Supporting each other in the Community Center

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

We know that information about the current coronavirus situation is being shared widely, but with all the noise it is easy to feel quite confused and lonely. So, in any way we can, we want to make sure that you all feel supported at this difficult time.

To begin with, I want to ensure you are aware of the go-to Airbnb resource for information regarding the coronavirus and hosting: Airbnb.com/COVID19. 

We’re keeping it updated with Airbnb policy news, advice, and tips, so we hope you find it useful. A lot of the tips have come straight from threads shared here in the Community Center.

Head to Airbnb.com/COVID19 to find out more.

Exploring the Community Center, you’ll also see many useful topics and members sharing their own experiences and advice. Here in the Community Center, we rely on the support of our fellow members on a daily basis.

During times of uncertainty, it is important that communities really come into their own and be  there for each other—and we’ve certainly never been short of camaraderie here in the CC. Currently, many people are working from home or are unable to leave their homes and it can be a lonely place to be. The Community Center is a good place to find support.

We’re planning some online meetups through this period and some activities we can all participate in “around the house,” so do keep an eye out for more information on this shortly.

In the meantime, sometimes the little things can go a long way, so please share any of your tips and supportive words for each other below. 

Stay strong. 

Lizzie

[Adriano78]

@Lizzie  "SUPPORTING EACH OTHER"  are you serious? sorry but Airbnb does not support host.

Airbnb is just made an active advertising campaign on newspaper, twitter facebook.... for guests and say the reservation can be  100% canceled and refundable and pushing guests to cancel.

it is a disgusting advertising campaign by making guests believe that it is Airbnb which refund while it is the hosts that are robbed.

I 've guests that have canceled for the months of May and June and they receive Airbnb messages encouraging them to cancel. SHAME

Are you a business company or a charity company? people are not on Airbnb for a hobby and we are not on Airbnb to be robbed.

Airbnb thinks maybe hosts are like an insurance travel company?!

No problem with Booking, Trip Advisor, Home away, Expedia the problem is just Airbnb.

Now is covid, before was fire in California, strike in France.........

Every year with this shame company hosts are losing thousand of euros!

I am pretty sure that this situation getting worse, for the moment Airbnb refund guests at 100% WITH OUR MONEY till 14 April, after 14 April  the only thing that will happen is that Airbnb will refund guest until the end of May

I just can recommend to other hosts to put very high prices on Airbnb and lower prices on VRBO, booking, Expedia and try to have the most of guests on other serious platforms.

unfortunately here in Europe we can nod class action and really hope US host can do a class-action suit

[Adriano78]

@Lizzie  hi, can you ask to Airbnb to explain this scandalous decision?!!

@Airbnb 

Your PAST Airbnb Bookings Are NOT Safe from a 100% Refund

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6mtgjvPrM&feature=youtu.be&

Airbnb is now refunding your past guests. Taking old bookings that have canceled weeks ago and giving them the extenuating circumstances loophole even though they canceled prior to Airbnb modifying the policy to include the USA. Strike Three Airbnb

[Adriano78]

@Airbnb 

Your PAST Airbnb Bookings Are NOT Safe from a 100% Refund

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6mtgjvPrM&feature=youtu.be&

Airbnb is now refunding your past guests. Taking old bookings that have canceled weeks ago and giving them the extenuating circumstances loophole even though they canceled prior to Airbnb modifying the policy to include the USA. Strike Three Airbnb

[David6]

@Lizzie Sorry. This is not a personal attack. But I really feel you are underestimating hosts utter disgust and turmoil. I’ve lost £7,000 in cancellations in March alone  across all my listings. I can’t pay my mortgage. I had to stand down my cleaning team - who all have children. And yet you talk about support?! Every night I lie in bed & feel panic with a  tightening chest. Hosts are going to die through stress/heart attacks and suicide. When this continues for several months. Hosts are literally going do die!

