@Trevor243 Again, I think you make some great points. I really think we agree on more than we disagree on haha.
I agree that other OTAs did have policies more favorable to hosts having control over the cancellation policy, however, I think that hosts on those platforms made decisions that reflected poorly upon the platform as well as the vacation rental industry as a whole.
I think Airbnb was smart about this because they knew the terrible consequences it would face if their platform were to suddenly be seen as an untrustworthy place to book accommodations from. Instead of going with a strategy that gave hosts more control, but decreased consistency and customer confidence in the legality of the platform’s policies (if you are on VRBO and kept money, you already know about chargebacks by now…see this article https://onemileatatime.com/credit-card-dispute-travel-purchase/), they did what I believe was the right thing to do, which was to make the decision to not travel easy for guests and decrease the chance of their platform being a contributor to the escalating emergency.
On that note, I want to point out a few articles that have popped up that have had pretty scathing depictions of the OTAs that allowed hosts to decide not to refund guests who did not want to travel due to Covid 19. I don’t want it to seem like all the below links are just me trying desperately to prove a point that there is a right and wrong answer here, I just want us to imagine the damage that could have been done long term if Airbnb, the most popular vacation rental booking platform in the world, had allowed it to get to the point where articles similar to the below went mainstream. I think the industry would have been dealt a crushing blow vs. a temporary setback we face now.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-biz-vrbo-refunds-coronavirus-0401-20200331-3x4bvhnxnzb...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/travel/coronavirus-refund-travel-ota.html
https://www.phocuswire.com/Expedia-coronavirus-letter-hotels
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/hotels/2020/04/02/coronavirus-what-travelers-hosts-airbnb-vrbo...
https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0330-coronavirus-united-airlines-20200330-tj6xh...
https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/chicagoans-fight-to-get-refunds-from-vacation-rentals/
To be 100% clear. I agree with you that it could have been handled better. Communication with hosts should have happened in some form or another, although the result should have been the same. Options for guests to be able to easily re-book dates or at least offer portions of their stay back to hosts...that should have been available. All around, in hindsight, this could have been handled in a much better way by Airbnb that would have had mutual benefit to the hosts and guests.
With that said, I think that we have to keep in mind that this thing caught nearly every person on the planet off guard. It was probably March 10th or so before I truly recognized the situation we were in. So, while Airbnb didn’t do it in the right way, they did what I think was the right thing, and that was to discourage travel during a time when traveling normally put everybody in danger. There’s no doubt in my mind at this poin that taking that action was the correct thing to do from an objective standpoint (remember, Airbnb allowing cancellations hurts them too…their revenue is dependent on people actually completing reservations).
So, while I get the frustration with the situation, I really don’t see why the conversation is still happening where people are angry at Airbnb or whatever else, when the discussion should be about how can we move forward and try to be successful at being hosts in the new world we live in post Covid 19. My frustration is less with thoughtful people like yourself, and more with the pointless complaining and trolling that some of the folks out there seem to be committed to.
At the end of the day, I think I have the same frustration as you do in that some of the community is not as professionally developed as I’d hoped they would be when a crises happened. I really think that this community is full of extremely talented entrepreneurs and business minded people, so its frustrating to see the loudest ones who are directing the narrative are the ones who seem to lack those qualities.
I have been really excited to see the response to the message of moving on and trying to tackle this crises with innovation, creativity and problem solving skills, which is what I’ve seen many really start to focus on as of late (surprisingly posting to this board seems to have stirred up a hornets nest of a small few really angry people…although 4 or 5 out of 1,000 people isn’t too bad I suppose). So it certainly doesn't ruin my day to see the trolls come out, I just am looking forward to the smart problem solvers of the community getting their voice back and helping me and the rest of us work through how to be successful in this environment.
Either way, the best I can do is be as helpful as possible (granted, in an extremely long winded way, but hey, I never claimed to be a great writer), and give my opinion on how to think about things in a way that is hopefully helpful.
I have been trying to counterbalance the few, but loud angry people’s messages on here with a few examples of how we have been thinking about the challenges and potential solutions to the business problems we face today. I would be interested to hear some of your thoughts on how you are thinking about those things as well, because even though we disagree on some of the conclusions, I can tell you are at least thoughtful about how you arrive at them and I think we agree on more than we disagree on. More importantly, I am betting I can learn something from you on how you are thinking about the future, and I think that’s the kind of thing this community is all about.