Airbnb completely threw their hosts under a bus regarding Covid-19

[James207]

Why exactly are we being told to bear 100% of the financial burden of this? Oh, right, because Airbnb doesn't actually care about the hosts or their financial well being.

And we aren't Marriott, or United or Airbnb that will probably get bail outs from the government.  We just get slammed with the fall out.

The costs for cancellation should be split 50/50. If the guest took out travel insurance then it won't be an issue for them. It always, always seems to fall on the hosts to eat the costs if there's adverse weather or events and guests want to cancel. It's incredibly frustrating.

[Brian-and-Leah0]

@James207   I agree completely.   I purposefully set my cancelation policy to “strict” because this isn’t a side hustle for me but the way I support my family and pay my mortgage.  While I understood this probably meant fewer reservations I felt secure in that I would be paid for the bookings I accepted.  This in turn allows me to confidently invest in my properties and the Airbnb platform.  My confidence has now been shaken.  

 I estimate I will lose between $12,000-15,000 in bookings under the updated policy change.  In contrast, my guests will lose $0.  This seems like a very unfair burden sharing.  It is also unsustainable for the platform since hosts have fixed expenses ie- mortgages, taxes, utilities etc do not change and cannot continue to operate faced with uncertain revenue.  

Airbnb should at least consider:

1). Cancelation window—48 hour cancelation window to allow guests to cancel for a full refund under updated policy.  It is very inequitable to allow a guests to take a “wait and see” approach as it eliminates the hosts ability to mitigate losses by potentially re-renting to other prospective guests when guests cancel at the last possible minute for a full refund.

2). Stop moving the goal posts—The updated policy moved the extenuating circumstances from April 1 to April 14th.  Is Airbnb going to keep doing this?  If so, please allow hosts the option to cancel our whole calendar penalty free.  Hosts should be given the option to step back for short term renting penalty free if the platform isn’t going to protect us.  We have to pay our mortgages and feed our families.  

3). Cancelation policies—Hosts and guests should be free to enter into a cancelation policy without platform interference.  I note, VRBO is honoring cancelation policies as agreed to between guests and hosts.  While VRBO has encouraged hosts to offer refunds they have not unilaterally changed agreements made between guests and hosts with respect to their cancelation policies.  I understand that the platforms are different but if you’re going to unilaterally change policy please make it fair.  

[Scott1147]

Do you not have anything to say on this @Airbnb ? 

[Donald194]

Because of the virus, guests will be able to claim all their costs (less any excess) from their insurers, whereas if they cancelled voluntary they would not have a valid claim.  This is a very good  reason for AirBnB paying hosts 100%, and telling guests they will  have to claim from the valid claim from their insurers and, perhaps, offer assistance by providing proof of cancellation due to Coronavirus.  

[Luis3117]

The policy is absurd 

Airbnb is transferring the whole cost of the situation to the host. 

Of course the pandemic is out of anyone hands but just like many hotels around the world the cancellation wont result in a full reimbursement 

So the host will lose the earnings 

The guest is free to cancel with NO penalty. 

And Airbnb loses nothing. 

So, are we all “together” in this???!! As Airbnb communication states. Thats absurd. 

Airbnb who makes money on every reservation we doA thru the platform MUST also take part on the economic side and not just saying we are all “together” on this and along with the Guests and the Host put some money in those cancelled reservations due to the Covid emergency so the Hosts have some small income to relief the situation. Thats an all “together” real scenario!! Not the absurd “together” scenario stated by Airbnb were only the Host will pay the price for the emergency. 

I am stunned that Airbnb decided to make a fool of every Host they have. 

Luis 

[Argelio-Amado0]

You are sooooo right right about travel insurance. About 25% of my guests have travel insurance. Some of them are double dipping. Thank you Airbnb for taking such good care of your hosts!*

*Very sarcastic comment.

[Fallon0]

Airbnb definitely needs to make insurance available to Hosts that will cover all extenuating circumstances. Airbnb also needs to realize that without Hosts, there are no guests, and they need to take a balanced approach, rather than throwing Hosts under the bus. Why in the world would they send out an email blast encouraging people to cancel? Obviously, they think this will engender guest loyalty, and the loss to the Hosts is worth it. I, for one, will now focus my marketing efforts on other platforms and direct bookings, where Hosts are not fodder for Airbnb's misguided policies.

[Eileen-And-Nick0]

I have never been on this forum before but am grateful for all the suggestions. I'm impressed by how articulate the Airbnb hosts are. So many good ideas are presented here. I felt alone in the last few days but quickly realized that my situation was being echoed across the world!  I have switched availability to "dates unavailable by default" until this situation improves. I just wrote this to our recent guest who cancelled (borrowing some of the words from what has been written here):

Just to keep you in the loop .... as you can imagine, Airbnb hosts are struggling with all the cancellations. While Airbnb's policy to support guests 100% is admirable, it is unfair and disastrous to the hosts who are given no financial help. For example, Airbnb has benefited from holding your money since you booked in October yet they only offer us a "penalty-free" cancellation.

