Although there may be some hosts who wish to cancel all of their bookings, it is my belief that hosts are being put in a very difficult position under Airbnb’s ‘one shoe fits all’ COVID-19 policy. It is in place in order to save Airbnb the headache of closely monitoring the legal guidelines set by each individual region or country.
The host is under no legal obligation to cancel a booking unless it is within the timeline/conditions of their own area’s legal COVID-19 guide lines.
Guests have the opportunity to prove Extenuating Circumstances
at which point Airbnb then have to come out of hiding to examine guest requests and then make a decision on a case by case basis - ultimately taking responsibility for their blanket decision.
I am following my region’s legal guidelines rather than Airbnb’s policy where they manage to save their brand and look like the good guy whilst trying to force the host to ‘step up’ (as one of my guests put it) and try to figure out which guest is entitled to cancel and which not.
I am starting out with this mind set as it is only going to become more and more complex in the coming months.
There is a huge amount of emotional blackmail going on here and I refuse to be drawn into it. This is my livelihood, I am affected by Covid-19 just the same as the guests and I am most definitely not registered as a charity.
There is no justification for hosts bearing the full financial burden of this pandemic when not legally obliged to do so.