Hello everyone,
This conversation is very USA focused, and I am saddened to see that most American hosts do not have a lot of relief options available from their various levels of gov't. Here in Canada, the federal gov't has rolled out a bunch of programs to assists small businesses and independent operators. There are programs for larger employers, but I'll focus here on the programs for small businesses and independent operators/contractos.
The CERB pays out $2,000/month for 4 months to any Canadian citizen who has earned $5,000 in the past 12 months or in calendar 2019. So if you operate and AirBnB and you earned at least $5,000 in 2019 (and you declared the income on your tax return), you qualify for the CERB. There are some other restrictions, but they are not very onerous, so most AirBnB operators who rent out a few rooms in their personal home qualify for this. You can even continue to earn up to $1,000 every 14 day period and still qualify for the program. So I can still accept guests with a payout of up to $1,000 every 14 days while receiving $2,000/month in CERB.
If you are an AirBnB operator who has registered your business, and who has paid between $15,000 and $1.5M in salaries in 2019, you qualify for a $40K interest free loan, 1/4 of which is forgivable if you pay the loan back by Dec 31, 2021. There are some other programs available too, but these two programs are the most pertinent to most AirBnB hosts here. There are certainly gaps in the gov't programs in Canada, but not to the extent that it seems there are in the US.
IMHO, I think that these programs exist because in Canada we have legitimate socialist options in our political sphere. I fear that the US, with only one centre-right, pro-capitalist party and a second extreme-right pro-capitalist party, does not have any socialist-like political pressure to ensure gov't programs distribute relief more equitably. It appears a lot of the bailout money is going to the US military-industrial complex, e.g. at least $17B to Boeing, according to Mother Jones. I may be showing my political biases here.
@Ryan111 I would argue that you can't pay your mortgage because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, exacerbated by AirBnB's inability, or unwillingness, to compensate their hosts in equal measure to their guests. I feel for you. Personally, I believe the ethical thing to do is cancel all, and not accept any further reservations for the foreseeable future from anyone but locals who do not contravene existing travel restrictions. From a purely business standpoint, the guests are AirBnB's main revenue stream, so they are going to do whatever they can to keep them satisfied, even at the expense of the Hosts, apparently.
As for a class action suit, when you signed up for AirBnB you agreed to the following:
19.11 No Class Actions or Representative Proceedings. You and Airbnb acknowledge and agree that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we are each waiving the right to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action lawsuit, class-wide arbitration, private attorney general action, or any other representative proceeding as to all Disputes. Further, unless you and Airbnb both otherwise agree in writing, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one party’s claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of any class or representative proceeding. If the “class action lawsuit” waiver or the “class-wide arbitration” waiver in this Section 19.11 is held unenforceable with respect to any Dispute, then the entirety of the Arbitration Agreement will be deemed void with respect to such Dispute and the Dispute must proceed in court. If the “private attorney general action” waiver or the “representative proceeding” waiver in this Section 19.11 is held unenforceable with respect to any Dispute, those waivers may be severed from this Arbitration Agreement and you and Airbnb agree that any private attorney general claims and representative claims in the Dispute will be severed and stayed, pending the resolution of any arbitrable claims in the Dispute in individual arbitration.
So you agreed to forgo the right to class action in exchange for an arbitration process. While this cuts Hosts off from a class action resolution, there has been interesting developments on the mass arbitration front, as highlighted by some very relevant posts by @Susan17. There may be a lawyer out there who wants to take on a class action suit, not because it will succeed, but because all hosts who sign up for the class action can then form a large pool of Hosts seeking arbitration, thus overwhelming AirBnB's arbitration system and forcing them into a settlement with all Hosts.
If anyone knows of such a legal action taking place, please let me know.