As a host I am following the steps here under Other Options
https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2728/what-options-do-i-have-for-cancelling-a-reservation-for-a-pl...
"If you want to cancel a reservation because of COVID-19 that isn’t eligible under our extenuating circumstances policy, message your guest and ask them to cancel the reservation. Host penalties don’t apply to guest-initiated cancellations.
If the guest doesn’t agree to cancel, you can still cancel the reservation, however penalties will apply."
Regarding sentence #1-2
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I messaged all my guests and asked the to cancel the reservations. None of the reservations qualify as extenuating circumstances, because the dates are after April 14. Some guests have been willing to do this. Yet to both our surprise when I get the email that says "Issue full refund" and go through that process, AirBnB is keeping funds back from that refund that we as hosts have not had visibility into. We are aware of the 3% that we are charged, but in most (all?) of the host user experiences we are not shown the full price including AirBnB's 15%. Since I had never seen the 15% in any accounting, and also since the button says "Issue full refund" I made false promise to guests that they were getting a full refund. Now those guests are upset at AirBnB for the policy and at me for not knowing.
Suggest: Include full disclosure of the full fee the guest paid on the Reservations tab of the host dashboard.
Suggest: Not calling the button "Issue full refund." Instead, call it "Issue refund minus service fees"
Regarding sentence #3
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Since not all my guests will respond to my request to have them cancel (above case), I will need to cancel the other reservations. The dates are over 7 days away so that is $50 out of my pocket for each reservation (About 20). I expect that AirBnB keeps the service fees in this case as well, but this is unclear. And of course my superhost status is gone. I do this out of consideration of the guests: due to the virus affecting our family, the changes in society including shelter in place, work from home, school virtual, and increased health risks and exposure, the single rental we have is no longer available to rent. It is occupied. If I was a guest, I'd want to know. Being turned away from the door with luggage is the worst. So to spare guests from this event, I will pay $50 each. That sounds like the opposite type of behavior you want to penalize.
Suggest: Back off of the penalties to hosts. What about a choice between either loss of superhost or one payment of $50, whichever they choose.
Suggest: In this other options text, include full disclosure of the fees guests will still pay in the event that the host needs to cancel.
Regarding the situation in general
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1. This could be solved on a case by case basis if it was possible to get through to a decision maker through customer service.
2. Since we cannot solve through customer service, this is worse for AirBnB sustaining their business because we are generating more calls for you. You could have just solved my problem but now you will have 20. You could have had 20 returning customers and 1 committed host, but now not so much.
3. April 14 is a dangerously early day to expect the pandemic to be over. There should be a true no-fault (with permission on both sides) cancellation (service fees fully refunded, superhost preserved, no host financial penalties) and that should exist through multiple months.
