Landlord wants to sell bc COVID. How to cancel future bookings without incurring fees?

[Ayontika0]

Our apartment has been empty for months because of COVID.  I live in Melbourne, Australia, where we /just/ came out of a 112 day lockdown. Interstate travel was (and is) banned, and even local Melbournians were forbidden to be out without a valid reason. 

I am the property manager and the Airbnb host, and the landlord is one of my relatives. Given that we've made such a huge loss, the landlord wants to either sell the property or put it up for long term lease (min 1 year). Right now, I have on average just one booking a month till February (people who booked before the pandemic), but I am not sure I'll be able to honor their booking. 

How do I cancel those bookings without incurring a fine from Airbnb? I tried searching for a similar post on this forum, but the only thing I found was this old post from 2016 where the host incurred a $500 fine!
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Has-anyone-sold-their-home-and-had-to-cancel-reservation...

[Ayontika0]

@Helen427 I do have the property open for AirBnb's frontline stays programme, so it's possible that that is what you are seeing. I have offered it to community workers, paramedics, and people escaping domestic violence. Since the place is empty for weeks at a time, I thought it might be a good thing to offer those on the frontline a place to stay for free.

Apart from that, it is actually not possible in Melbourne to take any booking that is less than 5 days minimum (Airbnb has implemented this into their system), and there's also 3 days blocked on the calendar before and after. 

Also, I am not a tenant and I am not "moving" - the landlord has decided to sell the property, which is a decision I have nothing to do with.