ABB Cancellations

[Bronwen3]

It's one thing if as a host you decide to cancel.  But my situation is that ABB just cancelled a reservation from the Wuhan region, refunded the guest, and did not pay me.  It was a ten day reservation so I have lost over £1000.  This is very unfair as the guest should have travel insurance which covers this sort of situation.  ABB should compensate hosts in any event if they decide to cancel the reservation as we have no say in it. I have complained to ABB who keep just telling me the same thing about the Extenuating Circumstances policy.  I am very unhappy about this, it is very sad for those affected in Wuhan, but I just don't see why it is down to the host to compensate and not down to ABB.  They say they are simply a platform, but this is patently not true.  They handle the whole process, deal with complaints, supply insurance etc. etc. and should honour the booking rental if they make it. They also encourage instant booking which I do, which means I cant vet the booking in advance.  Perhaps I should change this, and reject all enquiries from China and Hong Kong going forward since I cant possibly know if ABB will honour the booking going forward.  Has anyone else faced this problem?

[Kath9]

@Bronwen3, there is a whole thread about the coronavirus here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/ABB-s-policy-towards-endemic-disease-is-insane/td-p/1221...

@Joy298had the opposite problem, i.e. being unable to cancel guests from the Wuhan region. Wuhan and several other districts have been quarantined by the Chinese government; therefore, people cannot enter or leave. It sounds like your guests would have had no choice but to cancel their plans, meaning that they would have met the extenuating circumstances policy. According to Airbnb terms of service:

9.2 Guests can cancel a confirmed booking at any time pursuant to the Listing’s cancellation policy set by the Host, and Airbnb Payments will refund the amount of the Total Fees due to the Guest in accordance with such cancellation policy. Unless extenuating circumstances exist, any portion of the Total Fees due to the Host under the applicable cancellation policy will be remitted to the Host by Airbnb Payments pursuant to the Payments Terms.

As hosts, we have agreed to the terms of service. Frankly, I'd be happy that Airbnb did this. Going forward, yes, you could decline booking requests from guests from affected areas.