***WE CANNOT PAY OUR RENT WITH BIG IDEAS: AN OPEN LETTER TO BRIAN CHESKY***

[Rose123]

On March 14, 2020, Airbnb changed policy to allow guests full compensation for cancelled bookings as a result of the current COVID-19 health crisis. This policy overrides existing policies hosts have in place to protect their homes and livelihoods, placing the responsibility of an entire global health pandemic on their shoulders.

Brian, you say your hosts are “heroes”, but everyday heroism can take many forms, and among these is corporate social responsibility. You tweet that Airbnb is concocting “big ideas” to help hosts, but we cannot pay our mortgages, rent, staff and bills with big ideas.

The impact of your March 14 policy change will be rapid and far-reaching. The diverse individuals who comprise your host community will face the very real prospect of eviction. This impacts individuals who may not have another source of income. Or, they may have a hosting income, but are also active participants in creative industries. They are poets, painters, artists, writers, academics, musicians, dancers, ceramicists, bloggers and others who balance the economic precarity of creative work with hosting as a matter of necessity, not luxury. They are the same individuals who, reliant on a gig economy, do not have access to health insurance, nor the protection of employer benefits and sick leave.

Your guests have a refund at stake: your hosts, their homes and livelihoods. We ask you to protect hosts as well as guests. We urge you to reimburse hosts for cancelled reservations according to their cancellation policies. We as a host community do not believe that guests should be traveling in the current health crisis. We also do not think that hosts should suffer crippling losses. We ask you to acknowledge the loyalty – and the revenue – of the hosts who built you. And we ask you to consider how to best support your most precarious hosts, those who will soon be on the verge of eviction.

*** Airbnb hosts, feel free to copy, paste and share. Use the hashtag: helpyourhosts ***

[William1258]

I do 

[Jenny349]

The other top-ranking thread has now been closed, no further replies accepted. 

[Holly424]

I agree! Airbnb's new policy for penalty free cancellation is significantly impacting our ability to be an ongoing concern. Airbnb is stopping us from making a living and benefiting the guests wholly with no concern as how this affects us as hosts. Please stop the penalty free cancellations. Let is keep some portion of the funds as normal hotel would do the same!

[Todd7]

Couldn't agree more! Having been a host for over 10 years, I have seen the gradual and seemingly intentional efforts to skew policies more in favor of the guests, than for hosts. These policies have led me to go from only being an Airbnb host, to diversifying with over 6 different 3rd party hosting sites. This is just another example of a decision that did not take into consideration Airbnbs most important customers, their hosts. By creating a rule that allows for guests to cancel last minute without any compensation whatsoever for hosts is a huge mistake and oversight. Even an option to allow hosts to keep a partial or full amount in exchange for a future compensated night, or discounted rate, to a guest would have been a better compromise than just allowing all guests to get full refunds with no consequences. 

[Amir0]

AIRBNB SHOULD CONTRIBUTE MORE AND BE MORE RESPONSIBLE IN THIS CRISIS (FROM A HOST)

Thank you for the Message airbnb Team.

But i still think with this new created and not approved policy you put all of us Hosts under huge pressure.

We have payments, mortgages and other running costs to pay without ANY possibility to cancel, waive or postpone them. Therefore i think this is a very one-sided decision.

Beside the fact that i totally agree it is a necessity to act solider, understanding and of course try everything to reduce this pandemic it still would need a better solution than you made.

Suggestions to calm the situation and avoid any Lawsuits : 

you could have postpone the booking dates if possible or give guests 1-2 yrs to book this place again with a coupon o.s.

you could give every guest a credit for the amount they have booked and now wish to cancel, so they could book another trip (wherever  and whenever in the future) and you as AIRBNB would cover all extra expenses which whyever would appear

I think you should as our Provider contribute to in this crisis and pay your fair share and not only write nice sounding emails without being anywhere near a situation like us.

I would appreciate an answer to my concerns as a very loyal Super-host member since many years.

Amir

[Cormac0]

@Rose123 

Airbnb et al are finished for the foreseeable future I'm glad i took my property out of the STR business a year ago,  I've got all my properties with long term tenants, I'll come back in when its properly regulated, but at the moment its the wild west with Airbnb the bandits.

That community spiel is all BS and Chesky's worth billions who are the fools?  Well host to be honest, anybody done up their property lately?circa

Don't forget Airbnb are taking a circa 20% wedge for your hard work, yes 20% one fifth  

[Heather276]

We have an AirBnB Plus listing, and two superhost listings. Our bookings have gone from 90-100% occupancy to zero. We can survive, barely, if we pay only for our mortgage and food this month. Have no idea what's happening going forward. I feel that AirBnB is only taking guests' needs into account. When I've tried to call Superhost customer service, they just hang up on me. It's really depressing.

