Coronavirus - Airbnb should update it's extenuating circumstances policy

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

This morning when I woke up and made my morning coffee I checked the news about new Coronavirus and found this website where we can track the number of infected people: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Data is constantly updating.

At 9:30 AM there was 67.109 infected in total.

Now, 2 hours later there are 67.185 !

So, 76 newly registered cases since I woke up and before I took off my pajama 😞

So I went to check Airbnb extenuating circumstances cancelation policy to see if there are any updates and there are none. It still covers only reservations made before February 1st (not later, not now) with check-in this month, not later.

So what if someone books today for the next week... or the next month???

Today is February 15 and just 14 days till the end of the month!

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2701/coronavirus-information-and-extenuating-circumstances-polic...

--------

For reservations with guests traveling from mainland China to destinations outside of mainland China

The extenuating circumstances policy applies to any reservations booked on or before February 1, 2020, with check-in date of February 29, 2020 or earlier. This applies for guests traveling from mainland China with reservations outside of mainland China, or hosts outside of mainland China with guests traveling from mainland China.

-----------

The virus is spreading more rapidly every day and there is no slowing down in the sight, so I think Airbnb should update this policy to cover at least  2 more months and give hosts the opportunity to cancel early any reservation from China and Asia in order to be able to rebook guests from other sides of the world. There is no sense to wait until 2 weeks before check-in to cancel the reservation, it is hurting guests and hosts.

What do you think?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

2.090 newly confirmed cases in the last 24 hours (69.275 in total)

Airbnb extenuating circumstances cancelation policy regarding Coronavirus covers only reservations up to 13 days from now (up to February 29th)

And what then? The virus will not disappear in such a short period of time.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

2.081 new officially confirmed cases from yesterday ( 71.356 in total)  ..... but it seems there are much much more

".....We are estimating that about 50,000 new infections per day are occurring in China. [...] It will probably peak in its epicenter, Wuhan, in about one month time; maybe a month or two later in the whole of China. The rest of the world will see epidemics at various times after that. (EXPAND FOR VIDEO) ..."

Prof. Niall Ferguson

Director, Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics

Imperial College, London Feb. 6, 2020

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-expert-opinions/

My neighbor got 2 last-minute reservations from Chinese guests this month.

She was immediately contacted by the immunology center on the day of their arrival and later on a daily basis and had to inform them about her guest's temperature. Luckily, they were fine during their stay.

How is it possible they are still allowed to book.... and travel outside Chine?

Airbnb still didn't update it's cancelation policy which covers period up to the March 1st only !

[Asher25]

I think the guests should claim on their travel insurance if they cannot travel. Thats what its for. We cannot insure against this! Guests can. Its a joke that we have to cover costs because guests do not take insurance against being unfit to travel due to illness or injury and also if flights are cancelled or Corona means travel should not be undertaken.