Potential UK lockdown

[Susan1092]

In the UK, it looks as though we are heading for another full Covid lockdown. Will AirBnb be refunding all future guests in full, again? Or will they be leaving it up to hosts on whether to refund or not? I imagine guests to be entitled to a full refund as this will be a Government directive.

[Huma0]

@Ute42 

This guest is enquiring about a 3.5 week booking in approximately six weeks time. That is not far out at all when you host long-term guests. Most of them book months ahead in normal circumstances and six weeks ahead is even slightly late in the day.

Of course, everything is different now but now, more than ever, I prefer long-term guests rather than short-term travellers coming and going every few days. Sure, I can get the occasional last minute booking from a long-term guest, but I'd say that is fairly unusual.

What I would like is to know where I stand. If the guest books now but changes her mind at the last minute, will the stated COVID-19 EC policy apply, i.e. she will only get maximum 50% back, OR, will she get a full refund and I'll be left in the lurch with my most popular room vacant for almost a month? There is a point after which we can't endure these losses of income anymore!

So, I basically warned her off, telling her to consider both the quarantine restrictions and the cancellation policy. It would not be my normal strategy to try to deter an otherwise lovely sounding guest with excellent reviews, but what can one do?

[Ute42]

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@Huma0  

I'm afraid we have to be realistic. Airbnb will always give guests the opportunity to cancel for free. Airbnb has the world as a marketplace, we hosts though are in a specific location and can't move.

I'f there's a lockdown in the UK all UK hosts may lose their reservations for a specific timeframe and airbnb may lose their service fee, but they are still getting service fees from bookings of all other places in the world. So while UK hosts are loosing 100% of their revenue, airbnb only looses X% of their revenue.

But all guests who have gotten a 100% refund are happy guests and will come back to the platform later and again book places all around the world. Maybe it's in the best interest of airbnb to get as many bookings on their platform as possible, no matter if 100% of them in a certain area get canceled later.

I know that's a little pessimistic what I'm posting here, but perhaps that's just the way it is.

It would be helpful if airbnb would just tell us the truth.

cc: @Yadira22 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Huma0 If it becomes illegal to host then Airbnb will, almost certainly, refund the guests in full as this is what the law requires them to do. I guess they could challenge the law but it would be bad publicity and they would almost certainly lose.

I am not sure it makes sense to put this guest off as any other guests will be in the same position.

[Huma0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Yes, if there is another ban on STRs here, the all other guests will be in the same position. However, if there is not, I am finding that there is interest especially from local guests even during a lock down as people who are in between homes or relocating for a job still need somewhere to stay. The thing with this particular guest is that her stay makes no sense according to the current restrictions, i.e. quarantine.

So, unless that restriction is lifted, she is almost certainly going to cancel her stay. In theory, she would not be covered by the EC as it's currently written, but as I don't trust Airbnb to stick to their own policies and have my back, do I want to risk this guest cancelling last minute and getting a 100% refund when I could have hosted a local guest or someone from an exempt country instead?

[Huma0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Also, it's worth noting that when Airbnb blocked our calendars back in the Spring, this did not apply to existing bookings. I did have a UK based guy stay with me (which I was comfortable with as he was 100% adhering to the lock down restrictions), because he booked before the block was put in place and so was allowed to stay. Airbnb did not cancel existing bookings when both host and guest were happy to proceed.

As for the legalities of that, I double checked what it said on the Government's website, where there was a long list of exemptions from this ban. I even spoke to CS about it and they agreed with me that certain guests fell within the exemptions and it was perfectly legal to host them. However, Airbnb applied a blanket ban for all new bookings in shared listings regardless of if it was legal or not, with the exemption of the NHS/front line scheme.

So, I will continue to follow the law and my own common sense before Airbnb's ever changing policies.

[Super47]

@Huma0

Worth noting too, that when calendars were blocked, Airbnb were still advertising hotels and 'serviced' apartments on their HotelTonight portal. 

[Huma0]

@Super47 

Yes, I remember that very clearly! 

I had a very interesting conversation about it with an acquaintance from the BBC who found it highly suspect...