[Esther95]

It's not about more bookings, it's about airbnb honouring the cancellation policies they let us set as part of our agreement. If they chose to override that, then airbnb needs to take the hit for those cancellations they are now accepting. As someone with a strict cancellation policy, that is what I expect, not for the rules I've made for renting MY home, to be overridden by Airbnb, but with me paying for it.

[Chris-and-Andrew0]

You couldn't be more right. This is a terrible policy. I have a "very flexible" cancellation policy so all my guests could have cancelled anyway, but I am commenting on principle alone. You cannot at your discretion change your policy with 100's of thousands of franchisees overnight in the way this was done and the plea to the government that followed for tax reduction is a joke. Put your money where your mouth is and refund your hosts for all the money they lost that your overnight change in policy caused.

[Sarah977]

@Rose123  I am a self-employed "creative person". That doesn't stop me from also being a realist and someone who has worked hard to make sure I'm not just living from month to month and will not be able to pay my bills or feed myself if I don't have airbnb income for a few months. It would never occur to me to live somewhere I couldn't afford without renting out a room nor would it occur to me to assume that listing my place on a site which ultimately controls all the money was some kind of guaranteed income.

Everyone has different skills, talents and interests. There are plenty of people who are losing all kinds of jobs right now. Being a "creative person" is not some special, superior, protected class. 

This pandemic is going to be a wake up call to a lot of people as to how they've been living their lives. And if they don't lern anything from it, well, that's their loss and I guess they'll just continue to make the same mistakes again.

[Rose123]

@Sarah2 now that you've gotten that off your chest, I'd like to invite you to join a constructive discussion. There is a big push in our community towards helping other arts workers, as one category (but not the only category) of small business who will be struggling with rent/mortgage payments over coming weeks and months, during the COVID crisis. I'll be following with a post outlining a couple of resources for this community. Feel free to share if you have friends affected!

[Sarah977]

@Rose123  "Now that you've gotten that off your chest" is about as condescending as it gets, so no, I have no interest in joining what you consider a "constructive discussion". And, as I said, those struggling with rent/mortgage payments, while I sympathize with anyone in financial straits, ought not have gotten themselves in a situation where they assumed that Airbnb would provide them with an ongoing  way to survive month-to month.  

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 

With respect, on several other threads, you're berating other contributors for posting viewpoints that go against the grain of the original tone and topic of the discussion - yet you're doing exactly the same thing yourself. You say you're tired of people "screaming" and complaining about this issue, and tell them to go post on "the other 50 COVID threads", so why would you even be participating in discussions such as this one? 

And there are millions of people out there who have worked every bit as hard as you all their lives, but unlike you, have young families or elderly parents to support, and/or live in areas that have become horribly expensive in recent years, but for one reason or another, can't just up sticks overnight and move to more affordable regions, who have no choice but to live month-to-month. Over and over, you say you "sympathise", or you "feel for those struggling", but quite frankly, your dismissive, superior attitude on this issue suggests that's clearly not the case at all.  

[Sarah977]

@Susan17  With respect (and I think you know how much I respect your contributions here), the posters I have asked to please post on threads which are applicable to their responses are those who did not address the topic of the thread at all, but simply tried to turn the thread into another of the outraged "Airbnb can't do this, it's illegal, we didn't sign up for this" threads. 

It isn't a matter of going against the grain- it's that the posts had nothing to do with the topic. Those threads I have engaged in which I disagree with what many or a majority on a thread are saying, I have done while still staying on topic (this thread was about artists and creative people being deserving of some special consideration) or to point out that what a poster is saying is simply incorrect (i.e. regarding Airbnb's discretionary application of the EC, which their TOS states they have a right to do, whether I agree they should have that right or not, which I don't).

I'm sorry if my posts came across as dismissive or superior, they certainly aren't intended that way, but having sympathy for people's financial plight and pointing out that they should never have considered Airbnb to be a secure income stream are not mutually exclusive. 

BTW, I have lived under the poverty line my entire life, raised 3 kids as a single mom, had to make use of the food bank and welfare services- I know very well what it's like to struggle financially. 

[Rose123]

Hi @Sarah2 as the OP, I can assure you my post was not, in fact, about "artists and creative people being deserving of some special consideration". I'd suggest a re-read, and also, to state that I'm grateful for everyone who contributed supportively to this thread in whatever directions it diverged. 

@Susan17  thanks for your voice! I'm going to have to agree with you here. There's a lot to be done moving forward and I wish you all the best with your next steps.