Please Lizzie change the tone of your posts. I beg you. Hosts are suffering real worry, hardship & utter financial carnage. I’m in london - usually  99% occupancy. Many lovely Asian/Japanese’s/Chinese guests. ALL cancelled! Now my bookings are zero.

Please. We don’t feel part of a community. We feel run over by a bus and left bleeding in the street by the cruel juggernaut that is Airbnb. 

[Lotte18]

@Lizzie did you close for people to join the conversation? Just spent an hour on a post ,that I dont se anywhere?

[Lotte18]

@Lizzie I dont have nerves for writing all I want to say again for it to dissapper again....

Why have you made the decision not to support your hosts/ associates in these times? without us and and our apartment, houses etc, NO Airbnb.... I am not talking about not being fair to both guest and host, it could be 20/80 or 30/70 or giftcards to come back to the same host within 2 years. It has to go both ways, since all are hit by this current situation! Airbnb have now a giant task to help all your hosts through this, I suggest 2 ways one is that Airbnb make sure to get money from the various governments giving out money to small businesses and pay us, or to pay out of your own pockets.... But how ever you tvist and turn this you have not at all been fair to your hosts and their trust in Airbnb are gone...

I have had airbnb to take money from another property of mine in another country, to apparently pay out a guest that him self decided to cancel, coming from a non red country, going to a non red country. I do not take a stand about who should have the money because this was before 14.03 and I really dont know but i would have like to have spoken with a person about my rights before just taking money from me but I have heard NOTHING from you. Without my consent or without any explanations, have you deducted money from another client of mine in another country a booking running for 4 months already...

I of course contacted that tenant when his money didnt arrive, for an explanation he has showed me he has paid, but Airbnb have kept his money.... I have shown him screenshot that his money has not arrived and since i dont get my money from him, I am now considering asking him to leave my property.... It is absolutely not his fault, but Airbnb have now made it his problem, when they took his money, pretty sure it is not even legal what airbnb did.  

If Airbnb, for what ever crazy reason, should be allowed this behaviour, I will advice all airbnb hosts to only host one property on one page at the time and not add more properties to the same page.

I still expect a manager to contact me to explain what in the world is going on @Lizzie 

[Lotte18]

@Lizzie  why do my posts get deleted??

[Lotte18]

@LizzieThis time I copied it,  but not very reliable if the post gets deleted here.

Why have you made the decision not to support your hosts/ associates in these times? without us and and our apartment, houses etc, NO Airbnb.... I am not talking about not being fair to both guest and host, it could be 20/80 or 30/70 or giftcards to come back to the same host within 2 years. It has to go both ways, since all are hit by this current situation! Airbnb have now a giant task to help all your hosts through this, I suggest 2 ways one is that Airbnb make sure to get money from the various governments giving out money to small businesses and pay us, or to pay out of your own pockets.... But how ever you tvist and turn this you have not at all been fair to your hosts and their trust in Airbnb are gone...

I have had airbnb to take money from another property of mine in another country, to apparently pay out a guest that him self decided to cancel, coming from a non red country, going to a non red country. ( I am not saying who shoul have the money because this was before 14.03 but i would have like to have spooken with a person about my right. I have heard NOTHING from you, BUT without my consent or without any explanations have you taking money from another client of mine in another country a booking running for 4 months already... I of course contacted that tenant when his money didny arrive, for an explanation he has showed me he has paid but Airbnb have keept his money.... I have shown him screenshot that his money has not arrived and since i dont get my money from him, I am now considering asking him to leave my property.... It is absolutely not his fault, but Airbnb have now made it his problem, when they took his money, pretty sure it is not even legal what airbnb did.  

If Airbnb, for what ever crazy reason, should be allowed this behaviour, I will advice all airbnb hosts to only host one property on one page at the time and not add more properties to the same page...

I still expect a manager to contact me to explain what in the world is going on @Lizzie 

[Lizzie]

Hello @Lotte18,

Thank you for your message and I'm sorry for not getting back sooner.

You are not alone in your feelings towards the current EC policy update and as you've seen many people here in the Community Center have been giving their feedback on this. 

