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.