Let me start by saying that any support for hosts is a fantastic gesture and airbnb should be in no way obliged to do such a thing. Secondly having called them yesterday they loosely implied that the details of the scheme were not yet finalised...however...
as it stands it appears to completely discriminate against pretty much everyone and only really benefits those hosts who have perhaps been misleading and encouraged guests not to cancel on the basis that things will have returned to normal by the time of their visit
like many others all of my bookings have cancelled well in advance due to covid-19, the next 3 months are usually my busiest time and the calendar is empty and this has a serious impact on my income and welfare.
Guests who have emailed me about the situation have received honest answers and have rightly cancelled accordingly. Living in a tourist hotspot my guests are all international travellers so of course are going to cancel well in advance of the 5 days stated in my moderate policy
So there is no benefit to me at all with this scheme, and as i say, the only true beneficiaries with similar listings are the dishonest ones
of course this is small print to limit the cost of the scheme to airbnb and obviously we can’t expect them to suffer financially, so why don’t they offer a smaller amount and extend it to all cancellations due to covid-19.... to quote the advertising strap line of one of our larger supermarket chains in the UK... ‘EVERY LITTLE HELPS’.
I only use airbnb and have done for years, because i like the community spirit, so lets see some!