The feedback and importantly the suggestions on how Airbnb could help support hosts through this difficult period  are being gathered by my team and I and have been escalated across Airbnb. As you can imagine, there have been thousands of comments within the last week alone, so it's hasn't been an easy thing. 

Airbnb leadership are working hard to provide help to hosts during this horrible time (it's by no means an easy thing to sort out). You should expect to hear something soon and I will do everything to make sure all hosts in the CC know about these as soon as they are available. 

I will make sure I keep you posted and in the meantime–please let's keep chatting.

Thanks again,

Lizzie

[Lotte18]

Hi Lizzie,

Thank you for your reply

That I am not alone with feeling run over by Airbnb does not pay my bills, I still haven’t heard anything from Airbnb about how they will help us and when? Our mortgages are do in 2 days so it is urgent now!

Please answer me these questions:

I Have stated before then I am NOT under the EC do to in check date vas 12.03.2020 so before 14th march but Airbnb have still talking my money? Please clarify why Airbnb do not play by their own rules/policy?

I have tried since 17.03 to get I contact with costumer support nobody answers, except automatic reply “please return in 5-7 days” I also asked you to be contacted by a manager also not happening, why?

Do you think it is ok business conduct, to not answer? not prior advice or explain payment actions? no explanations after payment actions has been made. The email from your founder and you promise to help but nothing happens?

I don’t!

You ask for suggestions I my world it is a bit late to ask for suggestions when all decisions are already made, but ok

I would have made an EC stating 1 year rescheduling or 50/50 sharing, return of cleaning fee to the guest ( since obviously no cleaning after the guest has been made ) Airbnb decides them self what they do with their fees… With that Airbnb would have kept money out in circulation ( good for everyones economy even the different countries economy ) Airbnb would have stood by, both guests and hosts, and not thrown anybody under the bus and you have honoured you own vision about shared economy.

Look forward to your reply and if not from you then from someone else soon.

Lotte

[Pai207]

Hi Lotte,

don't mean to disappoint you, but I have been reading and scouring the web for answers to the same and similar questions as yours.  I have even gotten in touch directly with AirBNB support for that.  I hope you get a reply from someone and, hopefully, useful answers to your questions.

Alas, I am - or we are -  waiting for the pigs to fly; that is, cuando las ranas crien pelo.

All the best.

[Kathleen187]

@Jessica-and-Henry0@@I'm glad to see someone else out there is taking this seriously! My husband and I have decided on the same, we are now blocked until further notice till we get more information.   It's going to hit us hard financially because we are in a an expensive area to live. Airbnb needs to come up with some other kind of support for their hosts! . We are both in our 60's and I have totally relyed on Airbnb's income. This is a very devastating time for all of us. Stay safe and health

[Sharon480]

If you really cared—remove them 1 star review as promised! I had rep told me the revenge review would be removed if guest leave one after I file damage claim. Later rep won’t honor the promise and even says the rep heifer don’t know what she’s talking about!
The guests clearly enjoyed the stay (I messaged them every day and each day they are all good), until at check out we found they used stones to carve our dining table (very deep, into the wood lines all over), and also left oven cooking on 400F which shot the cooking panel. When I asked for the damage deposit, the guest left 1 star review all the way across. When I contacted Airbnb, despite the fact that I’m a super host with multiple properties, the rep tells me what he left is a true representation and they can not remove—true representation of 1 Star for everything? Cleanness, communication, location, value, check in and accuracy all 1 Star which every day they claim they enjoyed the house? It’s clearly a revenge feedback aimed to hurt my overall score that I worked diligently for!!

[Sharon480]

Also talk is cheap, support by sending a few emails and show sympathy to us the hosts don’t mean anything. Use the interest money Airbnb earned by not releasing the rent to us promptly—that’s a return on other people’s money and the amount is none of us can even imagine! Don’t say that’s all used for running the website. Because you still collect large amounts of guest serivce fee—or at least use the guest fees collected (hundreds of dollars each time and I’m booked over 100 bookings a year for the past 3-5 years, that’s a huge number if you added all up)! Use some of these on us for now will really mean a lot to us! Again, talk is cheap!!

