Airbnb penalizing hosts with vaccination requirements in house rules.

[Kim937]

I’m issuing a word of warning to other host’s who have a requirement that guests be vaccinated. Even though I have a vaccine requirement in my house rules, that it’s stated in the first paragraph of my listing description and that it’s reiterated in the automated message guests receive at booking, a guest auto-booked who’s not vaccinated. We’re now within my moderate cancellation policy window, but they want to cancel and get a full refund. I contacted Airbnb. I received false information with the first customer service agent which isn’t surprising as it’s a common occurrence. (i.e. I’m not allowed to have a vaccine requirement per Airbnb rules because it’s discriminatory). Here is Airbnb’s own language regarding vaccine requirements.

"Hosts can set their own house rules, including specifying in their listing description if they require guests to be vaccinated or recently tested for COVID-19, unless prohibited under applicable laws or regulations."

I then spoke with a manager who informed me he would grant an exception and cancel the reservation penalty free to ME. That in typical situations Airbnb would consider it a cancellation by host with the penalties attached to a host cancellation. I was dumbfounded by this and asked repeatedly for clarification. He insists that if guests indicate they intend to break house rules in relation to vaccinations, we as hosts are subject to Airbnb penalties if we don’t want the reservation to go through. I countered that I consider this a “cancellation by guest” and that I should receive a payout, that this is akin to guests reserving with the intention of bringing pets or children to a rental with a no children or pet policy. Not only do they get off evading a cancellation policy, but we as hosts get hurt in the process. I asked him to reference the Terms of Service (TOS)) in regard to this, but he said there wasn’t any such language, that this was in the information customer service reps have on hand and not listed in the TOS. The convoluted message I received from this manager follows at the end of the post. I asked to speak with his supervisor but I’m not holding my breath.

To remedy this with further reservations, I’ve turned off auto-book. I don’t know how else to make sure that guests will adhere to my house rules. I am hopping mad at this point. Airbnb is penalizing hosts who are trying to protect themselves and the community from this dread disease, especially the highly contagious Omicron variant. I wonder if a local paper would be interested in hearing about it?

"Airbnb Support5:23 PM

Hi Kim,

This is Nickoyan, a Manager, from the Airbnb Community Support Team. As I told you on the phone, whenever a host would like to cancel a reservation because of a vaccination status, the reservation would have to be cancelled by host. This means all hosting penalties would be attracted to that cancellation (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/). Please note, however, that I told you regarding your reservation (HMMYH5PJJP) with Hailee, that I would be willing to remove all penalties from this cancellation.

Regarding house rules, if it is that a guest breaks a house rule and the host no longer wants to host them, and the reservation has already started then we would alter the reservation and assist the host with removing the guests from their listing. However, if it is a guest who would want to violate a host's house rule and the host indicates this too us, and would want to cancel the reservation, we would be able to cancel the reservation penalty free for them. With that being said, we do not consider one's vaccination status as a house rule. Instead, it is a separate entity in which there is another policy, that guides how Airbnb agents are supposed to operate.

Based off of what I said, as I typed above, you are unhappy with Airbnb's policies and you informed me that you wanted my supervisor to call you because you wanted this exact information shown to you in the terms of service. I then explained to you that the information that agents would work from, is expounded from the terms of service and we would not be able to share this document with you.

To be clear, I agreed with you in that you may have it as a requirement to have your guests be vaccinated. However, where we disagree is how the cancellation of this type of reservation would work (because you view it as a cancellation by guest and I told you that this was a cancellation by host). Also, you would like to receive a payout from this cancellation, and you would want the guest to face financial penalties from this cancellation. In conclusion, I told you that I would be placing on the ticket, the policy in which I followed so that all may see the policy which refers to a situation like this."

[Anonymous]

@Kim937 Thank you for shedding some light on a topic a lot of hosts have been wondering about. Airbnb has long maintained that hosts may require guests to be vaccinated or tested, but they've carefully avoided publishing any clarification on what happens when a booked guest fails to meet the requirements.

What it comes down to in this situation is that you as the host are refusing to honor the booking. You always have the right to turn away guests who fail to meet your check in requirements, or throw out guests who break rules during their stay. But in doing so, you forfeit the payout for the unused nights. This isn't considered a penalty in Airbnb parlance, as you could hypothetically get a replacement booking to neutralize the losses. But it's definitely a good reason to keep Instant Book disabled, if there's any reason your rules would cause you to deny entry to a booked guest.

