And, we're done. Bye AirBNB

[Rebecca-and-Mike0]

We listed our beloved home on @Airbnb a few years ago, and while the extra money was helpful, it didn't really yield that much more than what we would have gotten renting it out on the normal property market.  All in all, it's been a positive experience (with the exception of @Airbnb plus , which was a total disaster and mismanaged). 

We now find ourselves shocked and disappointed by the total lack of care from AirBNB, as we all try to navigate through this challenging new world. 

After losing thousands of dollars in bookings, in just a few hours, we are done and putting our apartment on the rental market. Never to be listed on @Airbnb again. We don't trust the platform, and now realise that they really don't care about hosts.

I'm wondering how many of you are doing the same? Will you weather the virus storm, or are you also out? 

We are in Melbourne, Australia - superhosts, who have only ever had glowing reviews. Not that any of that hard work matters anymore... 

[Huma0]

@Wendy1071  Yes, you're right, I don't think it would apply to me, but maybe useful for other hosts with whole units.

However, I think the most important part here is cut off. Every insurance policy has a bunch of small print, where it lists certain circumstances where the insurance is invalid, e.g. natural disasters, and a pandemic may well be one of those.

In the last few days, I have seen a lot of hosts posting how Airbnb guests can claim on their travel insurance instead of getting refunds from Airbnb. While this might be true in some cases, I believe that most travel insurance won't cover something like a pandemic.

So, while I am upset at Airbnb, I think it's wrong to assume that in most cases the guest is going to get their money back. It does rile me though when they refund guest who WILL get their money back from other sources.

One of my guests was called home by her university and they said from the outset they would cover any lost accommodation costs. The guest confirmed to Airbnb that was the case and that she wanted to pay me. They refunded her anyway. Now she can't get the reimbursement from the university in order to pay me because she has no proof of payment. 

[Wendy1071]

@Huma0  What a mess!  I hope things work out for you and your family.  Good luck.

[Huma0]

@Wendy1071  thank you!

We will find a way through. I am better off than others. I still have a roof over my head.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Huma0 

My landlord insurance covers lost rental but only where such lost rental is due to  physical damage to the property.

I am sure others may be different

[Erin443]

You gave every right to be upset! Refunding money for time already spent in your home is theft. THAT is inexcusable. I'm so sorry and I hope you get a refund much sooner than later.

[Huma0]

@Wendy1071 

Just to clarify how Airbnb do this... They minus the refund from your existing payouts. Seeing as it was taking them so long to process the payments from my long-term guests, who are paying monthly, it was easy for them to simply deduct these refunds from money I was already owed from other stays. 

So, one guest's monthly payment is taking a week to process for some reason, so they deduct the refund from the cancelling guest from that.

[Raymond178]

I have discovered Airbnb have made up a policy to refund guests if they contacted them directly before 14 March.  They will refund the guest and it is not covered by the Extenuating circumstances policy and has not been communicated to hosts. i only discovered that this morning a week after the guest cancelled and Airbnb is contacting me to advise they will fully refund the guest even though they were not entitled to it.  Airbnb are making up new policies to keep guests happy at the expense of hosts because they know we cannot do anything and that guests are more important as that's where the revenue comes from.  Airbnb is no better than Uber in how it treats hosts.  

[Huma0]

@Raymond178 

Exactly. Right now, as far as I can tell, Airbnb will refund any guest who asks for it. They are even refunding guests who do not ask for it!  They will ignore their own policies (including the terms of the new extenuating circumstances) in order to keep every guest happy, regardless of the circumstances or timeline.

So, it's like telling a customer at a restaurant that they can have their meal for free. The customer of course says, "Great! This is the best restaurant ever. I will definitely come again." What they don't tell the customer (or the staff) is that they will not be paying the staff that prepared, cooked and served that meal. They will deduct the cost from their wages.

For anyone who says it is not illegal, sorry, but it is. I'm not talking about extenuating circumstances and refunding guests who are covered by that. I am talking about Airbnb refunding guests whose bookings have nothing to do with the extenuating circumstances policy and then saying, "Oops, yes we knew that was wrong, but suck it up."

[Erin443]

Thank you Wendy! I'm not thrilled at having gone from 95% occupancy to zero, but I'm not sure what everyone is expecting Airbnb to do? I think their new policy going forward from March 14th is very host-friendly. The talk about a class-action suit has me scratching my head. Airbnb didn't create this situation.

[Susan17]

@Wendy1071  @Erin443 

Airbnb cannot possibly be  'making money'.

You're right - they're not. And they never have been. (The top brass were hauled before the Board just a few months ago, to answer serious questions about what the hell all the funds are being blown on) And unfortunately for Airbnb, investors have become extremely unenamoured in recent times with cash-burning outfits (particularly tech giant cash-burning outfits) with no clear or credible route to profitability, and the company is now just frantically pulling every PR stunt possible in a desperate attempt to sweeten the pot and curry guests' favour in futile efforts to ensure future business - entirely at hosts' expense. The unethical, unbalanced and quite possibly illegal ways in which they have conducted their operations throughout this COVID crisis, will surely go down in history as Airbnb's Waterloo.

