I agree that it's far too little and far too late. I think the founders are out of their depth, to be honest, and not thinking about everyone fairly or being realistic about the virus and the business. They seem like nice guys trying to do their best, but it beats me why they didn’t check out what other holiday booking sites were doing and think about how to reduce the impact on their hosts as well as save their own business before they acted. Maybe they panicked, like a lot of us. Who knew this was going to happen, apart from Bill Gates and every epidemiologist and the Chinese scientists who warned us in English in the Lancet before Christmas? Whatever.
When they offered full refunds to all guests they offered our incomes, not theirs. The guests stood to lose all or part of their holiday money but we stood to lose our livelihoods. How can a company offer so many thousands (hundreds of thousands? how many hosts are there worldwide?) of people's money to other people without even giving notice let alone consulting and getting agreement? As a result of that I cancelled a few bookings (which I never have before, so upsetting) so won't even get the tiny percentage of a percentage they're offering in arrears - they totally moved the goalposts past what's got to be contractually and legally ok. If they were going to refund customers they should have done it at their own cost - they're a huge business - we're little businesses - they sacrificed us on the altar of their own preservation and actually, they need us - if we go under, where do all their customers go in future? I read in the community yesterday that they were actually advising guests to wait until the full refund was available for the dates they had booked so owners couldn't do anything about it. I feel betrayed and let down and hugely undervalued.
I don't want guests to suffer or to have to myself. If, as used to be the case, it were down to me to decide my own policy, I would've asked all affected guests if they were covered on holiday insurance. Many people are covered through their bank or other third party and don't know it (if Airbnb had thought of doing this first a lot of hosts could've benefited without cost to the traveler! That’s what insurance is for). Then I would have asked guests who were covered to wait until the last minute to cancel and claim on their insurance. Anyone not covered I would have split the booking 50/50 with. However I didn’t get that choice, which, as I see it, was part of my contract with Airbnb.
If Airbnb had asked all customers if they were insured before they cancelled it would have helped. If they’d covered their hosts to the same degree as their travellers - ie given 100% to each or even, less legally ok but more understandable, split it 50/50, it would have been at least fair if not legal. Guests are now being offered a full refund or an Airbnb credit which means if they take the credit Airbnb keeps the interest on their money and the owner who had won the booking loses out - why didn’t they offer guests the opportunity to postpone perpetually (we don't know how long this will continue) until the crisis is over? This new cancellation compensation scheme isn’t fair to hosts with strict policies, let alone the poor hosts with flexible policies, which Airbnb encourages owners to have. Airbnb made the decision that affected all hosts, not just superhosts, not just people with strict cancellation policies, and they should compensate ALL hosts for ALL lost bookings in full just as they did the guests with our money without asking us and claim on their company insurance. Because our bookings aren’t covered, and some guests’ bookings would have been, and their business must be.
As for the Superhost scheme, I’m a Superhost, have been for years, have only had one listing until recently and it was almost always fully booked with a 0% cancellation rate. I’m a single mum and was working a music teacher from home self employed and part time at a school on PAYE as well as hosting for years, then I got ill from doing so many hours and had to stop my PAYE job in September and drop a lot of teaching in favour of hosting because I had terrible chest pain and lost the use of my right arm for a while. So I borrowed money and invested in a couple of shepherd huts in my garden, put my heart and soul and every last penny into building them, JUST listed before this happened. One has had 2 fulfilled bookings with 5 star reviews and one future cancellation due to corona virus, the other has never been used but has been listed. I unlisted it today in the hope I might still qualify for some of the relief fund as it looks as if, at least in the last year, I made more from my one listing than I did from self-employment teaching, so I won’t qualify for self employed help from the UK government because teaching’s not my main income, and I might not qualify for help from Airbnb because its not my main income and I have more than one job. My mortgage is huge and my running costs are high, I don’t get any maintenance - I’m the only breadwinner, that’s why I had several jobs, but it seems I’m going to fall through the net on a lot of what is available because I had several income streams and invested in my business.
