@Shannon199 If you read through the dozens of threads posted by hosts in the last week on this very topic, you'll see that the majority of hosts now share your view. And many were making this very point long before the COVID-19 crisis demonstrated on a spectacularly global scale what a horrible idea the Extenuating Circumstances policy always was. I fully agree with you on that.
But we should also consider the background a bit. Before the pandemic reached its height, Airbnb was already showing rapidly declining profit, spooking the investors who hold the company afloat just as it was planning an IPO. Now, many sectors of the travel industry are facing disastrous losses, and Airbnb is in an especially vulnerable position considering that the only things it owns are brands. The market was already oversaturated with hosts - not much room for growth on that end, or any need to be more host-friendly - but if the core brand loses its edge among guests, the whole enterprise is toast. Sadly, hosts are going to have to realize how utterly expendable they are and have been for years from Airbnb's perspective.
Building a costly new feature on a non-profit basis to support hosts it could do without? Take a look at Airbnb's top investors and tell me if that's the kind of thing they would do: https://app.dealroom.co/companies/airbnb