For what it's worth, both vaccinated and unvaccinated guests can still get a full refund under Extenuating Circumstances as long as they say someone in the group caught Covid, so those guests were going to get their refund one way or other anyway. I don't agree with the policy, but that's the way it is. 

[Huma0]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You always have the right to turn away guests who fail to meet your check in requirements, or throw out guests who break rules during their stay. But in doing so, you forfeit the payout for the unused nights.

@Anonymous 

I am not sure if that is always strictly true. I think it actually depends on the situation, but more so on the rep handling the case.

I have only had two instances where I called Airbnb and asked for a guest to be removed/relocated. Both times were for breaking rules (neither was an IB). The first time, the rep called the guests straight away and told them to follow my rules or leave with no refund for the remainder of their stay (two weeks). I had agreed to let them stay if they started to follow the rules, so that's what happened.

The second time, the guest was told by Airbnb to leave and I voluntarily offered a refund for the remaining nights (again two weeks), but the rep told me that was generous and I didn't need to do so because the house rules had been violated. Now, I'm not sure what would have happened if I had insisted the guest left without a refund (I just wanted her out ASAP). It probably would have involved a long, convoluted resource centre case that I just didn't want to get into, or I would have been stuck with her longer, but in both cases, CS seemed to be on my side and confirmed that the guest was not entitled to a refund even if I asked them to leave.

Vaccination status is a bit different though. @Kim937 has said she was told it didn't really count as an enforceable house rule.

[Anonymous]

@Huma0  Enforceable is a key distinction there. You can enforce rules concerning guests' conduct in the property during the stay, by asking the guest to either cease the behavior or leave. But it takes weeks to change one's vaccination status, so might be better categorized as allowable discrimination. Maybe the closest analog to that is homestay hosts who only rent to guests of the same gender. There must be some protocol for dealing with bookings where a man has booked a women-only listing, but I'm pretty sure the host doesn't get to keep the payout. And obviously the host can't require the guest to change his sex to complete the stay. 

[Kimberly557]

Personally, I would NEVER require guests to vaccine.  HIPAA violation, as it is not your business what transpired at their Drs office?  We believe in personal freedom and honor it.  We are a military family.  Fought for freedom.  Your requirement saddens me deeply.  I am sorry.

[Lisa723]

@Kimberly557 HIPAA prohibits healthcare providers from disclosing your medical information to third parties without your consent. It does not prohibit businesses or service providers from requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of service.

[Sarah977]

@Kimberly557  You're a military family? As far as I'm aware, military are required to show proof of vaccination for things like polio, tetanus, measles, etc. Nor do military members have the "personal freedom" to behave in any way they choose. How would the military view disobeying orders, claiming one is simply exercising their personal freedoms?

[Lisa723]

@Sarah977 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/12/14/air-force-vaccines-discharges/

[Kia272]

@Kimberly557 Nothing whatsoever to do with HIPAA. Personal freedom also allows for hosts to have requirements regarding their space and their homes. Fought for freedom? What's that got to do with anything? You fought for freedom but you want to deny others the opportunity to practice theirs? 

Your ignorance saddens me deeply. 

[Anonymous]

@Kimberly557 The host is not forcing anyone to go out and get the jab - she's merely exercising her freedom to choose who to allow into her home. Guests who object are, of course, free to book elsewhere. 

I don't know which freedoms you believe you enlisted to fight for, but I'm sure your family takes great pride in your willingness to put your lives on the line to protect your country in a time of crisis . The most important thing a civilian can do right now to protect the health and well being of their community in the current crisis is get vaccinated. For the cowardice of those who feel a shot in the arm is too much to ask, I have no words. 

[Aria15290]

As a biochemist I have to say you are highly misinformed. Everyone with there tv news and google phds are spreading misinformation. Being vaccinated does not protect anyone in your community. It protects you and only you. You are no less contagious than an unvaccinated person and you can still fall ill and transmit the disease just as an unvaccinated person. The only benefit to a vaccine is a boost in antibodies but many have strong enough immune systems where they don't need it. It is people's choice to determine whether or not they want to be vaccinated. My boyfriend in the military had to be vaccinated. He got sick after going to a party with covid, brought it home and I got sick a week later. He was sicker than I was and I'm unvaccinated. So cut it out with the misinformation. 