I originally joined Airbnb because, after a few years hosting through Holiday Lettings, they were taken over by Tripadvisor in about 2015 and my bookings fell off a cliff and all the rules changed and then some guests booked in 2016 last minute who caused £16K worth of damage and had a fight with knives and left my daughter with severe PTSD. I had to fight Tripadvisor for my £100 deposit which they wanted me to negotiate for with the knife woman, who had been taken away from my place in a police meat wagon while her boyfriend was airlifted to hospital from the cricket ground. So I joined Airbnb because I didn’t know how to pay the mortgage without hosting and I someone told me about their Host Guarantee and I saw them as a company who had taken responsibility for looking after the interests of both hosts and customers, who were more than just a booking agency but had seen the dangers and had taken precautions and really cared about all parties involved. I can’t tell you how many guests have asked me if they can return and pay me in person not through Airbnb and I have said to them that Airbnb charge the least to the guest and the host and provide far more security, protection and service to both and refused all cash deals, because I trusted Airbnb would look after us all. They make money from us ALL. Not just Superhosts. Not just people with 2 listings. Not just people with one job.
I think their initiative to get previous guests to contribute is a great idea but I don’t hold out much hope as everyone has been financially slaughtered at the moment and I heard on the news charity donations have gone down. We need more than charity.
I took some time to read their Covid articles today and I'm glad they're looking into travel insurance and cancellation insurance. Better late than never. Nobody knows how long this is going to go on. If we don’t stop travelling for pleasure, the longer this is going continue. We should only be taking longer bookings for local people self isolating or health workers, and this needs to be clearly stated. If we don’t take it seriously it could be years other than weeks or months this could go on, and we can’t rely on governments for advice because they’re already talking about lifting and reimposing restrictions to avoid overloading hospitals so they know more people will be infected when the restrictions are lifted. If hosts get ill, or worse, die, they won’t be hosting any more and the same goes for guests. I can’t do short stays for pleasure any more or anyone other than local people or health workers if I’m brave enough. Airbnb need to be extra super clear on this and people need to be only accepting bookings for local self isolation and there need to be VERY strict rules. What if I accept a booking and the guests don’t take the rules seriously? I’m a woman on my own, how would I enforce that? I’m very rural, there are only 3 police cars in the county. What do I do if someone loses their **bleep** and spits at me/has a party/gets too close to other guests? What if someone dies in my accommodation? What if? we need the what ifs sorted by their legal/insurance team. I need advice on what to do with my listings and I can’t get through.
Asking hosts to put up health workers is also great idea, but asking us to do it with more work cleaning, more risk and doing it for less money or free (! it costs a lot to run, how does that work with no income?) is unfair. Have they looked into who will be paying for this accommodation? If governments and local authorities could help this could keep hosts going at better rates, which given the risk involved, would seem worthwhile exploring and contribute more to the whole.
Looking at the advice for cleaning - where are we supposed to get all these products? This is something that would prevent me being able to host. Could Airbnb source sanitizer and loo roll and protection (eg quality, effective facemasks/gloves/shoe covers/suits) for guests/hosts/cleaners etc wholesale and offer it to hosts free for taking the risk/at cost price and deliver it? I’m self isolating, I can’t order online for love nor money, if they could make it available to buy maybe I could run if I’m brave enough. I don’t know if I am though, I’m a single mum, I do my own cleaning, is it worth the risk? How much risk are hosts taking by still running, even for non- health worker stays? Is there such a thing as a washable effective Hamzat suit I could wear between visits to do the cleaning? I think the standards applied to hosting all visitors should be the same as if for hosting front line workers. I had already envisaged a long minimum stay and a three day gap between visits. I think the cost of the three day gap should be shared between the traveler, the host and Airbnb.
Today’s Airbnb policy seems to be based on what they can afford after the support workers (BLESS THEM! Are they working from home yet? They’re at risk) had their million dollar whip round and I know they’re mostly based in the Phillipines so that’s a lot more in relation to their wages than it would be in relation to first world workers, even more wonderful of a gesture, and it’s nice the 3 Amigos have offered some of their own cash, but if they could actually do what they’ve done for guests for everyone that would be the right thing to do and then claim on their insurance, we all might come out better, including them.
