End of my Airbnb journey and no help in sight...

[Heart-Of-London0]

Over 6 years of working non stop, no holidays, late night arrivals, bending to every guests requests.
All got wiped out in a week, my whole business, my work, my future.
I will have to give back my flat in a month, otherwise I might get bankrupt.
Thousands of visitors and over thousand positive reviews.
I've helped Airbnb to become succesfull, now I'm left all to myself with no future.
Can we expect any help from Airbnb now?

Us, hosts, superhosts who commited in 1000% to brand called Airbnb? 

[Paul1255]

Hi @Heart-Of-London0 

The impact of the current situation is absolutely devastating.

My owners/hosts are in a similar situation to you, as am I by extension.

I’m sorry to say I can’t imagine that any ‘help’ Airbnb might offer to hosts further down the line would fix the situation so many hosts suddenly find themselves in.

[Beate99]

Take action: give 70% discount during March/April, take passengers just for the cleaning costs, annonce flexible cancellation policy. Work to save your business. For those who survive, Airbnb will be even better than ever.

[Sarah977]

@Beate99  How can accepting guests at zero profit save anyone's business? How will that help them to pay their bills? What am I missing re your suggestion?

[Sam397]

@Heart-Of-London0 I am sorry to hear that you are no longer going to be able to host, you are right, that was a very good run.      @Beate99 How is cutting prices 70% going to help, 30% doesnt even come close to cover the cost to operate my listing and its not going to do him any good if he loses money. Plus I dont see how AirBnB will be better than ever after what they have done.

[Ute42]

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@Heart-Of-London0 

What kind of support could we expect from airbnb in this situation?  That they compensate millions of hosts for the loss of income due to corona? That's impossible. That's just too much money and noone should hope for that.

What's the average monthly income each of the 5 Million airbnb hosts have around the world - 500 USD? If airbnb wanted to compensate 500 USD to 5 M hosts for one month, we are talking 2.5 Billion USD for one month only. Airbnb just doesn't have that amount of money.

[Mark116]

@Ute42 @ The only things I can think of that would be realistic are  they could boost the single listing hosts in the search results and they might give a $100 credit to be applied to future travel to all guests who have cancelled, e.g. a discount so they aren't spending $$ but are encouraging people to start traveling again.  It would be a nice gesture if they would also give hosts a similar cred

After being pretty much booked solid for 4 years, right now we have $1000 in reservations on the books for the entire year.  So, we may be done with this phase as well. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Beate99 

Sadly a lot of people also have to cover rent/financing costs. I actually think dropping the price is absolutely the WRONG thing to do. People are just not travelling - reducing the price will not overcome a closed border or a Trump travel ban. Far better to take what little business there is at a reasonable price - some people will still travel especially when they get bored with the media hype and realise that for many many lucky people Corona Virus is just a bad cold/dose of flu.

[Helen3]

Oh dear @Heart-Of-London0 

I am somewhat puzzled as to why you would have to give back your flat so quickly  after a week of this situation when you have been listing two rooms in London for six years plus.

Is there a reason that you can't move over to long term lets. Being in London where there is a huge shortage of rented accommodation you would fill both rooms very easily.

Good luck.

[Marie82]

@Helen3  i am surprised everyone saying it is going to be easy to let to long term tenant when we hear daily millions of jobs will be lost, and company are laying off staffs around the world starting with the UK.

In such an uncertainty even long term rental is not safe. You can rent ur flat tomorrow to a long term tenant and a few weeks later he loses his job? what next 

[Helen3]

We have a city of 10 million and have a massive over demand for accommodation in our capital, made worse by the advent of STRs. @Marie82 . It has been affecting our whole economy as low paid key workers can't afford to live in London and it is affecting our abilities to run our health, social care, public transport etc.

That's why the legislation was brought in to limit whole listings to 90 days. @Marie82 

No reason @Heart-Of-London0  couldn't use something like Spareroom.com to do a two or three month let. With deposit up front and rent in advance, the risk of not being paid is not that strong.