[Adriano78]

@Lizzie  sorry but I have not had an answer regarding the last questions, why?

I receive today en email from VRBO/ABRITEL (France)/Homeaway

Vrbo can do it but not Airbnb why?:!

Management of cancellations due to COVID-19
Hello Adriano,
In the 25 years that Abritel has been in existence, we have never faced the challenges that our vacationers, owners, property managers and teams around the world face today. Abritel is a platform for both vacationers and homeowners. And for every holidaymaker who must now cancel a rental he has reserved, there is an owner who loses this reservation and who must also manage a large number of cancellations.

In this context, the majority of you have taken the lead in offering credits in the form of credit and / or reimbursements to vacationers. Thank you for giving this example of flexibility and hospitality, even if it forces you into financial difficulty.

Here are our emergency measures related to COVID-19, designed to help you overcome these extraordinary circumstances.

On the Abritel side, we reimburse 100% of the service charges to vacationers if they have to cancel a reservation due to COVID-19.

For your part, we ask you to cancel reservations made before March 13, 2020 for stays between March 13 and April 30, 2020, by proceeding in two possible ways (even if these stays do not fall under the as part of your cancellation policy):

    Option 1 (by default): you offer holidaymakers who must cancel their stay due to COVID-19 a credit for the amount of the reservation, for dates of stay over the coming year.
    Option 2: If a holidaymaker is not willing to accept this credit, we advise you to reimburse it. If you cannot reimburse it in full, we strongly recommend that you reimburse it at least up to 50% of the amount of your reservation.

Our intention is to reward Abritel property owners and managers who will be the most flexible with their vacationers. We will give more visibility to the owners' announcements that are the most generous (a 100% credit or refund will be better rewarded than a 50% refund for example).

Property owners and managers who do not comply with these measures will be at a disadvantage vis-à-vis those who follow our policy. Any attempt to intimidate holidaymakers (such as suggesting that traveling is safer than staying at home or disregarding the severity of this unprecedented crisis) will result in the permanent withdrawal of your advertisement from the Abritel site and from all of the HomeAway and Expedia group sites. Here are also some details on Abritel's policy in this context:

    We reimburse 100% of the service charges to holidaymakers if they cancel a reservation due to COVID-19, whether the cancellation is mandated by the government or not, for all reservations made before March 13, 2020 for stays between March 13 and April 30, 2020. Reimbursement will be made automatically in the coming weeks without the vacationer having anything to do.
    Automatic reimbursement: our teams are working to simplify the reimbursement and change of reservation dates. All details on these new processes will be communicated to you in the coming days, so in the meantime we thank you for not contacting our customer service. We emphasize that the assets / postponements of stays to later dates will have to be decided between you owners and vacationers, we advise you to indicate all these details to vacationers in writing ideally via our secure internal messaging.
    Automatic exemption from any penalty for cancellations: if you have to make a cancellation related to COVID-19, you will be automatically exempt from any penalty for these cancellations, which will not affect your ad's ranking or your status. Premium member. You do not need to contact customer service for this, you just need to select the reason COVID-19 as the reason for cancellation and make at least 50% of the refund to be eligible for this exemption.

The new policy we are implementing may not be perfect, but in this unprecedented period, we believe it offers the best balance to protect vacationers and homeowners. If you have any questions, feel free to visit our help page and / or our Discovery Center, which will be updated every 48 hours.

We have been in contact with thousands of owners over the past few days and I am impressed by your responsiveness in this difficult environment. It is certain that the situation will eventually change and that families will want to go on vacation again. Know that we will be at your side to help you provide them with the best service.

Thank you for your involvement and I express my admiration for your commitment.

Jeff Hurst, President of Abritel HomeAway

[Adriano78]

I receive today en email from VRBO/ABRITEL (France)/Homeaway

Vrbo can do it but not Airbnb why?:!

