We have been with AirBnB for several years now with our dozen or so properties, and for the first few years we felt they were a real improvement on other similar companies. In the past few months though, we have been hit by unexpected actions by AirBnB, and it is important that other hosts realise there are actually real risks in hosting through AirBnB that they may not be aware of:
1) AirBnB can cancel any booking, at any time, even after the date of check-in, and return 100% of the money to the guests irrespective of whatever cancellation policy you have on AirBnB and with no discussion with you as the host.
2) AirBnB can just stop paying out money to you, even after guests have checked out and you as a host have incurred all the costs of having had them stay.
In the past few months AirBnB has carried out both of these actions against us, so let me explain more how AirBnB justifies this.
The first action is able to be taken by AirBnB under the "Extenuating Circumstances" policy which allows AirBnB to cancel any booking with zero notice and zero discussion with hosts for a legitimate reason. The first that hosts will know about an "Extenuating Circumstances" claim is when they receive an email from AirBnB saying the booking has been cancelled and the guests repaid.
For us we only found out after the guests had physically failed to turn up at the property and after we had already purchased food for the guests and hired staff (the booking included breakfast and housekeeping/cook). This was on a high season week that we could have filled several times over. While the guests did have a fully legitimate and unfortunate reason to cancel (a death of an elderly family relative, although not one of the party travelling) there was no notice to us by either the guests, or AirBnB, and no willingness to even consider other options such as claiming on travel insurance, or deferring the stay to a later date - just an obligation for the full 100% refund from us as the host.
The issue for us is a process whereby AirBnB sets itself up as both judge and jury; does not allow the hosts to provide any counter-evidence; and does not even inform the hosts that a claim has been made until after it has decided its ruling.
This process is just wrong, and that is before you even consider whether it is right for a host to have to pay all the costs preparing a property, but then, through no fault of their own, receive none of the expected income .
This policy also fuels moral hazard as well. Why should a guest ever purchase travel insurance for a booking through AirBnB? Instead they can call up AirBnB and get their money refunded anyway and avoid the hassle of an actual insurance claim. AirBnB's Extenuating Circumstances policy essentially means that every Host is (whether they know it or not) providing free travel insurance to guests, and is obligated to repay them if the guests have a legitimate claim that guests would normally have had to make through their holiday insurance company, and bizarrely the host has zero rights to even question such claims.
The second action is able to be taken by AirBnB under no policy at all it seems, but instead under the guise of something called "routine security checks". Apparently AirBnB gives itself the right to suspend payouts to hosts, even after guests have checked out, in order to carry out a "routine security check" that is supposed "to preserve the integrity of your account and your funds".
However the moment we complained that AirBnB had stopped making any payments to us, they cleared and sent all the outstanding payments immediately, but it is worrying that AirBnB feels that it can do this, and that if we had not spotted it, AirBnb could potentially still be holding onto the money paid by guests and owed to us.
Also it does raise the question, despite us having been a host on AirBnB for over 7 years now, and having achieved SuperHost status - What would have happened if we had somehow failed this so called "routine security check"? Could AirBnB have kept this money or returned it to the guests? If not - then why were they carrying out "security checks" anyway? And if they did have concerns on the account, why not contact us to discuss them, rather than just stopping payments and not informing us that they had? It is also worth considering that stopping payouts benefits AirBnB financially, through enhanced cash flow, and interest earned on the funds retained, and so AirBnB has a clear financial incentive to do take this action.
At the heart of this is communication - AirBnB is losing its ability to communicate personally with hosts, and increasingly losing the trust of seasoned long term hosts such as ourselves. This is not good for AirBnB, just as it is not good for hosts.
So beware - on AirBnB a confirmed booking is not actually confirmed, and your guarantee that AirBnB will pay you if guests do stay, is not actually guaranteed either.
