve managed to keep going on these payouts by living frugally/selling things off on eBay etc  (air bnb is my only source of income) now I’d expect 3 weeks without bookings will halve what savings I have left. I thought air bnb were going to listen to hosts after the March/Covid cancellation fiasco? How is this listening? I can’t imagine any host would agree this was the right thing to do.

56 Replies 56
Marcus21
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Joey208 all I can say by way of comfort here is don’t think in terms of “I have nothing in the calendar so there’s no income after this whatever date”. My experience here is that people just don’t book in advance now, so often I find the following week is empty/I’m worrying. Then a few days before..then it just fills up bit by bit..the calendar looking back ends up relatively full. People just don’t want to risk booking ahead and the chance of losing their money if new rules prevent them travelling so they book at the 11th hour and it’s so quiet they can always find places. Try not to think about what happens next month. Bookings will come. 

Marcus21
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Joey208 

 

one thought I have had, you can take 28 day/longer  bookings I’m told...what about implementing a flexible cancellation policy, asking them to book 28 days and when they have finished and no longer need to stay cancelling the trip..they would then be refunded for any remaining/unused days under the policy. 

they may not want to put the money aside but it’s something to talk about if you’re dealing with a firm.

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

@Marcus21 @Joey208 I thought of that crafty work-around too! - BUT I'm fairly sure the refund policy is different for 28+ day stays and no refund is given for early cancellations..... I guess a host could voluntarily refund a guest tho'...? BUT the guest would probably be paying Airbnb commission on all 28 days.... so not in a guest's interest to go that route? - Look up the long-term reservations policy....

Joey218
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

I do have appropriate insurance in place as I discussed our plans for the house with the company when I took it out so fingers crossed my Scottish painters don’t hurt themselves but we’ll be ok if they do.

 

They have stayed in some really ropey accommodation so are thrilled with our place and stay with us if they are working anywhere up to an hour drive away - so I am not going to leave them stuck with a travelodge again - I bet they can book guests without the government interfering...

 

can I also say a quick thank you to you all - it is great having the support from you here in these ridiculously difficult times ❤️

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Brian  CEO of Airbnb, would you please follow up on this for the following people?
Thanks in advance, we must kick start our economies as part of the WHO is to include the wider Public Health of the people, not just one Virus.

 

@Marcus21 @Joey208   @Emma-and-Mark0 @Ben-and-Jo2 @Carol5573 

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

and for me @Helen427 !

Carol5573
Level 2
Goodwood, United Kingdom

 
I sent the following message to Airbnb's customer support team yesterday evening, I am awaiting a reply.
 
Hello Butch
Unfortunately I cannot agree that the situation has been satisfactorily resolved. I, and I suspect many other UK hosts, as indicated by the posts on Airbnb’s forum, believe that the UK Government’s guidelines have been misinterpreted by Airbnb and our calendars blocked when we could still legally accept bookings from guests who fit certain criteria as listed. Please see extract below from Government policy:

12. Staying away from home overnight
You cannot leave home for holidays or stays overnight away from your main home unless permitted by law. This means that holidays in the UK and abroad are not allowed. This includes staying in a second home or caravan, if you own one, or staying with anyone you do not live with or are in a support bubble with.

You are allowed to stay overnight away from your home if you:

are unable to return to your main residence
need accommodation while moving house
need accommodation to attend a funeral or related commemorative event
require accommodation for work purposes or to provide voluntary services
are a child requiring accommodation for school or care
are homeless, seeking asylum or a vulnerable person seeking refuge
are an elite athlete or their support staff or parent, if the athlete is under 18 and it is necessary to be outside of the home for training or competition

I look forward to hearing your explanation for this discrepancy.

Regards, Carol
Marcus21
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

I sent support a screen shot of the government page with all the relevant underlined.

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

Well done @Carol5573 !, - Trouble is your message may never get to the people who need to see it & act upon it...... in the first instance it will go  to a poorly trained, badly paid CS assistant, who has not been in the job long, and is trained to work from a script/ drop down list. It could quite likely be someone in a call centre in a foreign country, whose first language is not English.

 

You have written in the normal style & language of someone adressing customer services (Not a criticism!)

- Trouble is, it could be argued that CS staff only understand bullet points - so some here have noted. - Your last bit WAS bullet points, from gov.uk, so lets hope Butch or whoever read that far!

 

But at least you tried, and let's hope it does get passed to those with the authority to open up the calendars!

