[Updated March 25th] Extending our series of global listening sessions this week

[Airbnb]

We know it’s a really difficult time for our community. Whether it’s disruptions to everyday life, your hosting income, or concerns about the safety of you and your family, the coronavirus has affected us all.

We also know how hard this pandemic has hit Airbnb hosts.  While we have been working behind the scenes to develop programs to help you, we want to open more lines of communication to gather and leverage your feedback and ideas. We’ve hosted over 20 listening sessions in the last three weeks, and we’re scheduling ten more in partnership with our community managers here to listen, ensure your feedback is taken into consideration, and give you ways to connect directly with us.

What you can expect: Our team is working around the clock to find ways we can support you through this time. And we want your feedback as we evaluate what will be most impactful. 

More than anything, we want you to know that you’re not alone. You’re part of a global community with all of us here at Airbnb and tens of thousands of fellow hosts.  So we hope you’ll join us. 

Here’s the schedule:

Please register for the meeting directly in the meeting links below (instructions to join a zoom meeting here).
Due to system limitations, this will be on a first come first serve basis. Registration will close 24 hours before the call.

Wednesday March 25th

Italian language listening session at 5:00PM CET. Meeting link here

Spanish language, hosted from Spain listening session at 5:00PM CET. Meeting link here 

French language listening session at 5:00PM CET. Meeting link here 

English language, hosted from US listening session at 5:00PM EST. Meeting link here

Thursday March 26th

Spanish language, hosted from Mexico listening session at 5:00PM CST. Meeting link here

Portuguese language, hosted from Brazil listening session at 5:00PM BRT. Meeting link here

Korean language listening session at 5:00PM KST. Meeting link here

Japanese language listening session at 5:00PM JST. Meeting link here

Friday March 27th

German language listening session at 5:00PM CET. Meeting link here

English language, hosted from UK listening session at 5:00PM GMT. Meeting link here

Thank you to everyone for sharing your thoughts, ideas, and feedback so far. If you have any other constructive ideas on how we can come together please do share them below. 

If you would like to talk generally about COVID19, please visit our dedicated CC board here, which our task force will continue to monitor. 

[Huma0]

I know because guests are telling me...

[Katrina79]

@AirbnbThank you for this post and your dedication to hosts and guests. From what I see, guests have been taken care of. They should for the most part be happy and willing to book again in the future. Hosts are very upset though. I have one suggestion I would like to see: allow hosts to cancel into the future as far as they see fit, penalty free. Hosts are scrambling to scrape by and minimize losses to hopefully cover costs. Many hosts will need to find traditional month-month leases until travel is allowed, and borders open up. It is causing unnecessary stress upon the hosts to worry about cancellation penalties. This is one way to take care of your hosts and help them stay afloat during this trying time. 

[Juan63]

@Katrina79 Penalty free cancellations would be the bottom of the list on how to fix this problem with hosts.

[Colin-and-Myra0]

This is hurting them financially too (although not as much as hosts) but they've got to be looking at that heading into an IPO. They can't keep refunding their service fees and stay profitable as a company so while they may extend it once I can't see them continuing to do it month after month. I think with China they only extended it once.

[Allison393]

Dude, they're not profitable now. 

[Paulina238]

@Airbnb airbnb should be aware that if as hosts we stop receiving money our houses are neglected, they will not be the same beautiful stays that they see in photos because we will not have to maintain them.

[Billy173]

I agree with @Steve2542.

I live in a university town, and major university events provide me the majority of my income on airbnb. As a result of the university canceling the graduation and "mom's weekend," I am due to lose a couple of thousand dollars, and airbnb expects me to eat these costs entirely?! 

The claim is that I have the right to open up those dates and keep booking the room out to other people, but this is ludicrous. There's no way I will be getting any new booking requests for months to come. And, since the campus is shut down entirely, our town has lost almost 40,000 residents. It's not like I can find long term tenants in this situation, either.

I think that airbnb out to compensate hosts out of the supposedly massive insurance policy that guarantees all of our bookings, and that all of the fees go into. Or, if they get government bailout money, that should go to hosts, not the staff.

I have already had a guest request a refund for the middle of May! I have no intention of offering such a refund, and I will be outraged if airbnb believes that I should.

[Walana0]

With the extenuating circumstances, I understand the need to allow for more flexibility in our cancellation policies. However, like many here, I'm frustrated by the lack of support and the careless/cavalier way in which Airbnb seems to be selectively choosing how it communicates, mainly to the detriment of hosts. 

