Good morning Mr Chesky, as its 9am where you are, I really hope you see this before your address at 3pm. We are hosts in France, we have 3 properties, one of which is a large manoir with 7 bedrooms, pool etc and ALL Of our rentals are locked in by January/February. Every weekend that goes by (and is essentially cancelled) is over 1000€ lost (this property in particular sells at 550€/night) The option of transferring dates for guests is not possible as between April and September we are at 99% occupancy. This is our main source of income and we pay Airbnb enormous amounts of revenue through fees as do our guests.
All of us worldwide have been extremely thankful and loyal to Airbnb for the platform that you provide I am sure, so please do something right and offer some kind of income support for hosts, not just options to reduce fees for the next 6 months or so. Take a hit, just for now. For us! We will pay you back many times over in loyalty and business knowing that the rental platform we are using over the others, is a top tier one. Some people are also investors and know that your IPO is coming up, and from that angle wouldn't you rather be considered a "company to be associated with" instead of being the company that left their business partners in the dark?
We are all business people, as are you. We all need to take hits in revenues and profits as do you, it's just on a larger scale that you can afford it.
We ask you, do the right thing, make the calculations and look at offering us a percentage of all bookings cancelled until say July, as well as a cut on all fees until the end of 2020. At least that way we know we are in business with a true leader of the tech and accommodation field.
These are one of those moments for a company like yours where you can show investors, partners and the market who you are.
We hope for the best and don't expect the worst.
Thank you for your time.
Daniel.
Investor and Airbnb host.