 

- Airbnb ARE in a difficult position here, because opening the calendars would allow holiday makers to book too... I've  turned away FOUR illegal bookings recently, before block, from folk trying their luck! I recently asked a chap from Italy who was flouting quarantine regs to cancel, then spying on my neighbours reviews revealed he stayed illegally with another host in my town! - So people will ignore the rules if a complete ban on hosting is not imposed!

 

Everybody try 'Spareroom', the UK lodger/ let by room site!

Well said Carol.  I sent a similar one.  I had a call from someone who wanted to come and stay for five nights for a work trip but was unable to book because Airbnb had blocked the calendar.  He booked somewhere else so I am £500 out of pocket and intend to try to get that money back from Airbnb either directly or through the small claims court. It's atrocious that they are allowed to do this.  I also cancelled a booking for a guest who had tried to do it herself but couldn't.  They were coming during lockdown for a wedding (not permitted).  Because I cancelled it, Airbnb blocked the dates because they said by cancelling I had indicated that I was 'unable to host'.  I was not unable to host, I was just not permitted by law to host those particular guests. 

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

Oh dear @Jacqueline944 ! It might be an idea if you pursued this with Airbnb - a cancellation means you will lose Superhost status, as well as $50/$100 per cancellation if you cancel more than 3 per year. 

 

A few days ago I asked Airbnb customer services to do a penalty free cancellation, because it's illegal to host tourists. I'd asked the guest to cancel, but got the TRICK message from Airbnb saying "Your guest wants to cancel, please click accept." - Well I knew that would count as a cancellation BY ME - so I contacted CS - by messaging, and it was all sorted 20-30 mins later. (My guest said she didn't know how to cancel herself, being only her 2nd booking.)

 

- NEVER cancel a guest, when it's the guest who wants/needs to cancel or is staying illegally.

- NEVER accept a 'guest requests to cancel' message! Make the GUEST cancel- then you get a 'Unfortunately X has cancelled their reservation' message. If the guest doesn't understand, & it's a stay now illegal in law, get CS to cancel. 

I passed up 3 enquiries which would have booked the whole period for me..they weren’t entirely suitable but I probably would have taken at least one if I’d known it was my last chance..the way the calendar was disabled this time I thought there was going to be some further guidance on what you could take and how.

 

air bnb went to all that fuss setting up the first responders program (which I found hopeless/no enquiries until the lock down lifted! Them I couldn’t afford to take cut price reservations!) I don’t understand why they can’t seek proof for work stays or house moves the same way as they did getting verifications for health care professionals (many of whom I heard just used the program for cheap breaks)

 

why can’t support just ask anyone who needs accommodation to contact them provide a tenancy agreement or a letter from work etc some proof of their reason for travel and if they can see this they can then contact relevant hosts or allow that guest to book?

 

I think air bnb try to make guests feel like they’ll lose their money if they cancel or even withdraw a request so they are often reluctant. I always contact support if they won’t do it themselves..in the past I’ve been met with all kinds of resistance from staff  but currently they do seem to have been briefed not to argue. 

Joey218
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Thanks again for this Carole - and am assuming that you have not had a response - I just dont understand why they cannot add in a box for the guests to confirm they are in one of the categpries allowed to travel - my guys are working right up to xmas away from home and it seems to me if Travelodge and Premier Inn are allowed to trust their visitors are legitimate why cant we?

 

This government are interfering at an unacceptable level and trying to control us when it isnt necessary.

 

Sooooo frustrating...

 

Ben-and-Jo2
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Hi Ben. Thank you for reaching out to us. This is Sarah S from Airbnb's community support team. I'm happy to assist.

I am sorry to hear that your guest is unable to book your listing but I just wanted to let you know that due to new restriction in your country, Airbnb has blocked host calendars during this period to prevent new bookings from 6 November - 2 December 2020, you will see a dashboard banner as well. Please see this link, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november, as your reference.

Since the government allows isolation, you can manually unblock the calendar by going to Listing > Tap the specific dates > Available.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.

 

—-

 

Hello Ben & Jo, I have tried figuring out if we can unblock the dates, but I am saddened to let you know that we cannot unblock the dates since it is a system generated.

Jean4999
Level 4
Perrott's Brook, United Kingdom

Lockdown - 2 officially ends at 00:01 on 2nd December. Therefore the night of 2nd December should NOT be blocked.

AirBnB have miss-interpreted the dates to include 2nd Dec.