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Huma0 I agree Airbnb need to sort this out. I recently lost a booking because the guest believed the text in bold in your post. The stupid thing is Airbnb cannot, even by writing in bold text, override the law of the country in question. So the truth is Airbnb will be forced to fully refund but in the interim, until they sort out their wording, they will lose bookings to other platforms. Lets hope @Catherine-Powell can get these words sorted as well but I fear this may be too much to ask.

[Huma0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Sorry to hear you lost a booking because of this.

Actually, I added the bold to highlight the discrepancy between what is written in the current policy and what Catherine said when asked to clarify on this point. The words are the same though.

I know from my experiences back in March and April (as I am sure do many other hosts) that CS reps will go completely off policy when issuing COVID related refunds. I don't know how many times I had to remind them of what was written in their own policy.

I am also not getting the impression based on current enquiries that guests are aware of the fact that they are not automatically entitled to a full refund if they booked after 14th March. I don't want bookings from people who are hedging their bets and wanting to book even when their plans are up in the air because they assume they will get their money back anyway. I would like to simply direct them to the policy so they can hear it from the horse's mouth, but as I don't trust Airbnb to stick to the policy, that seems a bit pointless also.

[Super47]

@Susan1092 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Ute42 @Huma0 @Yadira22 and everyone

What needs to be understood here is that any and all decisions taken by Airbnb at this point in time (and indeed throughout this pandemic) are 100% IPO-driven. What Catherine Powell has to say, or whatever is stated in Version 561 of the Extenuating Circumstances policy, is totally irrelevant and immaterial in the great scheme of things - that's all just smoke and mirrors. Whatever actions Airbnb choose to take in relation to anything right now are nothing to do with COVID-19, or local/regional laws, or public health and safety - it's all about making the figures look robust, and frantically trying to push the IPO over the finish line, before time runs out (and preferably before the US elections in November) 

The Q2 2020 figures were dismal - revenue was only 28% of what it was for the same period in 2019, with losses of $335million. The best - and possibly only - chance they have now of pulling this IPO off successfully is to convince investors of their "miraculous rebound" story, and in order to do that, it's imperative that the can show super-impressive financials for Q3. (July, Aug, Sept) This is where the "attest for full refund in vouchers" ploy is so crucial - the guests get their vouchers, Airbnb gets to sit on the cash to beef up their financials. So you can be sure that Airbnb will be (are) issuing "refunds" left, right and centre. If they push it, some guests will receive their refunds in cash (with or without service fees extracted, depending on how much noise they make), but the majority will have to make do with their single-use vouchers.

There will, of course, be some variations on the theme, depending on the support agent one gets (always good to create as much confusion as possible so nobody can figure out what the heck is going on) but that's how it's been working throughout the entire crisis, and that's how it's working now.

[Huma0]

@Ute42 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Super47 

I think you are all right. Smoke and mirrors indeed. The current wording of the EC policy (which guests seem to read far less than hosts in my experience) may well be a PR exercise to appease hosts for now but is not worth the paper it's written on.

[Yadira22]

@Huma0 and other London based hosts

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1337818/London-lockdown-Matt-Hancock-Sadiq-Khan-coronavirus-COVID-...

Supermarket slots etc are running out and stock levels are looking very reduced in certain areas- please prepare for a second potential lockdown, purchase long lasting foods eg Pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes etc  Thanks. 🙂

[Huma0]

Thanks @Yadira22 

I have plenty of dried, tinned and frozen food at home. What I found to be much more of an issue last time was cleaning products, basic fresh food like eggs and, of course, toilet paper!!

[Helen3]

Oh the toilet paper rush ... couldn’t believe some people’s behaviour - appalling 😢😢😢

[Yadira22]

@Huma0 and @Helen3 

For TP we purchased from places like 

https://www.bumboo.eco/ 

and also installed a bidet spray 

For consumables

https://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/

We purchased 5kg of detergent, hand wash etc and top up as we go along

For Milk, Water and Drinks

We recommend places like Costco or Macro 

Look into buying a filter as to have filtered water

Purchase long life milk in packs, plant based milk generally does not need refrigeration until open

For fresh produce

https://farmstofeedus.org/

The website above links local farmers who would generally sell to restaurants ect to direct consumers- fresher meat and a more direct sales channel. You are also able to support the farmers more directly. 

Good luck and hope this helps. x