We had the same experience. A guest who booked in January 2020 for May of this year cancelled on March 22 and stated very clearly: "Due to the Covid 19 we feel it is prudent to stay put." Since this guest met all of the criteria stated by Airbnb, then we thought that we would be eligible--but under the Covid-19 payment category for hosts, it stated "Not applicable."
We didn't understand this, and so last month--yes, nearly one month ago--we wrote to Airbnb to ask why. Not long ago, I was actually boasting about Airbnb's great responses to our previous inquiries. Not so in this case. The second we asked about getting some money out of them, we were put on the loooong waiting list for a response.
Well, this morning, their agent finally got back to us. First, he said that we were not eligible because (he thought) the guest had a check-in date of March 12 and that "the only dates which are covered by our Covid-19 Extenuating Circumstance Policy are bookings with check-in dates between March 14 - August 15, 2020."
Note those dates here: March 14 - August 15, 2020, as they will become relevant in a minute.
I then pointed to him that no, the guest's check-in date was not in March but was rather in May. That should have done it, but nope, he wasn't done with his mistakes. He then came back with:
"A reservation must be placed before March 14, and have the check-in date between March 14 - August 15 in order for it to be eligible," and claimed that this made us ineligible.
I then had to point out to him that the reservation had been in January, and I asked him why he was responding when he clearly hadn't even read the information.
So now, we have a booking made in January, for a reservation during Airbnb's supposed period of reimbursement, that was cancelled by a guest who clearly stated that she was cancelling because of Covid-19.
That should do it, right?
Think again. This time the agent came back with a completely new story--and it's a doozy:
"During the time that the guest cancelled, the only dates which are covered by our policy are reservations with check-in dates of March until April 15, 2020. If the guest had cancelled on March 30th, then you would be eligible for a 25% support payout."
So fellow hosts, you see what happened here? After Airbnb announcing that the eligibility period would be from March 14 to August 15, and after this agent stating the exact same thing in his original response to us, he completely changed his story.
Now, according to him, it is no longer a five-month window during which you can claim support. Now it is only two weeks--and oops, sorry host, you just missed that two-week window by a few days....
Anyway, we all know now that this whole "pay hosts some support" scheme was not sincere. I guess it was just a propaganda scheme designed to fool the media after word got out that Airbnb was giving guests the right to cancel at any time, regardless of how hosts felt about this.
The funny thing, the amount we were asking for really wasn't much. But I'm amazed at the lengths that Airbnb went to make sure that we did NOT get paid. It's really disappointing, and has left a sour taste in our mouths.