[Debra300]

@Aria15290,

Since you didn't tag another poster's ID (with @) it's difficult to know to whom you are responding.  You appear to have a desire to debunk myths and misinformation, but are not providing any verifiable data to support your some of your comments.  You are correct that vaccination doesn't totally prevent transmission or infection (nor is there any differentiation in the viral load/severity of the virus when transmitted by a vaccinated vs. unvaccinated person), and does provide an additional boost to combat against severe illness, hospitalization or death from the virus.  However, the information that you shared about your and your boyfriend's experience with contracting COVID is subjective and not scientific, and cannot be taken as a representative sample of the general population.  Everyone's recuperative abilities are not the same, but it's not the sole indication of their sickness acuity level.  The fact is that 98% of infected persons in the US have not died from the virus or a virus related complication whether they were hospitalized or recovered at home.

You generalized when you implied that most people are contracting the virus.  Based upon CDC publications, there have been about 80 million reported COVID cases in the US (with no differentiation of persons who've caught it more than once).  Even if that number were incorrect by 50%, 120 million individuals catching COVID would be just a bit more than 1/3 of the current US population of 334 million.  This means that most people haven't caught the virus during the two years of the pandemic. 

My husband and I have never caught the virus, and although we've chosen to get vaccinated, we've avoided contracting the virus by following public health protocols.  Since we take personal responsibility to protect ourselves, and we do not share common living spaces with our guests, we have always hosted guests regardless of their vaccination status.

[Aria15290]

@Debra300  I tried to tag the gentleman I was addressing but it didn't allow me to.

But in response to your message, you are naive to think you have never caught the virus unless you have gotten tested on a daily or weekly basis every single week for the past few years. Most of the population is asymptomatic. The facts you are quoting are based off what has been reported. Not every case of covid has been reported because A, not every person has been tested, B, not every test is accurate. You could have contracted the virus and tested too early resulting in a negative test. And C, many are symptomatic. Again, your google PhD does not trump those of us who actually have one and if googling somehow makes you an expert on vaccines have at it lol.

I would also keep in mind that the CDC is in bed with big Pharma and this is more about money than a public health crisis. The real public health crisis we see on a daily basis and the number one cause of death is heart disease and diabetes. I don't see any restrictions, mandates, or major discussions on the one thing that is killing Americans at an alarming rate. You have people running to get vaccinated but are eating processed foods and are overweight. The majority of the country is obese. It's truly comical see this outrage to "help save people" when people are killing themselves on a daily basis. We have people come into our office all the time ranting about the vaccine but they're more likely to die from high blood pressure and poor eating habits. Tests and vaccines will also no longer be free and there will be trillions of dollars made every year to make these companies richer. This goes for our hospitals as well. As mentioned, we put down the codes for the diagnosis but if you came in for a broken arm and happen to test positive for covid it's now a covid code being used which gives the hospital more funding. The same is done in places where a new cardiac or cancer treatment center is needed. The more codes registered under that diagnosis you get, the more funding. Yes covid is out there and spread fast but a lot of the numbers were smudged for purposes of financial gain. Again... reading articles does not equate to those of us who are in the field on a daily basis. 

[Debra300]

@Aria15290,

Wow, you wrote a whole article dissing someone who agreed with you.  BTW, I am a former USAF Medical Technician, hospital nurse, lab technician and health insurance worker.  I don't have a PhD, but my life and work experience qualifies me to speak from a point of empirical knowledge and reference.  Even without that formal level of education I know enough to differentiate when someone is supportive of my viewpoint and when they are pointing out inconsistencies.  I surely have the comportment not call anyone names, especially someone who I don't know.

Deuces.

[Sharon683]

I agree.  I do not require my guest to be vaccinated.  That is their business.   I have had many people in my circle who got vaccinated and still got covid-19 and was just as contagious as the unvaccinated who caught it.   🤔 I would not require every guest to have the flu shot before booking.  Anyway, it is not fair for guest who decided to make a different choice about what they put in their body to be denied Airbnb accommodations.