When did this appear?

[Colleen253]

Was just doing my regular listing check to see if any settings had spontaneously changed etc, and noticed this has been recently added under the Health & safety banner:

I notice it doesn't appear when I'm previewing my listing on the app. It links to: https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2839/what-are-the-health-and-safety-guidelines-for-hosts-and-gues... which I haven't seen before. When was that put up? I hate the constant feeling of being in the dark and the lack of consistent notification to hosts about news and updates. We should automatically be alerted to these things before they are put on our listings, not find out by accident after the fact. Am I just missing some great 'opt in to ALL communications' that all of you already know about? I do get the odd email digests from Airbnb and I do read them, but I do not recall seeing anything about this.

Within that help article I notice this:

"If you're a guest, you will not be eligible for a refund if your host cancels your reservation because you did not comply with these guidelines. Similarly, if you're a host, you will not be eligible for a payout if a guest cancels their stay because you did not comply with the health and safety guidelines." 

Good to know.

[Debra300]

Please note the wording.  Airbnb says the host will not be eligible for a payout, not that guests will get a refund.  I interpret this to mean if a guest departs on day 4 of a 7 day reservation, Airbnb will not refund them and they will not payout to the hosts for the nights stayed.  Although it also states that guest's won't be eligible for refunds for breaching the guidelines, Airbnb doesn't specify which part of the stay would be ineligible for a refund, the night stayed or the nights remaining on the reservation.  Since Airbnb has shown a history of accusing hosts of misdeeds without details or proof of the offense, I see this as another potential area of abuse by Airbnb to retain funds.  

@Colleen253 @Huma0 @Michelle53 @Lawrene0 @Emiel1 @Mark116 

[Huma0]

@Debra300

Yes, it's very, very vague.

However, one would assume that if a guest chose to leave because a host was not following the safety measures and reported it to Airbnb, they would at least get a partial refund. Maybe they just have to make sure they follow the general rules for that, but who knows?

We saw for COVID-19 credit refunds that guests were finding if they used the credit on a lower value stay, they would lose the rest. Well, it seems that isn't exactly true, as they need to contact Airbnb to have the remaining credit activated, but the fact that the rest of the credit mysterious disappears from their accounts in the meantime, and the need to contact Airbnb to reinstate it is conveniently hidden in the small print of some ToS that most guests are never going to read.

I'm sure it's not that complicated to simply leave the remaining credit in their account in the first place so why make it so difficult and confusing? Why make them contact CS when CS is already so stretched? Could it be they are just hoping guests will assume they've lost that credit and forget about it?

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

After reading many posts here in the community, I no longer assume that Airbnb will judiciously follow and apply their own rules.  As a result of these new rules, we can expect to see more posts from hosts who were not paid, and guest who didn't receive a refund, due to unsubstantiated claims.  Since there is no transparency or oversight, Airbnb can apply the policy in whatever manner they see fit.

The large amount of posts stating that guests were given refunds contrary to the host's and Airbnb's cancellation policies is a prime example of how the company contorts the administration of guidelines  so that it benefits financially. 

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

Yes, I am sure you are right. Why otherwise is this all so very vague?

The other issue is the apparent lack of training of so many CS reps. So, it's not just Airbnb deliberately trying to benefit financially from the situation, it's often a case of CS reps randomly making decisions that are contrary to Airbnb policy. Every time new policies like this are introduced, or further complicated, the more frequently these mistakes happen. I mean, how often do we as hosts have to explain Airbnb policy to CS? I've had to do it numerous times.

During the initial onslaught of COVID-19 refunds, a couple of my long-term, existing guests were given full refunds even though they did not qualify. They were even refunded some or all of the nights they had already stayed! There was no financial benefit in Airbnb doing this. Nor was it to appease the guests as these guests were not asking for full refunds and were expecting to pay as per the long-term cancellation policy.

Still, the various reps who dealt with these cases made mistake after mistake after mistake, sometimes overcharging the guests, sometimes refunding them too much. After refunding a guest for two weeks she had already stayed with me, the rep told me (only when repeatedly grilled about why she had done this) that it was up to me and the guest to sort out the money she owed me for those two weeks!

Yep, I eventually got it sorted after a month of non-stop calls, messages and a serious amount of stress. I lost weight, I lost sleep, but I got my money back. Yet, Airbnb had to pay this from their own pocket. The guests and the money were long gone. One even got a free stay. There was definitely no financial gain for Airbnb involved there, rather a loss and a lot of wasted CS time. Even though none of us ended up losing out financially (unless you count my time into the equation - the equivalent of at least a full working week), the guests and I all walked away with a bad taste in our mouths, so Airbnb did not gain in terms of reputation either.

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

"The other issue is the apparent lack of training of so many CS reps. So, it's not just Airbnb deliberately trying to benefit financially from the situation, it's often a case of CS reps randomly making decisions that are contrary to Airbnb policy."

I think that Airbnb is fully aware of costs associated with employing poorly trained customer service reps.  Instead of spending resources to properly train their staff, they have implemented vague, poorly publicized, rules that puts the onus on hosts and guests to pay for the shortcomings.

[Ann72]

@Colleen253  I can't find it anywhere, but I think that's because under I have said "no" to "some spaces are shared"?

[Emiel1]

@Ann72 

It is at the bottom of the listing, under "things to know", i see it also on your listings.

[Ann72]

@Emiel1   I see "Things guests should know" followed by "Safety and other considerations," but after I click edit I don't see anything about Covid or anything I haven't seen before.

[Ann72]

@Emiel1  Oh hang on, I see it in the preview - it's not something we can edit.  That wasn't clear to me before you wrote that you saw it on my listings.