"Both parties are earning nothing on cancelled trips"

Absolutely incorrect. In a very high percentage of cancellations, Airbnb's service fees are being refunded to the guests in the form of limited-time travel coupons, many of which will never be used, leaving piles of lovely cash in Airbnb's coffers. Additionally, by purposely failing to put in place a comprehensive travel insurance option for guests, thereby allowing them to take their own responsibility, for their own travel disruptions - as other platforms do - and instead, forcing hosts to act as guests' free travel insurance providers, Airbnb earns a wealth of goodwill, customer loyalty, brand image promotion and repeat business for itself... all intangible assets, with a very real, intrinsic and lucrative benefit for the company's finances. So let's not feel too sorry for them, when innumerable thousands of decent, hardworking hosts are losing their livelihoods and being left with nothing, solely as a result of an unethical, potentially unlawful, moveable-feast policy, that shouldn't even exist.

[Erin443]

Hi @Susan17 , thank you for your kind and informative reply. Having read more hosts' responses after I left mine, I was appalled to find that guests were being refunded 100% of fees even after having stayed at the host's home for a time. That's simply theft! And now discovering that Airbnb is giving "credits" instead of cash refunds, yeah ... you're absolutely right. It's sleazy and inexcusable to leave the hosts holding the bag. I appreciate you taking the time to give me a broader view. Stay healthy and safe, Erin

[Susan17]

And thank you too, @Erin443, for having the thoughtfulness and compassion to consider the perspective (and plight) of your fellow hosts who are being made to bear the crippling brunt of this travesty, and thank you also for recognising the injustices that are being visited upon so many as a result of this repulsive policy. We're not selfish, irresponsible, evil monsters who couldn't give two hoots about the devastation this horrible virus is wreaking, and the lives it's stealing - as some would have you believe. We're just ordinary, decent people, trying to battle for our livelihoods, our incomes, our homes and our families, who are being abused and exploited - and in thousands of cases like @Huma0 's, straight-out robbed - solely for the PR and financial benefit of a greedy, duplicitous multi-billion dollar global corporation. (A global corporation that, if it truly had the deep, heartfelt care and regard for the public health that it claims to have, would surely have cancelled every upcoming booking, in every affected region, with immediate effect)

Wishing you and yours the very best, and hope you stay safe too.

[Erin443]

@Susan17

I'm sad to see judgment passed on hosts - some commenters here have this weird, macho approach, like "You gotta be tough to be a host!" and "This will separate the wheat from the chaff!" And other hosts smugly commenting that this was never meant to make a living for a host. Who are they to say this? And why is suffering 100% cancellation making you a "wimp" when you express anxiety about it? This isn't the US Marine boot camp, and no one has to be "tough" and "macho to make it."  It's an extra income for some, and a livelihood for others. It feels very smug to pass judgment for those who are really counting on this income.

[Wendy1071]

@Susan17 Hosts can argue the finer points of the platform's cancellation policy and what Airbnb did or didn't do to protect them.  My aim isn't to become defender of all things Airbnb.  I don't have the facts to dispute or agree with your claim that  'a very high percentage of cancellations, Airbnb's service fees are being refunded to the guests in the form of limited-time travel coupons'.   I'm not sure how you know this or that these types of discussions are helpful to hosts in any way.  From what I see in this forum, hosts are (rightly) panicked over expected earnings they were relying on and which have now been cancelled.

In the Toronto area, many people and companies have actually bought properties not with sound economics based on the real estate markets of the area but relying solely on an app (Airbnb) or similar apps to bring in profitable and above market income.   It's a form of speculation and like all speculations, it's all good while the trend is going up but when a black swan hits,  people aren't prepared or able to suffer the loss nor do they want to take responsibility for the decisions they made that got them where they are.

Other hosts are relying on Airbnb for income to make ends meet and get the monthly bills paid.    Airbnb has been a godsend to many of us to assist in this way, myself included, however when something like a worldwide pandemic occurs, disrupting every aspect of every person's daily lives, expecting Airbnb not to do something other than what they've done is a little naive.  As is expecting them to backstop lost income from cancelled reservations.  They are being blind sided like everyone else trying to figure this out.  I'm looking for other ways to replace the income or scaling back on some of things I would have done with that income.  Hosts in this position would do better to use the same ingenuity that got them to sign on to Airbnb in the first place to figure out alternatives while this blows over, which could be months and months.  The Covid 19 Pandemic is only in its initial stages in most of the world and it'll be months after that we collectively recover from it.  People will only then recover in various other aspects of their lives and have the confidence to start travelling again.  I see a year of disruption easily.

Hosts in the former group of more speculatative investments should talk to their banks to see if they can get some relief by way of deferred mortgage payments. Putting the rental on a long term lease may be another answer.  Rental vacancies rate in the Toronto area is less than 1% and hosts with units in concentrated areas like this may be more successful than others.  Other hosts may want to sell some of their real estate holdings.

Everyone has a unique situation and this whole **bleep** world is in an unpredictably fragile state.  Hosts coming to this chat room to unload on Airbnb, and threaten them with class actions etc., isn't productive and isn't going to help them.  

[Thomas977]

Message to Airbnb management: I expect, demand and plan on the basis that Airbnb will honor the current Covid-19 policy !!! :

«The host’s cancellation policy will apply as usual to reservations made after March 14, 2020, and to reservations made on or before March 14, 2020 with check-in dates after April 14, 2020.»