Cancelling a confirmed reservation due to the Covid19 and county regulations

[Shay231]

Hi all,

I would like to for this forum  advice.

1.  I have a confirmed reservation for a party 4 guests - all are friends living in  different  places.

2. The county  just  issued an order, and I quote: "No more than 6 individuals indoors from no more than 2 households."

3. Due to that - I need to  cancel my guest's arrival.

I came to know that if I cancel a confirmed reservation from my end -  I  will  be "punished" by AirBnB by both  having a review "cancelled by the host" and also be ranked down in the search.

Is there a way that AirBnB will not "punish" me, as the cancellation would be due to regulations, and not  because of me?

Thank you!

Shay.

[Helen3]

Just call Airbnb and share the legislation from your area. They will do a penalty free cancellation @Shay231 

[Shay231]

Thank you! I will contact their support.

[Laura2592]

@Shay231 we dealt with this when our state was locked down. The MD/DC/VA region often considers itself one state, but for lock-down purposes it was not. For a time we could only legally host guests from Maryland. 

I had to ask many people to cancel their reservations soon after they made them and then eventually turned off Instant Book so I could find out for sure that the guests were following the guidance. There were instances where people got fined for out of state plates if they were pulled over and could not show they had a note from their employer to show they were "essential" or had a reason to be in the area. Mentioning that was often a pretty good deterrent to those who didn't care much for the restrictions. 

[Shay231]

Thank you so much  @Laura2592 !