Management of cancellations due to COVID-19
Hello Adriano,
In the 25 years that Abritel has been in existence, we have never faced the challenges that our vacationers, owners, property managers and teams around the world face today. Abritel is a platform for both vacationers and homeowners. And for every holidaymaker who must now cancel a rental he has reserved, there is an owner who loses this reservation and who must also manage a large number of cancellations.

In this context, the majority of you have taken the lead in offering credits in the form of credit and / or reimbursements to vacationers. Thank you for giving this example of flexibility and hospitality, even if it forces you into financial difficulty.

Here are our emergency measures related to COVID-19, designed to help you overcome these extraordinary circumstances.

On the Abritel side, we reimburse 100% of the service charges to vacationers if they have to cancel a reservation due to COVID-19.

For your part, we ask you to cancel reservations made before March 13, 2020 for stays between March 13 and April 30, 2020, by proceeding in two possible ways (even if these stays do not fall under the as part of your cancellation policy):

    Option 1 (by default): you offer holidaymakers who must cancel their stay due to COVID-19 a credit for the amount of the reservation, for dates of stay over the coming year.
    Option 2: If a holidaymaker is not willing to accept this credit, we advise you to reimburse it. If you cannot reimburse it in full, we strongly recommend that you reimburse it at least up to 50% of the amount of your reservation.

Our intention is to reward Abritel property owners and managers who will be the most flexible with their vacationers. We will give more visibility to the owners' announcements that are the most generous (a 100% credit or refund will be better rewarded than a 50% refund for example).

Property owners and managers who do not comply with these measures will be at a disadvantage vis-à-vis those who follow our policy. Any attempt to intimidate holidaymakers (such as suggesting that traveling is safer than staying at home or disregarding the severity of this unprecedented crisis) will result in the permanent withdrawal of your advertisement from the Abritel site and from all of the HomeAway and Expedia group sites. Here are also some details on Abritel's policy in this context:

    We reimburse 100% of the service charges to holidaymakers if they cancel a reservation due to COVID-19, whether the cancellation is mandated by the government or not, for all reservations made before March 13, 2020 for stays between March 13 and April 30, 2020. Reimbursement will be made automatically in the coming weeks without the vacationer having anything to do.
    Automatic reimbursement: our teams are working to simplify the reimbursement and change of reservation dates. All details on these new processes will be communicated to you in the coming days, so in the meantime we thank you for not contacting our customer service. We emphasize that the assets / postponements of stays to later dates will have to be decided between you owners and vacationers, we advise you to indicate all these details to vacationers in writing ideally via our secure internal messaging.
    Automatic exemption from any penalty for cancellations: if you have to make a cancellation related to COVID-19, you will be automatically exempt from any penalty for these cancellations, which will not affect your ad's ranking or your status. Premium member. You do not need to contact customer service for this, you just need to select the reason COVID-19 as the reason for cancellation and make at least 50% of the refund to be eligible for this exemption.

The new policy we are implementing may not be perfect, but in this unprecedented period, we believe it offers the best balance to protect vacationers and homeowners. If you have any questions, feel free to visit our help page and / or our Discovery Center, which will be updated every 48 hours.

We have been in contact with thousands of owners over the past few days and I am impressed by your responsiveness in this difficult environment. It is certain that the situation will eventually change and that families will want to go on vacation again. Know that we will be at your side to help you provide them with the best service.

Thank you for your involvement and I express my admiration for your commitment.

Jeff Hurst, President of Abritel HomeAway

[Jo56]

And just now we have had guests arrive, check in early at midday, and then, at 8pm, submit a cancellation for their entire stay, which was instantly approved by Airbnb ......while still expecting to stay the night.

While guests may need to change plans last minute in the current situation it is RIDICULOUS that the system set up by Airbnb would let guests arrive and cancel the reservation completely without so much as sending us a request, so we can confirm if they are leaving the property (after staying the whole day - still requiring a cleaner), or intend to stay the night!

Airbnb, WHAT are you doing???