Airbnb COVID-19 related media coverage

[Huma0]

Hello, I thought I would start this thread for people who are interested in reading any media coverage specifically related to Airbnb and the COVID-19 pandemic. It might be useful to have these in one place for people to browse.

I'll start this off with an article a Canadian host sent to me today, which might be of interest especially to Toronto based hosts: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/03/31/covid-19-could-mark-the-end-of-torontos-airb...

Please feel free to post links to other relevant articles you have found (but try not to post duplicates if possible) and to comment away!

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Not Airbnb related, still about covid-19..... but something positive for a change~ 

https://god.dailydot.com/south-koreas-coronavirus-care-packages/

[Jennifer1421]

Interesting take from Bloomberg on the future of Airbnb, as seen by Brian Chesky:

https://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek

[Huma0]

@Jennifer1421  Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

[Rodney11]

I think we all know why most of the media coverage has been negative towards AirBnB and their Hosts: because AirBnB actively courted large property managers to list hundreds of ghost hotels on their platform. 

These large multi-property Hosts have decimated the LTR market in most cities, while simultaneously reducing the income of small operators like me, all while avoiding the regulatory requirements placed on LTR landlords and the hotel industry.

I can't really even blame them. If someone offered me the opportunity to list on a market leading platform, promised to give my listings priority in searches, required me to uphold service standards that were so low as to be effectively non-existant, and also told me they would act as aggressive lobbyists against any regulation aimed at my business, I would certainly sign up for that. Well, I'd also need a dad who could give me $14M to buy the properties to start my business. 

I can't blame them, but I won't miss them when they're gone. 

Perhaps this will return AirBnB to their supposed original mission of providing actual homestay experiences. Or maybe another platform will come along to fulfill that mission. I'm fine with either. 

[Sarah977]

@Rodney11   "Well, I'd also need a dad who could give me $14M to buy the properties to start my business."

Not necessarily. Many of these giant multi-property so-called "hosts" are renting all these properties they list.

[Rodney11]

@Sarah977 , I'm quite aware of that, and they are probably even more screwed because they can't even sell the asset that is now an albatross around their neck. 

The $14M from dad was a nod to a certain "self-made billionaire".

[Fred13]

Short-term renting and/or long-term leasing.

[Huma0]

Here's an article that @Fred13 posted which breaks down how various sites, included Airbnb, have handled COVID-19 cancellations:

https://www.syncbnb.com/blog/how-the-large-otas-handled-the-covid-19-crisis/ 

[Sandra707]

Florida allows hotels, motels to remain open, but Airbnbs are not - indefinitely: 

https://vrmintel.com/fl-governor-desantis-receives-letters-of-demand-in-response-to-decision-to-proh...

San

[Helen427]

Now that's a great article that should be doing the rounds where others also have AIRBNB private home/ rooms available to rent & stay as it's the same situation across the world.

 Find out who owns the hotels/ motels that our Governments are using and which big business owners are profiting from it.

That incidentally includes establishing if business empire owner Hotel/ motel etc properties belong to the big players countries are the same ones who dominate on WHO committee. ..

@Sandra707  that's a fabulous article  that can also be expanded with questions asked how much is the contract worth between the State/ Government & Hotel/ motel industry.

Here in New Zealand they have bolted all public toilet doors & the homeless have been rounded up and are staying in motels & will either be staying in them or  be rehoused when this "new normal" is over...all at the expense of TAXPAYERS hence why Jacinda Ardern & her crew are called TAXCINDA.

@Huma0 @Fred13 @Rodney11  has the same thing happened in your country?

[Huma0]

@Helen427 

The last time I checked, in the UK, the same rules applied to hotels, b&bs and holiday lets, i.e. they should not be accepting guests, but there is a rather long list of exceptions, which goes a lot further than COVID-19 first responders.

However, the difference is that Airbnb has blanket blocked our calendars. I suspect that is because they do not have the resources to treat each booking on a case by case basis and I assume one would need to produce some evidence to prove that the booking is from someone who falls into those exceptions. That could get quite complicated.

I did have an enquiry from a local guest who fell within the exceptions listed by the Government. I called Airbnb about this and the rep totally agreed that this guest, given her circumstances (temporarily homeless), should be allowed to book. However, the rep was unable to open my calendar. The system would not let her.

[Rodney11]

@Helen427 ,I wish my country had reacted more like NZ, we'd have eradicated the virus by now and be able to have a reasonable discussion around reopening the economy, rather that rolling the dice with people's health and safety. Kudos to Jacinda Ardern on that front!

[Helen427]

@Rodney11 

 New Zealand has neither eliminated, nor eradicated Covid19.

Both Ardern & her team, "Dr" Ashley Bloomfield messed up as they have continued to do all the way through & have had to retract saying that they had.

What is going on in New Zealand with a Director of Health effectively governing  our country is wrong in law.

Making up a 2 metre Social Distancing Rule & telling people to abide by it when it's Scientifically unproven and impractical is lunacy.

 It shows how out of touch with common practices, including building codes & approved businesses to occupy buildings & regulations for  them that they are.

They have been making up rubbish to cover there incompetency.

Ardern lacks an economic background as do most of her ministers & advisors.

[Rodney11]

You live in your reality Helen and I'll live in mine.

[Helen427]

@Sandra707You may like to go back through and find the Peer reviewed research papers for Florida that were undertaken by academics & the impacts on housing availability for locals because of online websites like ABB that was done a few years ago.

See who's names crop up and if any of them are the same ones that have surfaced re CORONA VIRUS/ COVID19, they are generally that of someone who is a past or current Public Health Advisor to your state.

In New Zealand the name Mike G BAKER has repeatedly come up in Research Papers from his university days in relation to ABB, Health Policies, Distance between people on Aeroplanes & distance a sneeze could travel etc ( without factoring into account some people do use a handkerchief or  tissues) that current academics are "rubber stamping" and has also been used internationally - it's not ok academics are using the same TEMPLATES & FLAWED research methodologies / maths to calculate wildly inaccurate statistics across the world to impose there ideology as we all live in different countries & a blanket approach whereby usually less than 100 people have answered a very simple biased questionnaire that doesn't work

Professor Neil Fergusson's model, UK as an example, along with Professor of Physics, Shaun HENDY'S (NZ) maths models have been used for COVID19 & as have been proven to be flawed for a number of reasons.

One would reasonably expect the Methodology used in Florida is the same systems used by University academics whatever there Public Health section has designed in the past for Guidelines.

Re 2metre Social Distancing, that's fatally flawed as we have Building codes including specific sizes for small / medium businesses, cafes, shops, Drs etc that have functioned perfectly well in the past and have been approved for donkeys years.

 In New Zealand our Ministry of Health Guidelines & own website state 1 metre IF you have an Infectious disease

 There's no valid current peer reviewed Scientific papers that say one should be 2 metres apart.

Whilst there's some research papers available online  for all of us across the world, the methods used were not undertaken with using a natural sneeze nor with the use of a handkerchief or tissue, not everyone is so inconsiderate when it comes to sneezing.

Those Research papers incidentally tended to be written by Asian named academics where it's  common practice to wear a MASK for whatever reason when out & about.

The  SINGLE USE ENVIRONMENTALLY unfriendly MASK industry is unbelievably unethical.