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.

[Kristin108]

SHAME on Airbnb.

I am a full time host that depends solely on my income from my vacation rental property. I have already lost my Kaiser medical insurance due to lost revenue because of cancellations! And that is just because people were nervous...

I'm afraid our only recourse is to stop listing with Airbnb and have a website and take booking that way...

I always buy CFAR trip insurance... WTF is up with these people who are double dipping????

Unbelievable! I personally think you are scum!

I was planning on doing this for another 10 years. Now I think I will sell my property and move to Ireland!

Airbnb is *bleep* up!!!!!!

[Sharon480]

Use Vrbo. Or support other sites. If Airbnb continues to do this to us, we will just mass move to other sites!

[Sara-and-Ian0]

Is there any organised action happening against Airbnb for this 100% refund situation? Legal... online... group...?

Please let me know... there must be something we can do?

How many hosts around the world are feeling the same as we are?  They can’t ignore us all if we act together. 

[Kristin108]

Hi Sara,

I used to live in Ballinspittle... Ha, ha...waving at you!

I still have a house in Ballyduff, West Waterford outside Lismore. 

I am seriously considering selling my farm here in Oregon and moving over!

As to lawsuits, it's gonna be tricky.  I have a call into my friend who is an attorney to see if she has any suggestions as to how to get the ball rolling... But due to the international end of things, and the fact that Airbnb is now a HUGE entity, I am sure they are already have a huge team of Solicitors and are all 'lawyered up'!

[Sheila22]

"A huge entity" that wants to be an IPO (ha ha!), but showing they screw their investors (at this time investors are the Hosts).  They should have been better to their investors and shown they are strong and solid, but they just couldn't do it because they are loser armatures.  As soon as things got tough they screwed their investors. Good luck with the IPO Airbnb.  Not happening!

[Sheila22]

*loser amateurs.

[Sara-and-Ian0]

HI Kristin!

Small world!

I'm just keen to keep an eye on anything that can be done or is happening... worldwide there must be millions of hosts, all in the same boat.

Surely something can happen!

I'm not sure I'd move just now...!  It hasn't stopped raining for ever it seems this winter! Soooo looking forward to some summer!

[Richard529]

Airbnb does NOT care about hosts.   

[Sacha81]

Raise your rates on Airbnb and have them lower on competitor sites. best way to hit em where it hurts

[Sharon480]

That’s what I’ve been doing 

[Amay-Elisabeth0]

My latest booking are mostly VRBO and it is my choice on this site and I appreciate that..My guest today for example, canceled "today' I did not issue a refund but did say if he could come at a future date he could have my house which is quite large and $700 per night for $90 per night. I said I am a small business and have overhead. Maybe it seems cruel, but I have to pay lights, internet, mortgage, the cleaner, etc, they are going to get refunded by airlines and other facilities, but I have a lot to lose, as we all do as Hosts. This AirBnB thing is total BS, one lady cancelled and she got a 100% refund but she was over 30 days out (barely). I say, keep what you can, NOW, before it gets worse, you wont get reviewed if they dont stay. Its not like us as Hosts can call the utility company and say "can you refund me, or not charge me for the month?" ...

[Mimi192]

I’ve had over $50,000 in cancellations due to this. It’s not fair that guests can just cancel because they don’t want to complete their trip or just make up any reason. Airbnb should offer travel insurance and not make us bear all the risk. 

[Nick539]

Exactly!  Insurance for hosts who have to bare costs in such rare incidents.  THIS is REAL caring for hosts which are the main important assets airbnb has. Without hosts there is no airbnb.

[Sara-and-Ian0]

t's a start... a petition re the unfair decision to refund 100%

http://chng.it/T7YGPMbLVN

please consider signing and sharing.

[Catherine2250]

The decision AirBnb made to place the entire economic burden of Covid-19 on hosts reaffirms what many of you have expressed in past postings.  AirBnb has no regard for the economic well-being of its hosts. 

There were many options for AirBnb to consider in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis -  a sharing of the expense on a 50/50 basis,  credits for future stays, requirements that hosts offer future re-bookings to the same guests at reduced rates. Even Vail Resorts (with all its economic resources), when closing the local resort at Whistler Blackcomb, offered refunds for everything except lodging.  For that, they offered only a credit.

What AirBnb chose to do was to unilaterally alter the agreement that hosts had made with their guests concerning cancellations. They did that without the consent of hosts and without any regard for which of the two parties - hosts or guests - was better able to absorb the loss.

In addition to their ability to purchase travel cancellation insurance, arguably many guests are in a much better position than hosts to weather the economic consequences of Covid-19. While for hosts, the income from the booking may well be required for a mortgage payment, for vacationing guests, the expense would be money that wasn't needed for day to day living expenses. 

I am in the fortunate position of not being reliant on AirBnb income. Although I had ten AirBnb listings at one point, I made a decision awhile ago not to deal with an organization which treats me with disrespect. I have already removed six of my listings from the AirBnb platform and I am in the process of removing the rest.

Good luck to those of you who choose to continue with AirBnb.