Why do HOSTS always end up under the bus?

[David6]

Airbnb just announced ANY guest can cancel penalty free for any booking within next month? How are hosts going to survive? What can we do to pay our mortgages/rents/bills.  @Susan17  @Sarah977 
https://twitter.com/airbnb/status/1238912532691259395?s=21

[Paul1255]

@David6  I hope you are well.

This is really really difficult and an absolute nightmare on so many different levels.

Let’s see what “tools and initiatives” Airbnb come up with to support us!

I’m just imagining the announcement now.....

[Piotr48]

@Paul1255 The only tool ABB will give us is a good rope to hang ourselves.

[David6]

@Paul1255  We know the facts. My £75 room in zone 1 London is ‘worth’ £28 according to Airbnb ‘price suggestions.’

Remember after US killings, @Laura_C - you know - supposedly employed to ‘support hosts’ -  with a team of 100+ -  ‘pledged’ brand new policies to support hosts!!

I’m still waiting? with all due respect what has she done for hosts? What policy changes she promised,  re reviews, etc, have changed due to her new polices. Nothing!  Answer!? NONE! @Laura_C .

Hosts are going to commit suicide because of debt & die of heart attacks. Do you KNOW what stress does to people!!!!! I’ve lost £15k already across my listings. All guests received 100% refund even though I have strict cancellation policy. Airlines are NOT offering refunds unless they cancel the flight. 

And now! This new Airbnb policy. All hosts will loose thousands. I honestly hope this catastrophe kills the ‘cancer of greed at heart of current Airbnb.’ The founders make billions on back of us cuddly, passive, generous, ‘make my house your home’ (victims) Or as airbnb call us hosts . What a joke! Any of us? You  really want to be part of this joke of a company? @Susan17  @Sarah977 

[Paul1255]

I 100% echo your feelings @David6 

I’m waking up to the fact that we are Airbnb cannon fodder.

[Ute42]

.

@David6 

Laura doesn't work for airbnb anymore. Your notification is going nowhere.

[David6]

As if it ever did. Thank goodness the useless one left! Could you help me? Who I @now? 

[David6]

I’m trying to find a reference to Laura Chambers quitting. Can you help me? Thank you? 

[Robin4]

@David6 

According to Bloomberg Laura Chambers is still with Airbnb....though I do have to agree with you David, her position (for the host) was/is somewhat mythical!

Cheers.......Rob

[Ute42]

.

@David6 

There is no reference but she's gone. You can @ whoever You want on airbnb but You will not get a result. We're on our own.

[David6]

Sorry @Paul1255 . My apologies. I totally amended & edited my original post. It’s much more critical. I do not expect you to support this latest update. Sorry about that 

[Paul1255]

Still sounds fair to me @David6 

[Ute42]

.

Here's the full information on the new worldwide cancellation policy:

https://news.airbnb.com/extenuating-circumstances-policy-activated-around-the-world/

[Robin4]

@David6  @Paul1255  @Piotr48 

Yeah, Friday 13th was a black day for me, I had 5 cancellations, which bought my months total cancellations to 9. Like everyone else I did think and hope that Airbnb would follow through on their stated Covid-19 terms of guest cancellation but, unfortunately those terms have been thrown out the window and a guest can now cancel without a reason and get a full refund. I had one (a local booking) that simply said..."Sorry the booking doesn't now suit"!

Our state of South Australia has been relatively unaffected, there has been a major streetcar race and a 'Fringe Festival' going on here for a month with no cases reported because of it. Of the 16 total confirmed cases in this state all are the result of overseas travel contact and 9 have recovered and been given the all clear and the rest are in hospital isolation awaiting clearance. Travelling within this state presents virtually no risk but guests are allowed to cancel and receive a fully refund.

We are in for a rocky ride and I feel desperately sorry for those hosts who are dependant on their STR earnings to survive. 

My calendar is suddenly looking very empty but that is not a great concern to me. It will allow me to catch up on some long overdue building maintenance and it will allow me a few more sleep-ins, I don't depend on Airbnb to survive....thank God!

All we can do is offer each other moral encouragement and hope our political leaders start making some decent sound decisions that will take the heat out of this hysteria. All the best guys! 

Cheers.....Rob

[Sarah977]

@David6  My heart goes out to all the hosts who will find themselves in true financial crisis and devastation due to all these cancellations with full refund. What gets me is that Airbnb is totally incapable of thinking outside their box. It didn't have to be upholding cancellation policies at 50% or 100% full refunds. they could have given hosts with guests cancelling reservations where they would have lost at least 50% a token payout of 20%, for instance. This might have had a quite different result on the part of guests who were outraged that a host would get to keep 50% under the current circumstances and still not left the host with nothing. Guests might have been far more willing to understand that the host should at least not get left with $0.

And I don't mean for this to sound harsh or heartless, but to me, Airbnb was never a platform under which entire house rentals with off-site hosts was a smart thing to pursue. Nor is it a smart thing to depend on STRs as one's sole source of income. From the lack of a real security deposit, to their lack of proper vetting procedures, to their micro-managing of host's listings and dealings with guests, despite their claims that hosts are fully in charge of their own listings, to their penchant for always beliving the guest's version of things over the host's, to their broken review system, putting all one's marbles into Airbnb just seems foolish.

The company started out as a home-sharing platform. And the fact is that most home-share hosts have few problems in which we have to involve Airbnb. And tend not to have used Airbnb as their sole source of income. When hosts have accumulated several listings that rent for hundreds of dollars a night and depend on their STR to pay their bills and mortgages, of course it's going to be devastating to have your reservations cancelled. But if I wanted to make STRs my one and only business, I wouldn't do that in a way where Airbnb, or anyone else, gets to call the shots. It's far too risky, as everyone has now come to realize.