[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. 

[Lizzie]

Hey @Paulina238,

Nice to meet you. The links are on the original post here. You need to register on the link (keep in mind the links close 24 hours before the meetup). 

Hopefully you found these before my reply and I hope you enjoy the session.

Lizzie

[Allison393]

At a pre-crisis valuation of $31billion, Airbnb can reimburse guests if their reservation falls under the acceptable guidelines of the always evolving extenuating circumstances policy as long as that reimbursement comes from Airbnb's bank.  Not at the expense of the hosts.  In Brian's own words, 50% of hosts rely on their Airbnb income to pay their rent or mortgage.  We've personally lost $12k and it's hit us hard. If half of all hosts worldwide lost half of what we lost, and Airbnb paid those refunds to guests (instead of making hosts do it), it would cost Airbnb less than $2million or 6/10ths of 1% of their valuation.  So why put all those hosts at risk for basically the loose change found under Brian's couch? Especially when Airbnb will likely received hundreds of millions in federal funds.  Despite the letter Brian sent which provided no immediate, significant relief to hosts. ( Deferred taxes and fees are not significant.). Support your hosts Airbnb, because without them, you're just another website. Oh, and that public offering?  Try it with angry hosts.

[Juan63]

I missed it .....wah!!!!

[Stephanie]

Don't worry @Juan63 we will be continuing the series with additional sessions so please, watch this space!

[Russell49]

I have had guests try to get a refund based off of events that I have nothing to do with-get post poned. Wouldn't it seem more practical to give them 1 chance to move their booking instead of immediately give them a refund based off of events that the guest has no business with? If a rainy day happens does AirBnB think that any resorts on the beach would refund them?

Most of the issues I have experienced seem to be one of the travel insurance variety-not justified for hosts to refund as of yet.

[Roderick8]

Administrator,

AirBnB should stop pretending its interests are aligned with the hosts. They are not. Whether it is the 15% commission charges, dictating virtually all policies or throwing us under the bus, it is quite clear to the more sophisticated owners that AirBnB like Booking.com is just a necessary evil in a duopoly dominated market.

AirBnB has raised $4.8 billion to date and its VC investors have very deep pockets. So offering full refunds leaves it with plenty of cash and cements its reputation. Throwing the hosts under the bus makes perfect sense. It is the logical thing to do because the hosts have no real alternative to AirBnB.

I know exactly how this went down at your California headquarters. Manager A: "Man, we are getting a lot of flack for crucifying the hosts on the Cross of Good Public Relations". Manager B: "Yeah, let's hold town meetings, pretend to care, and put on a good show. Then we can go back to preparing for the IPO".