Bon jour Catherine.
Your idea/definition of community: to have someone to rely on at the other end of the world.
The English definition of community: generally, the people living in one particular area or people who are considered as a unit because of their common interests, social group or nationality; specifically, a social media definition: a group of people who have similar interests or who want to achieve something together. If you extend the definition of community a little, it also included joint ownership, joint participation and joint liability.
There is much more dept to the word community, but the point is that your idea of community is definitely consistent with most people's idea of community, which is also consistent with that which is defined in the English language (and I am sure, equivalently, in your language).
Unfortunately, the founders at AirBNB speak a very different language, it would appear, as their idea of community is not consistent with what most people understand it to be. If you read their message to the hosts from 2 weeks ago (link: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/A-Message-From-Our-Founders/m-p/1257606#M19152), they decided what was in the best interest of the global AirBNB community by allowing guests to cancel and get a 100% refund so as not to have guests making the decision to put themselves in unsafe situations and creating a public health hazard because of a commitment to their bookings. You should note, interestingly, that there was no mention of relief for hosts being committed to putting themselves in unsafe situations and creating a public health hazard either, nor was there any mention of hosts being caught in an unsafe or difficult situations due to Covid-19, other than to mention that the decision has caused incredible hardship for hosts. Hence, it is obvious that AirBNB founders view the AirBNB community differently from what most people understand community to be.
Following on from their message, the only help provided so far is to write to the US Congress to seek financial assistance for AirBNB hosts, and to have AirBNB hosts lobby their local government representative to pursue this assistance from the US Congress. Supposing they succeed, that still leaves hosts outside of the US without any financial assistance from the US Congress as I am pretty sure that any US support package would not be for the benefit of non-US citizens/residents. Again, AirBNB's founders' warped definition of community is evident - implement a global Extenuating Circumstances Policy (ECP), but offer local (US) suggestion to get financial relief. I don't think AirBNB founders will lobby the governments of France and Australia, or any other government, for that matter, to include AirBNB hosts in their respective countries' Covid-19 relief packages. So much for "we are partners. We will get through this together."
Besides the decision to write to the US Congress, there has been no further initiatives or communication from them. Interestingly, the community has time to start other threads to take us away from the gloom and doom of the current situation and of hosts clamouring for a response/refund from AirBNB, but no one is really addressing the situation of the hosts who are suffering greatly, and who are unlikely to get any relief from the US Congress.
Covid-19 is a global pandemic, and everyone is suffering. There are significant job losses, and this will filter through the economies of all nations. Most government packages try to spread the pain, and look for relief from all participants - citizens and residents - to share the pain and the relief efforts; not just one sector.
I think that there are an equal amount of guests out there who understand and support the hosts who are suffering as there are hosts who understand and support guests who are caught up in difficult situations, and if we, both guests and hosts, were given the ability to work out each and everyone of our individual situations, the majority of the situations would have been an amenable agreement between the 2, whether it be a 0% - 100% refund to guests, credits to guests, or instalment refund to guests etc. Yes, there will be some disagreements between guests and hosts, but if we believed that we had a real AirBNB community, such disagreements would be in the minority. Unless, of course, we never had a community in the first place.
There is no solidarity of community with AirBNB. As an email from their support team advised me when I queried why they decided what they decided on the global ECP, the response was that it was a business decision.
I can only wish you good luck, and to let you know that I have started (re-)building with other platforms. No use flogging a dead horse with AirBNB - they cannot turn back their decision (too many guest refunds already given out), and even if they could, they won't (too much effort to do so).
There is a whole list of other platforms here https://www.airbnbhell.com/airbnb-competitors/ that you can look at; but they all have their idiosyncrasies which means you can have a good or a bad experience - or both - with each and every platform. No one's perfect, but at least, it will give you a breather from a traitor until you think you can perhaps trust the traitor again.
All the best.
