Hello Community!
First, I hope everyone is safe and trying to cope with the best way possible during these extraordinary and unprecedented times we are living in.
As we all understand by now Covid-19 will hit-hard the travel industry for many months to follow.
Even when things will start getting better there is a long way ahead to restore confidence in travelling. This does not only depend from the country we are living but also from all the other countries that we had arriving guests.
I believe that, like me, other hosts if not all of you have invested a lot of money and energy in order to offer excellent service to your guests. Now we are left with no or minimum income stream and also without a safety net. I have always considered Airbnb as a great platform and that its community mechanisms would have worked to ensure that as hosts (and essentially partners) in such times were protected too.
No one expected this to happened and certainly rushed decisions were made.
Airbnb decided to override our cancellation policies and offer a full refund to guests for the period of 14th of March – 14th of April. That left me as a host exposed and made me think that I had no support mechanism.Whatever is done is done and no matter how bitter that decision was I respected it and took the loss . Even without the announcement of Airbnb I would have probably offered full refund my self (for March and April reservations) or the option of a discount / special offer when they would have decided to book again that will equal the amount of the 50% cancellation fee.
Now its time for hosts to feel that they are respected from Airbnb .
Everyone had the time to reflect by now and with a clear mindset its time to structure and implement a better plan for the difficult months ahead of us.
That is why I am writing this suggestion before any other announcements from Airbnb are made.
Most probably someone else suggested it but I want to have my input as well .
Personally, for the majority of my properties I am already fully booked for the summer and my cancellation policy has always been strict . Before the announcement from Airbnb I encouraged my guests not to cancel but to postpone their trip later in the year (and that was accepted by all guests) . But when Airbnb announced that everyone is entitled refunds then no other guest wanted to reschedule their trips and made the choice of the full refund . I understand that all airlines cancelled flights until further notice, so the possibility of rescheduling trips might have been difficult .
But there are solutions for hosts to ensure that we maintain a certain cash flow , support the platform and to encourage travelling when all is over.
I want this to be in writing when I declare that I do not wish for Airbnb again to override my cancellation policy after April 14th . Instead of that I believe that Airbnb has the means to issue credit vouchers for future reservations that guests wish to cancel in order to be used for booking the same property within a specific time frame (let’s say 12 months) . There is no better way to achieve a certain level of 'satisfaction' for all parties involved .
In this way when a guest decides to cancel :
- he/she gets a credit voucher with the total amount of their reservation- that they already paid to Airbnb that can be used for booking the same property within a specific time frame
- the host gets the 50% entitled by its strict cancellation policy (or what ever he/she are entitled by their cancellation policy or -my personal opinion- the BEST scenario is when Airbnb decides due to extenuating circumstances that all confirmed reservations so far and until the pandemic is over will be treated in the same manner (50% equal percentage refund to hosts ) regardless of cancellation policy) . However it should be noted that the host will have control of his/her pricing strategy and if there is a difference in the voucher and the actual amount of the future reservation (lets say because the guest wants to book in the high season) this should be paid from the guest.
- Airbnb can still maintain its service fee .
This is not something new , this is what most airlines are doing now when they cancel flights .
I was to travel in Portugal on the 15th of April and my flight got cancelled so now I have a 400 euros voucher to redeem for my next flight within the next 12 months .
Some people might say that such action is selfish in such horrible times . I will not accept that and i wont even debate anyone that claims such thing - what is actually needed now is to find the right balance. Other people will argue that this might have a minimum short term benefit or does not make up for actual losses of income. I disagree in some extent . This will provide the motivation needed so that hosts will continue doing short term holiday letting instead of deciding to rent long term in order to survive .
Surely its for the best interest of Airbnb in order to keep its hosts and ensure that guests will return to book their holidays from this platform.
Lets not say to our guests 'farewell 'but 'see you later when everyone is safe' .
I hope that all the above will be taken into consideration and that I can have your thoughts and feedback on that .
Together we can do so much more, so feel free to post any other suggestions.
As hosts we have to realize that due to this situation we already have and we will suffer in the future tremendous losses that cannot be compensated . But we need some kind of support and this is the time for Airbnb to show us that hosts matter .
This is the time that we all need to be an actual community by helping each other .
Be safe , stay healthy
Maria P. ,
from Cyprus (a small island in the Mediterranean Sea) & a superhost since 2015.
March 30th 2020
