Furious with Airbnb for lying about Covid 'incident' being in our village!

[Katy189]

I see that a few other people have mentioned this on other threads, but I feel this deserves a thread of its own - and I am making a complaint to Airbnb about it. All of our guests for March and April have cancelled, specifically because they have been informed personally that there has been a Covid 'incident' in the village where our cottage is. I have searched online, and spoken to friends and relatives who live there, and no , there has not been an incident as far as I can tell, and in fact Scotland generally has had low numbers compared to England ( 6 deaths by yesterday compared to about 350 in England?) 

If they put out an obviously generic message saying there have been incidents in the UK or Scotland, fine, but they have lied and said there were incidents in Freuchie, a small village, which gives a totally false impression of risk. I suppose this is carelessness, but the effect is malicious. They must change this wording in any future messages, and rectify the damage done, as this message has been directly cited in our cancellation messages from guests. At the very least, it is neglectful of hosts and guests, and I am furious.

I know it is an awful time, and was expecting cancellations, but why make it so much worse?

I contacted them two days ago about this, to get information as I didn't even know it was generic and if we don't know that, how can the guests? They have never replied - tonight I phoned and at first the rep denied any message went out, and then he said it was up to me to tell guests it isn't true - not good enough. I said I want to make a formal complaint and they are supposed to be getting back to me.

I know thing will get worse before they get better, but we could have made a few hundred pounds now while it isn't prevalent. Grrrr! My blood is boiling! 

Maybe part of the problem is they think in terms of 'cities', but in a small place with a few hundred folk in the country, it is a very different picture, people could be safe for some weeks.

What can we do to stop them lying and scaring off our guests?

[Maria1502]

I have posted on several threads about this very issue.  Thank you for articulating it- my rural area doesn't even qualify as more than a zip code, but yet I am getting guests canceling because Airbnb is sending them the same scary messages you described, and there are no "incidents" in my general area, much less the zip code.
I find it likewise infuriating that Airbnb has not communicated with or copied these hosts whose guests are canceling.  Thank you for posting!

[Katy189]

thanks Maria! It is only tonight that I realised it wasn't just us - we are completely left out of the loop. I spent ages searching for it in the news - hope things get better soon, both with CV and Airbnb's diplomacy and communication! xx

[Helen350]

@Katy189  See thread "Guest Trying to Book House but Airbnb isn't Allowing Help"

[Thomas977]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/coronavirus-airbnb-hosts-angry-at-refunds.html

[Katy189]

 thanks Thomas, interesting perspective compared to Homeaway....

[Katy189]

 thanks Thomas, interesting perspective compared to other companies...

[Michael-And-Yash0]

Here is VRBO's (an alternate platform) COVID policy - which first encourages guests to seek relief through their credit cards etc and only then offers only a 50% refund...AirBNB needs to stop overriding Host agreements!

VRBO COVID19 Policy

What you can do after booking

• If you are currently on vacation in an area affected by travel restrictions, please check your trip details for safety information and local emergency numbers, and follow recommendations from local authorities.
• If you need to cancel or change an upcoming reservation due to travel restrictions, you can do so within your traveler account. If you are making changes outside the cancellation policy window, please contact the property owner or manager to discuss their cancellation and refund policies. If you do not see a button to cancel your reservation, please contact the property owner or manager directly for assistance. 
• If you purchased travel insurance, contact the insurance company directly with any questions or claims processing.
• If you booked through a credit card, contact your financial institution to see if travel insurance is provided.
• If you need assistance booking alternative accommodations, please contact Customer Support for further assistance by clicking Contact Us below.

What we are doing as part of our COVID-19 emergency policy

• A full refund of our fees: We are refunding 100% of the money we make through traveler service fees when you must cancel a trip due to COVID-19, whether the cancellation is government-mandated or because you’re prioritizing the health of your family and loved ones. This is in effect for all stays booked before March 13 with a stay night between March 13 and April 30. You don’t have to do anything to collect the refund, it will happen automatically over the next two weeks. No need to call and confirm.
• Minimum of 50% refund: We have notified partners to abide by our COVID-19 emergency standards, which set a 50% refund minimum if different stay dates cannot be found, in order to avoid penalties in our marketplace. This is applicable for all canceled stays with a night that falls between March 13 and April 30, 2020, even on trips that are outside the set cancellation policy. 
• Credit for future dates: We are asking partners to offer a full credit for different stay dates within the next year (at no additional cost). If you are unwilling or unable to accept the credit, we advise working with our partner on an acceptable refund, and we have incentivized our partners to go above and beyond their standard policies. The more our partners are able to do for travelers, the more Vrbo will reward them with future bookings. 

What we don’t cover
Please be aware that our Book with Confidence Guarantee is designed to protect you from fraudulent listings and misrepresentation. It does not cover cancellations due to events outside of our control such as disease or government actions.

[Katy189]

thanks, that is interesting - they dont appear to care at all about us hosts....

[Gilly17]

The same thing happened to me ....cancellations due to 'the incident in my local village'....I googled it..there was none!

We should start a revolution/strike if they extend the complete refund date. 

They are a HUGE multinational company, it is amoral that they should make the 'little guy' pay. They are bound to have insurance ,which should cover this !

  I don't think that I will survive this year and will probably lose my house that I have been trying so hard to hang on to since being hit by the last recession!

[Katy189]

that's a shame, I feel for you - yes we dont have any voice - I am still waiting to hear back from the manager after my phone call last week....if they arraying hotel chains they have money! I think they should have made it 50/50 between us and the guests....

[Virginia539]

I am wondering if anyone ran into this problem: a guest wanted to cancel because they said my beach town was still shut down and they had wanted to go out to bars. I told them the town actually was not shut down, that the beach was open, the restaurants and bars were seating indoors and had live music, my community pool was open. We went back and forth and they contacted Airbnb and eventually told Airbnb that someone in their party had covid - then proceeded to provide documentation. However, I’m about three hundred percent sure that this was documentation for another person who was never going to go on this trip in the first place. I’m asking their chat help person (who has no problem getting back to me instantaneously when they were hounding me for refunds) what system Airbnb has in place to verify that the diagnosed person actually was going to be a guest. The chat help person said they could send me a feedback form to voice my concerns. Omg. The guest lied about this and while the documentation might be legitimate, the person with the diagnosis was not ever going on the trip. This is a huge loophole that cost me about $400 that I won’t be able to recoup.

I also think it’s an incredible repeated coincidence that whenever Airbnb is hounding me to give someone a refund that goes against my cancellation policies that you asked me to set - Airbnb support can talk with me for hours and respond immediately. But whenever I ask a serous question that exposes the flaws, weakness and problems with your policies and procedures, I’m put on hold for literally two hours, or all of these other things come up that can’t allow for quick responses by customer service. Very VERY coincidental.