Are you hosts stooping to lowering your prices during this COVID-19 shutdown?

[Pete69]

Are you hosts stooping to lowering your prices during this COVID-19 shutdown? I sure aren't. I see some dropping their prices 25% to 40%. By doing that, I think you're increasing your risk of attracting some very undesirable guests.

[Helen3]

Not sure why you are having a dig at the UK in terms of freedom of speech. I haven't seen it 'well-documented' that the UK has given away its rights to free speech. @Juan63 

This country has a long history of free speech throughout the centuries. Most decent, reasonable people would agreed that racism, child abuse and holocaust denier 'jokes' have no place in comedy routines. Neither has incitement to racial hatred...... sad to see you supporting this in the name of 'freedom of speech'? did you actually read the article you linked to?

As comedienne Shappi Khorsandi says "Call me an old stick in the mud but any “joke” that conjures up an image of the Holocaust, child abuse, rape – that sort of thing – just isn’t for me. Racism too, for some reason, doesn’t float my comedy boat."

As others have mentioned the UK is two or three weeks ahead of the US in terms of corona virus cases so there is little point comparing what is happening in the UK with what is happening in Texas particularly as our geographies and infrastructure are completely different.

What is important is that we all do all that we can to help halt the spread of the pandemic to minimise the loss of lives and make sure our health services are not overwhelmed.

[Juan63]

@Helen3If you are so willing to give up one civil liberty, it's pretty easy to see why you would give up another.You don't have to like what is said in order to allow it to be heard. That was her point. "Hate Speech" is free speech. 

[Helen3]

That is one point of view @Juan63 . In the UK incitement to racial hatred is a crime. As is child abuse. It is not something that we advocate in the name of 'freedom of speech'.

Rather than you carrying on taking cheap shots at the UK on a subject that is nothing to do with STRs or the current pandemic, can we get back to the subject at hand.

[Helen350]

@Juan63 We DO still have free speech in the UK. (Believe me, I KNOW.) But free speech and THREATS to or ABUSE of another human being are different & separate issues.   

[Sally221]

A mere month and a half ago, Washington state had the most Covid deaths, a whopping 47-it isn't just the number of deaths, it's the rate of infection spread.

But, hey, go for it Texas, Florida etc just stay out of my state if you please- California, with 40 million people plus, and the first in the nation to stay at home. ( & the 8th biggest economy in the world)  There are 7 million plus people in the San Francisco bay area & we have had about 120 people die (I won't say "only")  Southern California has not done as well as they haven't taken isolation as seriously. I think the painful truth is sinking in. We have health care for all (Covered California) and free speech and didn't vote for the guy who thinks he's king. I am just as much an American as anyone from the rest of the country, a card carrying member of the ACLU and I believe that facts matter.

[Sarah977]

@Juan63  Is that why Texas has gone from 1 case a month and a half ago to 20,000 now? Because your state is level-headed and reasonable?

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Pete69 

Regardless of reason, I'd never lower my prices to less than what I believe my listing is worth. This has nothing to do with undesirable guests. I simply have no intention of underselling myself, my home, and what I offer. 

[Anonymous]

We're all capable of calculating our break-even point when it comes to expenses, and a reasonable added-value rate accounting for risk and enough profit to make the labor worthwhile.  If you're priced below the sum of all that, it's a losing game - a big company with the resources to borrow against the future can always undercut you. But if you've been benefiting from a bubble market and consistently overvaluing your listing, then when the bubble bursts you'll have to either drop your rates or close up shop.  The economy doesn't wait for your ego.

[Fred13]

"The economy doesn't wait for your ego, to catch up with reality". There, I 'fixed it for you @Anonymous . LoL

[Donald28]

Nope. I'd rather not devalue my place. You know how airbnb advertises the absolute lowest price you have for any given day and then when people click on a july 4th weekend they're aghast and upset that your price really isn't $49 a night. 

[Anonymous]

@Donald28   To Airbnb's credit, they aren't doing this anymore. Now nightly rates display in search results only when you add dates. This is one example of a feature that has improved as a result of host feedback.

[Donald28]

wow I had no idea. I will have to check that again soon. They always displayed my lowest price... like a midweek during the winter so when a potential guest makes a request for july 4th weekend they're flabbergasted to see it's no $99 a night... it's $299.  

[Mark116]

Just an example in terms of risk comparison.   My mother lives in a rural county with only 12 cases and only a few hundred in her entire state, all concentrated in a city several hundred miles from her.

The city I live in has more than 3000 cases already several hundred have died.  Logically, even though my mother would have to drive many hours get here, hosting her would be many times less risky than hosting anyone who either lives or works or has come to work in Jersey City.  The risk in hosting her or someone like her is all on them, because I and my location are the risk factor.

Some of these comments that people are making are simply not logical.  Certainly, a lot of people are doing dumb things and taking unnecessary risks, but that doesn't mean that every one is or that all risks are the same.  Or, that hosts who want to still host aren't capable of doing their own risk assessments and doing them credibly. 

[Anonymous]

Until we have extensive, universally available testing - including randomized, representative samples of asymptomatic people, we don't actually know the degree of risk that comes with any given traveler.

If you really want to put your Logic cap on, consider two key facts:  the virus has an incubation period of up to 14 days, and it can be spread to others by an asymptomatic carrier. If an outbreak occurred in in your mom's county yesterday, we could be well into next week before you start seeing people testing positive. And even that is assuming that the people affected have access to testing, or even to health care. (The latter factors complicate the data immeasurably).

[Emilia42]

Agreed, I live in a rural area. We are still moving about. I am lucky to have moved forward with some last-minute longer-term reservations. We have had 34 deaths in my entire state (all 100+ miles south of me.)  Many people have stopped wearing masks. I am renting one space this week to a local nurse but they decided to just go home after their shifts because the threat just isn't there. 

My family's store is still open and unfortunately, because of the hysteria my parents and I have taken on the job of 'personal servants' to many able-bodied people who are in much greater health than my parents. All while every. single. friend. I know is making more money on unemployment than they have ever made before.