LET'S GO TO THE TOP!
If you have a LinkedIn Premium account, write to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianchesky/
If you don't have a premium account (that allows you to message anyone), ask a friend or your kid who may have one!
Also tweet Brian Chesky on Twitter: @bchesky
Please join me in pitching journalists (local, national, international). This is a great story. The goal is to get Airbnb to develop a better plan—that is fair to hosts—for reservations after April 14, 2020 (the end of its current extenuating circumstances plan.) Here's my message to Brian Chesky. Let him hear from all of us NOW! Please write or tweet him today.
Hi Brian, Airbnb's response to the coronavirus is completely unfair to hosts. Of course we are all having to adjust to the coronavirus outbreak. However, Airbnb's "extenuating circumstances" policy makes the host eat 100% while guests and Airbnb walk away unscathed. We must work together. Hosts around the world demand that Airbnb support its hosts.
1. Guests already agreed to a cancellation policy upon booking. 2. Guests are using Airbnb's lax policy to cancel for any reason. 3. Guests should abide by the cancellation policy and be allowed to use the "credit" toward a future stay. This is what the airlines are doing. 4. Guests should use their travel insurance first. As one host noted, "Risks of travel are managed by travel insurances and not by hosts."
Airbnb's overall lack of support for its Hosts is appalling. We supply the backbone of your business model. Without hosts, Airbnb would be nothing. As the coronavirus criss will likely continue beyond April 14, Airbnb must stop throwing hosts "under the bus" and develop a response in which all parties work together. One host recommends that Airbnb offer its own travel insurance program. If guests don't buy it, they must adhere to the cancellation policy that they agreed to. Rates and cancellation policies work together. "If hosts had not had a ‘Strict’ option, they would have sensibly put their prices at the higher ‘buffer level’.—says another host.
This is not about selfish Airbnb hosts; hosting is our livelihood and most of us go out of our way to make sure our guests have a 5-star experience and as a result, our good stewardship has been essential to the the Airbnb brand.
PLEASE SHOW YOUR LEADERSHIP AND ADDRESS THIS NOW. (I included the link to this forum.)