@Sarah977 @J-Renato0
The VRBO guests (and only a minority of those who chose not to adequately protect themselves by purchasing comprehensive travel insurance) only started to kick off after Airbnb's global media campaign, blasting out to the world that their lucky guests - who aren't required to take responsibility for their own travel disruptions - would be getting 100% refunds.
Airbnb's risky and ill-advised gamble to appease guests at the expense of hosts has backfired terribly, for a number of reasons. Firstly, they've managed to alienate a huge percentage of their host base, many of whom were previously fiercely loyal to the company. That will have serious long-term repercussions, and apart from losing many of their best and most experienced hosts, it will certainly constitute a huge deterrent to a large number of potential new hosts, who may have been considering throwing their hat in the Airbnb ring.
Secondly, guests have been having nightmares trying to get their full refunds, due to massive CX failures, incorrect manual processing, untrained staff, miscalculations, glitches, inability to get responses etc etc. So even many of those who have eventually managed to get their refunds, still won't use Airbnb again. (I had one guest message me last night whose cancellation notification indicates that he's due a refund of $368. He received a grand total of $9, and after repeated attempts to get clarification, over the space of three weeks, he still has no answers as to how that happened, where the missing $359 has gone (his host received $0), and when - if ever - he'll receive the balance)
Thirdly, the long delay in extending the deadline to May 31st resulted in guests with upcoming reservations posting furiously all over the internet - including Airbnb's own official FB and Twitter pages, decrying the lack of information forthcoming from the company on what their plans might or might not be, leaving them in limbo. Also, guests with reservations as far away as the end of the year are now losing their minds and stridently demanding their entitlements to full 100% refunds right now too, which is causing untold friction.
Probably the most insidious and irreparably damaging consequence of the whole debacle is the all-out war it's ignited amongst the fabled Airbnb "community" - hosts are hating on hosts, guests are hating on hosts, hosts are hating on guests, and just about everyone is hating on Airbnb. The ugliness and nastiness that's flying about everywhere is just shocking to behold - some of the messages I've seen between guests and hosts would make your hair stand on end. Tempers are frayed, emotions are running out of control, and much of the stuff being posted on social media - from both sides - is just horrendous.
As for the self-stated cornerstone of Airbnb's brand image - "trust" has well and truly left the building, never to return. One thing that the company failed to take into account - even though they may have quite happily have accepted their 100% refunds (or in lots of cases, were gifted them even where they hadn't requested them), many guests still also feel that Airbnb have treated their hosts appallingly, and are acutely aware that they've been screwed over. Whether or not one has personally borne the brunt of such cavalier and unethical behaviour, it will still have the unfortunate effect of making people extremely wary of dealing with that company again, in case they're the ones on the receiving end next time.
So all in all, it appears that rather than placing all their money on the one horse, Airbnb really should have plumped for an each-way bet.