1) Please do not say that the cancellation is because of "the situation affecting XYZ town"(like @Steve2542 mentions above as well). Call it like it is and say it's because of COVID-19. Why add unnecessary panic?

2) Why are guests given the choice to blanket cancel because of COVID-19, while hosts are being PENALIZED for trying to be responsible and cancelling reservations as new developments rapidly occur? My county (Sonoma County) just announced the closure of ALL county parks. I'm trying to do my part to keep my community safe by cancelling existing reservations, and was appalled to find that there were ZERO options for me as a host to indicate the circumstances. And of course, when calling, there is no support. 

3) Why are you still trying to encourage people to book stays in neighboring counties when there are explicit shelter-in-places or mandates to STAY HOME? This seems to be both irresponsible and moreso, inconsistent with your messaging of allowing guests to cancel for safety reasons. Airbnb even now has a new option to find places to work from home, away from home on its homepage. 

Airbnb isn't a budding startup anymore; if you want to be a superbrand, please start acting like one and treating hosts with more thoughtfulness and care. @Airbnb @Lizzie 

[Sharon1014]

@Airbnb  I have booked in for the US session on Wednesday.  Hosts can download Zoom and then put it into your calendar.  There is a link in the accompanying email to submit questions to  kristal.haynes@airbnb.com

Here are the questions/email I've sent

1. Why, of all the options available to it, including credits against future re-bookings instead of full refunds, did Airbnb choose the one that causes the greatest possible damage to hosts?

2. Is Airbnb intending to extend the EC cancellation policy beyond April 14?

3. How much host inventory has been lost since Airbnb decided to override host cancellation policies to issue full refunds?

4. What is the exact plan of action to support hosts (if such a thing actually exists)?

5. What is the timeframe for implementing this plan (dates please)?

6. Will Airbnb offer guests CFAR travel insurance going forward, if so, when?

7. Will Airbnb waive host fees and if so for how long, how much and starting when?

8. Will Airbnb give all guests the option to book for 10% less as a trade off against non-refundable bookings (regardless of reason)? If so, when?

9. Is there anything else Airbnb is considering that might assist hosts? If so what, and when?

I would ask a collection of other questions, like why Airbnb USA is wasting precious personnel resources lobbying Congress, when this company is supposed to be global, and whatever happens in the US will have nil benefit to hosts anywhere else in world. I would also like to ask why Airbnb calls us “partners” when clearly we are involved in an autocratic dictatorship. I'd also like to ask why Airbnb thinks we are “in this together” and a “community” when this is clearly untrue. Airbnb hosts are on our own, that has been made 100% clear to us. But is there any point to these additional questions? Damage is done. The evidence is in. All hosts want to know now is what Airbnb corporate is going to do to fix it.

Other hosts, please send in your own questions, but keep it real and let's try not to get side-tracked into the history of events.  Damage is done.  We now just need to know the forward plan, in detail.

[Russell49]

LOL...AirBnB, a global community....of the USA. hahaha

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Russell49 and @Sharon1014 ,

Sorry for the delay to the Australia & NZ session due Friday - we are holding more sessions next week so please stay tuned to this thread for the new slot and sign up.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Russell49]

Thanks for your consideration, but my enthusiasm for this company is almost nil. I'll ride out the CV era and see what our next decision is. I am not sure it is a good idea to remain loyal to a company who doesn't have the host's back and takes this long to figure out if they should do anything at all.

[Joyce0]

When will Airbnb begin offering guests Travel Insurance during the booking process? Another well-known STR booking platform (which mentioning by name seems to have gotten my post blocked) does and it would be a way to avoid overriding hosts' cancellation policies. 

[Ana564]

I've been an Airbnb host in Spain for over 3 years. When I saw the numbers in Malaga, Spain were climbing dramatically, I contacted my guests 3 days before their arrival to apprise them of the situation and offered a no penalty cancellation, if they felt they did not want to take up their accommodation. Who wants to go on holiday with all the national monuments etc shutting down? Thank goodness - within a week we were on lockdown. How awful would it have been for them. I subsequently contacted Airbnb telling them I sincerely hoped they would not be benefiting from the situation and would be refunding their commission as well. They quoted me the terms and conditions about 4 times, by which time I lost my patience and asked for a manager. Said manager suavely promised to escalate it and get back to me with a response.  On the 13th March. Still waiting. My guest is still waiting too.. Very disappointed in you Airbnb! 

[Paulina238]

@Airbnb  @Lizzie Do you already have the link?