Tune in for a message to our hosts from CEO Brian Chesky at 3 p.m. PT March 30.

[Airbnb]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has posed unprecedented challenges for the world, including our community of hosts and guests. This is a once-in-a-generation crisis, and we know hosts like you are feeling the biggest impact—so many of you rely on income from your Airbnb properties, and you’re facing a lot of uncertainty right now. 

Over the past three weeks, we’ve hosted more than 50 online listening sessions with hosts from around the world to connect and hear your feedback. As a follow-up, CEO Brian Chesky will be talking to you from his home in San Francisco. He’ll be answering some of the questions you’ve asked about our extenuating circumstances policy, how to host during COVID-19, and more.

Bookmark this page to watch his talk live at 3:00 p.m PT Monday, March 30. Can’t make it at that time? We’ll share a recording with you after the event. 

For more answers to your questions about hosting during this challenging time, please visit Airbnb.com/COVID—we’ll keep updating it with trends, tips, and information on everything we're doing to support our community.

Thank you once again for being a host. We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy.

[Linda108]

I participated in one of these feedback sessions with about 60 other hosts from the US.  I was quite pleased with the quality of the feedback with good constructive recommendations.  Since we broke into smaller groups of about 6 hosts, everyone had a chance to express themselves.

[Lizzie]

This is great to hear @Linda108, thanks so much for sharing. 

I hope your weekend is going well.

Stay safe. 

Lizzie

[Susan17]

This had better be good.. the survival of Mr Chesky's company may very well depend on it.. 

Should be interesting to finally hear what the plans are for the post-April 14th EC/refund policies, because it's a pretty safe bet that had to be one of the most-asked questions in every single one of those 50 "listening" sessions. 

[Danielle476]

I'll prepare my 'feel-good' response Bingo card now.  Waiting for buzzwords like:

-Fluid environment

-Continue to monitor the situation

-We're listening

-We hear you

-We want to support hosts

-Looking for feedback

-Your input is important

-Can't do this without you

-Appreciate your patience

-Understand your concerns

-We're looking into it

And other non-answers.  I'm curious whether he'll address CS granting full refunds to guests whose reservations fell well outside of the current extenuating circumstance policy.  We'll see!

[Paul6381]

Well said.

[Juan63]

@Danielle476 you forgot the word of the day, "community." lol

[Robin4]

@Danielle476 

Yeah Danielle, I'm with you.....you have summed it up perfectly and frankly I would consider it a waste of time to watch another of these 'rev-up' sessions.

I would like to hear.....

"As a token of our appreciation we are offering all our hosts a $200 payout for every one of their reservations that has been cancelled due to this Covid-19 pandemic"!

"To build  both host and guest confidence that we are serious about the long term 'health' of Airbnb we are lowering our guest service fees to a flat 10% for guests and  removing the host service fee for the next 12 months. By doing that we will be attracting users from other platforms thereby  guaranteeing our sustainability and survival"!

"Due to the nature of the current pandemic we here at Airbnb understand fully that as far as hosts are concerned it is vital that they have every bit of information possibly when assessing the risk of accepting a reservation during this difficult time.  We have no desire to put our hosts at risk so, from this point Airbnb will not allow a guest to book an Airbnb hosts listing unless a full travel statement can be provided  and positive identification that can be passed on to the host for assesment"!

'We understand that we are all in this together and we are prepared to put our money where our mouth is and  open our contact options to sympathetically look at and discus ways we can help our hosts"

But.....I am a realist!

I just read the information on the link Airbnb.com/COVID—  

It's all about what we hosts need to do to facilitate guests!

Adopt a more flexible cancellation policy.

Open your calendar for longer stays—and offer weekly or monthly discounts.

Let guests know your space has the amenities they need right now.

Offer self check-in.

Review your cleaning routine.

Enabling hosts to offer refunds directly

Helping guests find listings with flexible cancellation policies.

All Airbnb are offering is the ability for hosts to give guests a smoother ride. There is not a single word in there concerning what Airbnb will tangibly do to help hosts through this crisis!

Nah, I think I will find something better to do with my time....Like I said, I'm with you Danielle!

Cheers.......Rob

[Evelyn653]

How to you expect Airbnb's employees (direct and indirect) to be paid if the only income is from the service fee? 

[Susan1188]

@Evelyn653 They get hundreds of thousands (millions?) of bookings each day, from the millions of properties on their website.
Well, maybe not right now.  But in normal times.
Each booking brings in from 10 to 400 euros, maybe more for luxury properties and long term stays. My places often book with 200-500 euro service fees. 

But you are right, client support and web development are employee intensive and costly for Airbnb and many hosts don't realize this.

I would love to see their financial statements, income, breakdown of expenses between CS, web development, google and FB ads, etc...  That would be interessting.

[Tamara2]

How are we supposed to survive this if Airbnb left us high and dry and sided 100% with guests. Brian is worth so much money, he can pay you all from his own private bank. He betrayed us hosts. We will not forgive or forget this. 

[Robin4]

@Evelyn653 

Ev, It appears that the amount of refunds Airbnb are offering is quite limited. There are posts popping up all over the world about Airbnb still treating this whole thing as 'business as usual'....here is just one example but, I could post at least 100 that I have seen over the past week......

Airbnb have no doubt calculated how much they need to keep the business maintained, it would appear that there is plenty of money in the piggy bank,  and there is overwhelming evidence guest refunds  should not be impacting Airbnb providing some sort of support for the hosting community they claim is the first priority!

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Evelyn653  The only income isn't from the service fee, by any means. Airbnb sits on host's payments until a day after the guest checks in. Some guests may book months ahead, even  year if they are booking for a holiday time in a popular place. Air bnb is sitting on millions of dollars of guest payments at any one time, and earning interest on the money. And I believe they make money on their bogus "currency conversion" fees, as well. 

[Daniel84]

The statement you just wrote is something I think we would all love to hear! I really hope the CEO is seeing this right now. 

[Rebecca181]

@Danielle476  Bet we won't hear "infinite" / "infinity"  and other over-excitable  'buzz-words' being used the past two years by Airbnb Corporate, either.