Of course this is all new territory and we ask that Airbnb adjust their policy to help guests as well as hosts. Thank you for your open communication with us. We would appreciate it if you can leave a note advocating for hosts and guests at:
https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

If the Airbnb community works together, we can support each other through this global event.

[Maureen435]

Clearly most of you are putting higher value on your income than the benefits to your community of social distancing.  Enough said. 

[Jackie570]

Yeah, we value our income. It's how we survive. That being said, it's not being selfish for us to not want to absorb 100% of the blow that affects everyone. We didn't cause this situation any more than the guests or the corporation did, but we are facing all of the loss.

Income from Airbnb keeps our families fed and bills paid, especially in any household with a single breadwinner operating on a narrow margin. The income from reservations has been factored into our budgets for months and how it's ALL gone, while no one else has to sacrifice anything.

We're pretty pissed.

[Jane1049]

Certainly not. This is simply about FAIRNESS. 

The comparison would be train or airline tickets or budget hotels : 

1. Non-refundable - cheapest 
2. Exchangeable - moderate
3. Fully refundable - expensive

Fully refundable is more expensive to stop the company failing should all passengers guests  cancel.

Non-refundable is where someone booking takes a risk and **travel insurance***

Alternatives are to move the booking to an alternate date.

If guests don’t want to choose another set of dates, because this happened due to the Coronavirus situation and government directives, guests  should claim on  travel insurance .

Most home hosts are not rich people,  original Airbnb wasnt businesses it was a way of couch surfing and hosting in spare rooms. 

Many hosts could now lose there homes due to the removal of the ‘BUFFER of STRICT that bought some TIME to soft alternatives.

TRAVEL INSURANCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN 1st port of call. 

If businesses who  offer varied scales of risk to facilitate budget options offered refund on the budget price THEN it’s NOT MAD ROCKET SCIENCE that the business will one day collapse!!  That business is AIRBNB.

This not about safety. No one has suggested the guests should still travel.

This is about what strict hosts signed go to. To enable budget travel

All through this post hosts are talking about 50/50 even share of loss. 

If hosts had not had a ‘Strict’ option, they would have sensibly put their prices at the higher ‘buffer level’. 

Quite frankly to suggest otherwise clearly shows lack of care that families, children, PEOPLE may Mel also lose their homes. 

[Rachel1549]

Exactly 

[Brenda328]

Ok, fellow hosts, I have one potential way we can send a unified message to Airbnb.  If you have Instant Booking on, turn it off.   I turned Instant Booking off on one of my listings several months ago because Airbnb allowed a group of guests to cancel and receive a 100% refund on my ski cabin that had a strict cancellation policy because 'it was snowing at the ski resort or somewhere maybe in the area or somewhere where one of the guests was maybe coming from.'  They were never quite sure about that but they were certain that it was snowing somewhere.

However, when I then turned Instant Book off for that property, Airbnb flipped out!  At the top of my Inbox on my mobile app it now says "Do you have all the facts about Instant Book?  Take this 1 minute quiz and test your savvy.'  I get a barrage of emails about how wonderful Instant Book is.  It constantly pops up on the banners when I am on my laptop trying to get me to turn it back on.

I have five other properties on Airbnb and I just went out to all of them and turned off Instant Book.  Go to Booking Settings to do this.  To turn Instant Book off you have to go through about five levels of menus to make it as difficult to turn off as possible and at the end they still ask you why you don't want to use Instant Book.  I selected Other Reason and put the following text in the comment box:

"Due to Airbnb's extremely unfair Coronavirus Extenuating Circumstances policy of allowing guests to cancel and receive 100% refunds even though I have a strict cancellation policy, I will only be accepting guests that I am certain will not be abusing that policy."

I know a lot of you already don't use Instant Book, but turning off Instant Book appears to be one thing that captures Airbnb's attention.  Maybe because of the risk that while the guest is waiting for a host to respond to their booking request the guest might go onto another booking platform and book that same property (since many of us are on multiple platforms) or a similar property and then just come back to Airbnb and cancel their booking request (which they absolutely can do at any time before the host accepts it) and Airbnb loses the guest to another platform.

Your thoughts please.

[Zivka1]

I do that now ...

[Zivka1]

This is a great idea!

You can change this under Listing > Booking settings

[Dejan48]

Disappointed that AirBNB allows retrospective cancellations when they introduce the new policy. It is really bad practice and looking forward to have more success with Booking.com.

AirBNB went too far from being a brilliant platform to changing terms retrospectively when a handshake on bookings already happened for example last year.

Risks of travel are managed by travel insurances and not by hosts.

Majority of our guests have travel insurance.

Utterly disappointed.